All Forum Posts by: Brian Dalton

Hello everyone, so pretty much like the title of this thread says, we had a tenant vacate our property, and not notify the post office of creditors about their change of address. So now, we’re getting all sorts of mail, most recently from collection agencies. When we tried to contact said collection agency because we have the forwarding address, but they weren’t interested in our information. Short of sending these letter back to the P. O. marked “Return to sender”, what other options do we have?

Thanks. 

My wife and I have a multi family we purchased about 8 months ago. About two weeks ago we had a really heavy rain and wound up with water in the basement through various intrusions. The basement is unfinished and used for storage. One issue appears to be weeping concrete blocks in the foundation, the other is water flowing through cracks in the blocks in a crawl space at the front of the house. Had a contractor come in and quote me $6800 for French drains and two sump pumps. Have a few other contractors coming in to take a look as well. 

I don’t want to direct the water away once it’s in, I want to keep it from getting in. In doing some internet research I came across a company called Radon Seal. They appear to have various products for waterproofing various surfaces. Has anyone ever used this product to waterproof a basement and how is it holding up today?

@Nicholas Sheridan, Jr. look up @Darren Sager

@David Hansen we use USAA for both our primary residence and two rental properties, as well as car and umbrella insurance. They also have our primary mortgage. Here in NJ they are either competitive or just about equal on most products that I've investigated, so I would just prefer to bundle everything with them. I will admit that I don't have time to call each and every insurance firm here, and I could probably find better deals, but consolidating all our insurance products in one place saves time. If you've got multiple properties, I would suggest an umbrella policy. Since we have all our insurance with them, it was pretty easy, all we had to do was raise certain limits on our car insurance policy. I think it amounted to an extra $40 or $50 a year.  

Absolutely agree with @Mike Cumbie regarding holding funds in escrow. We closed on a duplex here in our town not too long ago and allowed the previous owners to occupy their old unit for a predefined time period that was stipulated in the contract. In turn, they paid us rent for the time they were staying, and we also held $10k in escrow after closing to ensure they were leaving (they were basically hoarders and had a lifetime of junk to get rid of). The funds weren't released until after we completed a final walk through after they left.  Agree with @J Scott, who was "they"? and where was your lawyer when all this went down? If they advised you to go along with this, you need a new lawyer. 

@Sant S. I don't have an eviction attorney for Hudson County, but you should familiarize yourself with the "Truth in Renting" document (http://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/codes/publications...) and NJ Community Affairs website (http://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/codes/offices/land...). From what I recall, you're supposed to be able to enter a property once you have provided a "reasonable" notification period (24 hours in most cases), so their schedule should be irrelevant to getting a repair completed, assuming you have a key to the unit and you're going to accompany the repairman. Also, document everything, even if you think it's insignificant.   

Good luck.

@Chris L. those statements are completely contradictory. If it's a cash deal, then @Richard S. is correct, pretty straightforward. However, it seems to me like your lender foresees a possible cash shortage in the near future. Did your realtor ask for a proof of funds? That should solve most of the issue right there. If you haven't already, I suggest you get a good lawyer to hash this out, and make sure that lawyer is a real estate lawyer. Most lawyers will say they can complete a close, but in my limited experience, non-real estate lawyers are generally uninformed pains in the asses. Good luck.

@Antoi

@Antoine Martel First, I responded to the wrong person, apologies, secondly, I didn't specify, but I wasn't talking about a conventional mortgage. I was talking about a construction loan/working capital loan/line of credit/short term financing/revolver, call it whatever.    

@Antoine Martel I think financing depends on a lot of different factors. We have financed our first two deals through a smaller local bank. My wife and I both have steady corporate jobs with a reliable income stream, and the bank was willing to lend to us. We're currently paying Prime+150bps which puts us right about 5.5%. Compounded daily, it's costing us roughly $1,000 a month based on our outstanding loan balance. Before you go the HML route, put together a business plan and go talk to as many local bankers as you can. HML is expensive, chances are, the bank will have to keep the loan in house and your cost of financing should be lower.

Hi @Brandon Drake, my wife and I are investors here in Essex County (Maplewood). We started our journey as accidental landlords with a condo in Jersey City that my wife had purchased back in 2005. In the past year, we've sold our original condo and acquired a more profitable one in JC, successfully completed one flip in West Orange, are currently working through our second flip here in Maplewood, and recently purchased an duplex here that we are updating and hope to have rented in September. 

My two cents: we have found a wealth of advice and knowledge on this site. People are more than willing to share experiences and be helpful; there's a BP meetup August 2nd in the city being run by @Darren Sager. This is a good opportunity to network with other BP members, and lastly, the best way to get in the game is to jump in with both feet. While we have a relatively short track record, and are far from the most experienced people on this website, we have gained numerous lessons learned from the handful of projects we've done, and are more than happy to share. 

Good luck!