All Forum Posts by: Brenna Sullivan

@Denise Evans and @Jay Helms, thank you both! I have one person lined up that didn't comment on this thread, if he is unable to schedule a time then I will contact one of you. 

  Thank you again, Brenna

 Hi David! Thank you so much! You definitely "fit the criteria". I'll send you a PM shortly. -Brenna

Hello BP friends!

  I am a late-20s North Alabama resident and small-time investor. My husband and I have flipped one home and did well, and currently own our home and one rental home, and are planning to buy at least one more property this year, and then expand from there.

  I have recently gone back to school to obtain a business management degree, and I have a class assignment to interview someone in the  that does what I would like to do- which is eventually own a large portfolio of rental homes (SFH or small multi-family units), and work as my own/ own my own property management company.

  If there is anyone that either owns or manages a large portfolio of rental homes and you would be willing to be "interviewed", I would greatly appreciate it. While an investor in the Huntsville/Birmingham/Chattanooga/Nashville general area would be stupendous, anyone living anywhere who would be willing to help would be appreciated! 

  This assignment is for my psychology class, so the questions are generally quite easy, but it is 50% of my grade and I'd like to maintain my 4.0 GPA, so I'm taking it seriously. The interview can be held over a coffee meetup if you're local, or Skype, or I can e-mail the questions and you can answer at your convenience.

Thank you all for your time.

Brenna

Hello 

  I am a late-20s Huntsville area resident and small-time investor. My husband and I have flipped one home and did well, and currently own our home and one rental home, and are planning to buy at least one more property this year, and then expand from there. 

I have recently gone back to school to obtain a business degree (for the purposes of future security), and I have a class assignment to interview someone in the community that does what I would like to do- which is eventually own a large portfolio of rental homes (SFH or small multi-family units), and work as my own/ own my own property management company.

  If there is anyone in the Huntsville area (or even Birmingham, Chattanooga, or Nashville areas) that is either a property manager or owns a large portfolio of rental home and you would be willing to be "interviewed", I would greatly appreciate it. This assignment is for my psychology class, so the questions are generally quite easy, but it is 50% of my grade and I'd like to maintain my 4.0 GPA, so I'm taking it seriously. The interview can be held over a coffee meetup or Skype, or I can e-mail the questions and you could answer at your convenience. 

  Thank you all for your time.

Brenna

I have a question about something that occurred between my lender and my real estate agent this past weekend, hoping you all can tell me if this is normal and accepted or not before I say something to my team. There is a TL;DR at the end.

I am a beginner RE investor. I have purchased several homes in my life (definitely not new to being a buyer), currently own two homes (my private residence and a rental home). I have worked with the same agent for these last two homes and used the lender in question for the last purchase. My husband and I are considering a third home to purchase (with intent to either rent out our current residence, or to buy as an investment home), but we are watching MLS listings and just waiting for the right house to pop up before we move. We only see a home that matches what we're looking for every month or two.

Last week I emailed my agent for the first time in a few months and told him we would like to go see a certain house we were interested in, that we hadn't gone through preapproval but I had checked on third mortgage qualifications with our lender a few weeks prior and I thought we would have no problem qualifying, and that we're just casually looking until we see a house we want to jump on.

REA shows us the home, we tell him we're considering it but going to take a couple of weeks to decide (market is slow here, husband works out of state), but when husband comes back if the home is still available we'd probably put an offer in. That's all we said to him about it, as we wanted to weigh the various pros and cons.

Next thing I know I get auto-letters from our lender saying they've pulled our credit (the required "this is your credit score" letter), and our agent has sent us an email saying our lender told him that we'd be approved on such-n-such terms, blah blah.

I don't appreciate our credit being pulled without our permission, or our lender and agent discussing our finances and approval status together, much less without our knowledge or consent or even saying we were ready to move forward. 

But before I say anything, is this normal? Do agents usually ask lenders if these particular repeat buyers are going to be approved, and lenders feel free pull credit scores and to tell the agents, all without telling the clients themselves? I don't want to be upset if this is an industry standard that I am unfamiliar with, but it feels all wrong to me. I don't have any particular feelings one way or another about the lender we use, but I really like our agent and wouldn't want to hurt any future business we might do together by saying something if this was an industry-accepted interaction. 

TL;DR Agent and lender discussed our financial state without our permission, pulled our credit report without asking or informing us, then lender disclosed results to agent who told us. Have heard nothing from lender, we didn't ask or even imply that we wanted agent to do this. Is this normal?

@Brad Sanford, yes, the power is still in my mom's name. Someone else went in and turned off the breakers (someone that did not have a legal right to be there, I might add). 

