All Forum Posts by: Brianna H.

Write him an e-mail asking him how everything is going now that he is settled in. See if there is anything that you can do to help him settle in more. I don't see anything wrong with being in the picture too much that first month, as the first month is usually when they find little things that need to be repaired anyways. You are both settling in to this new agreement.

With erentpayment, I would personally wait. My tenant waited until the last day of the month to figure out how to pay me and realized it would take a few days for the payment to go through. The first month is hopefully the rough month and then everything should smooth out. Goodluck!

 While I can agree with the statement above, I purchased a home that needed A LOT of work. The seller destroyed the house, and we got the house cheap enough to where at the end of the renovation, we could have flipped the house for a $50k profit (on a $100k purchase). Instead, we chose to rent it out. 

Sometimes you have to look for the houses that no one wants, see the potential in them, and jump....especially now with the market flooded with investors.  :-)

Talk to a mortgage broker about getting a renovation loan. My renovation costs were wrapped up into my home loan. Good thing about that is you will only pay a down payment on both the home loan portion + the renovations. :-) Bad thing is you have to have a licensed contractor (in case you were planning on doing the renovations yourself). 

For the future, you can look into something like this:

https://www.texasfairplan.org/

I'm not sure if Maryland has something equivalent, but I was able to secure insurance on a home that was denied by two separate companies. 

 Goodluck!! 

 My advice would be to run it by some friends/family. After presenting the name to them, ask them if they remember it after talking to them for 30 minutes. If they can't remember it, then no one else will. 

I think you should consider where you plan on drawing your readers. Yes, a descriptive name might help with Google searches, but relevant content within your website will also do the same job. If you want people to return to your website again and again, you want something that they will remember. Adding RE to the end might distinguish your business to average Joe, but to someone that has visited a few times, they know you are in the real estate business. And who really cares if people visit your webpage that are looking for wholesale applesauce? :-P More hits means your webpage is higher on the search list!

 Although your last name is long, I like MusselmanWholesale. While this URL is long, it's only 2 words and as long as they can spell your last name, they can remember it. Plus, you can have a strong guy as your logo, which would help people remember the name better. Or maybe BerksWholesale. (I am not checking to see if these are available). There are webpages that give you tips on creating a catchy URL...try researching that. Obviously, the shorter the better, but also it helps to have words starting with the same letter or catch phrases. Maybe BerksBuyers? 

While I still think the first one is too long, I think it is the better choice of the two. I would think a little bit more about potential choices...I like the K.I.S.S. advice (Keep it Simple, Stupid). Do you really expect anyone to remember this webpage url?

I think refinancing the first property to cover the cost of the second house down payment is an excellent idea. If you have property to leverage the loan against, you are going to get a better interest rate. Only downfall would be closing costs on two loans instead of one.

Be honest with your tenants. Tell them that you really appreciate them being a good tenant. As an example, you are only charging them $1000 when the current market in the area is $1500. You really want to keep them in the house, so you are only going to increase the rent to $1200. You get more profit, they are still paying below market value. 

If you need to, justify it with increases that you have had to pay...i.e. taxes increases, more maintenance, etc. Maybe include a free upgrade for re-signing...i.e. new fridge, $200 credit for flowers to plant around house, security system...whatever is important to them. That way, you give them incentive to stay while still getting your increase. As an added bonus, that fridge or flowers stay with the house and increase the value.

Hope that helps!