All Forum Posts by: Brian Corbett

Hello, We have a property leased with 3 single guys, the lease is up at end of April. One of them wants to terminate and the other two want to resign for another year. The one that is leaving wants his security deposit back. We did not specify how this would be handled in the lease if 1 leaves but the others stay. Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks all for the responses. This tenant was on a 1 year lease then switched to month to month afterword. He's paying $1100/month which is on the high side for a single family home in toledo. I offered to him to go to $1050 if he signs another 1 year lease...haha this was 1.5 years ago, he should have taken me up on my offer! I sent two letters..one regular mail not returned. Then a second after no response I sent certified..so I think since the mail carrier couldn't get a signature, it got returned..need to go to post office to get it to verify exactly what happened. A part of me (agrees with @Thomas S. ) wants to further enforce this, but another part of me (agrees with everyone else) why screw up a good thing?

Hello Bigger Pockets community

I have a 2 year tenant who has a girlfriend living in the house (single family) who isn't on the lease. This is a breach of our agreement however the tenant isn't breaking any other lease terms otherwise. I have attempted send him a letter about this but it was returned. I think I know I need to deal with this but on the other hand I am somewhat reluctant to do so. I need some encouragement. The tenant is kind of a grouch and I just don't feel like dealing with him, especially since he pays on time and his rent is slightly over market. 

@Juan Maldonado

That particular complex is very close to where i personally live. It is located within the city of Toledo, but is on the border with Springfield township, which is where holland is located. Its a good area, but that particular place is in need of a good operator/property manager. If I'm not mistaken the same company purchased a large number of 2 unit properties very close by during the housing downturn. 

@George Krajacic Thanks for the encouraging words. I just got back from taking the scrap metal to the recycling place for a whopping $28.50. I didn't want to just give it away, but I'm beginning to see that perhaps my time would have been better spend having it picked up and doing something else more productive with my time. Perhaps I should get rid of the old truck that I used to haul it, then in the future I will have no choice but to have someone else handle it. The entertainment center we bought second hand for about $275 about a year ago. Now realizing its way too big for our house, we need to get rid of it. I could take it right now to the goodwill, I just hate thinking that I recently paid $275 for this thing, and now i'm going to give it away for nothing. 

Thanks for the book recommendations. I am listening to "the one thing" right now on audio book, its also a great book on this subject. 

I have always been a hands on/engineer type person, this is in my nature. I really enjoy getting my hands dirty and doing work. I'm starting to question to what extent I should continue to be hands on with my real estate business. I am just starting out, with 1 owner occupied duplex, and about to close on another duplex this friday that needs cosmetic rehab. 

I have the day off today from my regular job(where i'm hands on all day) and have a list of chores to do around the house, including getting rid of a large heavy entertainment center and replacing it with a smaller one. Additionally i need to get rid of some scrap metal from my garage. Both tasks require the help of someone to lift heavy items, and I don't really have anyone I can call right now. But this makes me wonder...why am I messing with this sort of thing? Why don't I just call someone with a crew to deal with it? Normally i would do this sort of thing by my self. Maybe I should focus on growing my real estate business instead. I'm just having a mental block, I don't even know where OR how to shift my mindset from doing everything to managing others to do it for me. 

@Bill Gulley and @Rick H.

I am The said husband in this discussion. I greatly appreciate your feedback on this matter. Monica and I used the BP deal analysis software as a way to run the numbers to see if this deal makes sense from a numbers standpoint. In this process we also used intuition, instinct, objectivity, and common sense. Other than our primary residence which is a duplex, this is our first real estate deal. We are newbies. I hope that with experience we will be able to analyze deals better, and use the attributes you mentioned to the greatest extent. That being said don't sell out the "millennial" generation just yet. Yes its true that we have and will use technology differently than older generations, but we DO have the ability to think, to solve problems, to approach a situation objectively and all that other stuff you were talking about. 

As Rick mentioned, I will do my best to describe the deal with the PETIO approach.

Property: The property is a condo in a building with about 10 other units. It is set up in a townhouse style and is an end unit, so there is only one wall with another unit on it. The exterior is vinyl siding and brick with some wood trim that's nicely painted. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 full and 1 half bathroom. It was built in 1986 and has a poured foundation. It has a finished basement with a sump pump and also washer dryer hookups. The total square footage is 1400 approx including the finished basement. It has a 1 car garage with additional parking outside. The roof appears to be new within 10 years or so. The association fee is $100 and covers lawn care, snow removal, exterior maintenance, and exterior hazard insurance. The neighborhood is nice with many long term tenants and also many retired people, there is a large retirement community within the neighborhood. The neighborhood is about 50% single family dwellings and 50% multi family dwellings. It smells of cigarettes. We plan to paint, clean carpet, new appliances, new light fixtures and outlets. I went there today and spoke with an owner a few units down, he said crime is low, he has lived there for 5 years. He also said that everyone gets along and that there is fairly low drama. I could probably go on further with the property, but this is all I have right now.

Equity: We have it under contract for $42500. The county has it valued at $78500 for tax purposes. I estimate that the ARV will be $60,000. I'm not sure what you mean by current mortgages or why this applies to how i would determine if its a good deal or not, but i do believe the the current owner has no liens/mortgages. Monica and I plan to fund the purchase and rehab with a combination of our own cash and $15000 in borrowed money from a HELOC, on our primary residence, then we plan to refinance the property to get our cash out, pay off the HELOC then do another one.

Title: This is a good question and one that i should look into further. Its currently in the title of a trust. I believe someone died. I should be sure that no one else can lay claim to the property. I will be sure to be covered with good title insurance as well. Thanks for reminding me of this. 

Interests: Also not sure..need to find out, thanks for bringing this up. 

Opportunity: We plan to monetize the deal by renting the unit. 

Click here if you want to check out the numbers as we plan to make the purchase

http://www.lifeonabudget.net/wp-content/uploads/20...

This is a similar analysis which shows numbers after refinance

http://www.lifeonabudget.net/wp-content/uploads/20...

I will verify that rentals are allowed, i'm going to get a copy of the bylaws and also personally meet with the association president to ask him/her this question in person. What a bad deal it would be if they did not allow rentals. I know for sure it has its own water meter as i saw that my self. I cant really think of any reason why the building would need its own water/electric..but I will make sure to check into that. Any other things to check into?

@Laurie Johnson the taxes are in the analysis, but they are based on a $78,000 value..thats where i got the ARV, this is probably too high..

@Laurie Johnson

The property taxes are in there...sorry i'm working on the other PDF right now for the after refinancing. 

I just got this unit under contract and am in the due diligence stage, and have to check out the condo association. I plan to meet with the president of the association and get a better feel for whats going on. My realtor has said that there is no restrictions on rentals but i will be sure to verify that. The tenant should cover water the unit has its own meter. I'm not too sure about common electric..but i would think the association fee would cover that. Thank you for the help.