@Denise Evans I would whole-heartedly agree if the home was in an area that would stay on the market for some time, or if he didn't have a renter ready to move in immediately. Per Alabama law, she is not required to continue to pay rent once the home is re-rented, and they are now moving in the new tenants this coming Monday (apparently, which we were just informed of). 

Ugh, this ridiculousness never ends. Apparently the PM was not telling the truth about not telling the owner. 

 Her rent is paid through the end of November. The house was almost completely cleaned out, only her cleaning supplies and vaccuum cleaner left inside, and some personal belongings and trash items in the garage. We were there on Wednesday, and went back to clean the garage and get the few remaining items yesterday. 

Apparently they had someone come in and clean (without giving mom notice or asking permission), and they took almost all of the remaining items out of the garage. It was swept clean, but the personal belongings were taken. We finished cleaning the last bit of the home (replacing stove burner pans, etc), left the heat on and water dripping, as it is supposed to get very cold.      

  She actually received an email from the owner last night saying that they went to the house yesterday (apparently before we got there, again without notice or permission), and the garage door was left open (which would have been from their cleaning person) and the house was mostly empty aside from the garage. The owner stated that as such, they "took possession of the abandoned home and changed the locks, etc." HER RENT IS PAID THROUGH NOVEMBER. She hadn't abandoned the property, she's been there every day except for Thursday, and has only been sleeping at the new place for 8 days! You just can't do this crap! I'm so beyond frustrated. 

  If anyone would like to know the name of the Property Management company, please private message me. @Brad Sanford , since you asked I will go ahead and pm you. 

So follow up:

  Today the PM called me (I am not on the account, he should not have been speaking to me about my mother's accounts, but he did). 

  He *literally* said that he is not responding to e-mails because he "cannot put in writing things he is not supposed to be doing". Literally, not kidding. 0_0  I asked what it was he is not supposed to be doing, and he informed me (in a conspiratorial manner) that he is trying to move mom out (and requiring the 60 day notice and 2 additional month's payment), and a new tenant in, WITHOUT TELLING THE PROPERTY OWNERS, in order to "keep your mother out of trouble". Which means he intends to keep that "lease break fine". 

  He confirmed that he does have an approved renter, but that he doesn't want to let them move in until mom has "paid in full". 

   Further, when I told him that her lease says absolutely nothing about a 60-day notice or a two month's rent fine, and that under Alabama Law she is not required to pay it, he became very agitated. He told me to call the Alabama Real Estate Commission and speak to "one of the state's attorney's and listen to what they tell you. If you won't take *my* word for it, maybe you'll take a top attorney's word!" So I did. I called AREC and I actually *did* speak to one of the attorneys there, and she told me she wouldn't pay a dime of that lease-break fine, and that he has no case in court as there in nothing in the lease about it, and that my mom has done far more than is required by law, AND that she advises contacting the property owners and advising them of what is taking place. 

***   So that is where we currently stand. However, I do have one more question for you all: I cannot find record of this business being licensed in any of the three states he claims to be registered in. A search of the business name and his name on the Secretary of State's websites for all three states turns up nothing. What are the ramifications of this? Can I report him? Am I missing a way to search for business entities? ***

Thank you all very very much for your help and encouragement. To respond directly to a few of you: @Christy Harris, the lease does prohibit subletting. @Dale Walker, @Karl B., thank you both for the advice. I am having a paralegal (and dear friend) draft a legally formatted letter and I've passed along your advise. After speaking with the AREC attorney today, I feel like the ball will be in his court as far as legal action goes. As soon as the keys are handed over, we will be reporting to every agency we can find, and further if it turns out that he is not registered with the states that he is working in. @Denise Evans her lease expires in June. 

@Christy Harris I cannot remember- I will check and get back to you.

@Phil Earley I understand the sentiment, however, she knew that this location would rent extremely quickly, has left the place in better condition that she rented it in, and the PM refused to answer phone calls or e-mails that she sent prior to purchasing the home, in which she attempted to open a dialogue about this. And as I stated, he has continued to refuse to answer e-mails since she sent him her notice, he has not returned phone calls, and has only called her once, yesterday, when he illegally threatened her.

She was able to purchase the home due to an extremely large down-payment gift that was offered by family that, due to their health, would not be guaranteed by the time her lease was ended, so she could not wait. Further, she has listed the home herself, held showings, and has provided the PM at least one applicant in the one-week that it has been listed so far.

Beyond that, she has gone over and above what is required by Alabama law. In Alabama (unless otherwise specified by the lease) you are not required to give any notice of vacating the property, you are simply required to pay the lease until the property is re-rented. She is paying a 60-day notice, which is almost 30 days beyond the amount of time she is occupying the property, while being perfectly happy to have them go ahead and move renters in. She has done everything she can to make this transition easy and to negate any financial hardship on the property owners and manager. Literally all they have to do is let the new people sign the lease.