All Forum Posts by: Vida Novak

You mentioned the ARV, but you didn't put in a rehab estimate. Did you factor that into your costs as well? It seems like a decent deal, but all those little costs really chip away at the cash flow. With the 2% rule, you wouldn't pay more than $122,500, right? You're not that far off, . . .

You can get that done here for free.  Just post the details and try to stop people from sharing their opinions on the quality of the deal.  ;)

Shelby, welcome to BiggerPockets! Great place to start. I'm sure someone else is going to recommend some newbie resources for you to start learning, all I can suggest right now is Education--Blog Topics--Starting out in REI

I highly recommend listening to podcasts as well, there are a bunch out there and listening to other people talk about real estate investing is a great way to get familiar with the lingo and different types of investing.  BiggerPockets podcast is great and there are a bunch more out there.

Careful about getting overwhelmed by all the different ways to get involved in real estate.  Just absorb everything you can and start focusing on what interests you the most.  Then, start taking action!

Jordan, I am busy in Lake County and would be interested in working with you.  Any activity since your post?  Let's discuss.

Well aren't we a tolerant bunch?  After reading the initial post, I was expecting more comments demonizing that pot smoker, who must be bad person and deserve what he gets.  After further consideration, I was pleased to remember that this is a forum for rational and responsible people, not those it-should-be-illegal-to-offend-me folks.

My "crime free" lease addendum includes provisions allowing an eviction over suspicion of criminal activity, so I agree with @Chase Gochnauerthat the intent is to deal with disturbances, not provide for a penalty.  

Of course, you could take advantage of the situation with the expectation that the dude will be just too lazy to fight you for the deposit, especially since he'd have to go to court and talk about his illegal material.  But if it was me, I would document legitimate repairs or damage just like any other move out and return the balance.

I've been an investor for 9 years and just finally decided to go for it.  Now I'm in these classes and learning about all the requirements and liabilities and all that good stuff.  Tries to scare you away, but there will always be risk if you try to do anything great! (or anything at all for that matter, or try doing nothing, that's also a risky move)

It has been a very interesting experience at this stage of my business because I'm learning about stuff in class that I literally dealt with first hand that same day.  I'm finding it very useful to learn all this stuff that I already knew or kinda knew and now I'm getting the whole story or the full details or the, "so THAT'S why that is like that."

While it's not necessary, I think it is going to prove to be a beneficial decision.

What a great qualifying question to ask them what else they are looking at and how they compare!  I love when people tell me, "oh I looked at this one place and it was a dump", but only when they volunteer that info.  Of course, if they think my place is the dump, they're no so candid with those comments!

I also like the suggestions about asking prospects to fill out the application on the spot.  I give away a whole lot of paper that I never see again because I'm so casual about it, "sure just send that back whenever you're ready."  I always thought that if someone is serious about a move, they're going to take action.  However, that is not always the case, so I think I'm going to use that one.

I started charging an application fee for the screening service too, but I would tell the applicants that if they took the apartment that I would apply it to their security deposit.  Not sure if it made a huge difference, but it sounds nice.  I agree with the point about pre-screening people that know they'll probably fail the application anyway.  Why take in 5 applications and waste time starting to screen them when they're not actually serious or won't qualify?

I recently had some trouble renting too and I started thinking, "maybe I should just drop the fee, especially if I'll eat it later anyway", or "maybe I should drop the rent", or "maybe I should reduce the security deposit", well I was showing a 1BR and a 2BR and had nothing after a month and all of a sudden, they both popped at once.

If you know you're competitive, stick to your guns.  Like any sales, it's a numbers game, sometimes you just have to show it to a lot of people until the right one finally hits.

I really appreciate the continued input into this situation.  There is one thing that is confusing me that maybe nobody commenting is considering when telling me that it is suddenly my problem, I will have to disclose to buyer, buyer won't get title insurance, etc.  

Let me just point out the basic fact that the seller just sold me the property without any of these obstacles.  I did review the disclosures, on which the seller indicated "unknown" on just about everything (but specifically pertaining to zoning or boundary issues, of course).  

Can I specifically prove they did know about it?  Well they certainly know more about it than I did as they are the one that bought the parcels together and made the specific decision to sell them separately (I did not mention that the seller was the listing agent, by the way).  Now if they can play dumb, why can't I?  And if I went and got the survey and uncovered that it is actually an issue, then I did the right thing so I am now accountable for it?  I know that no good deed goes unpunished, but please!

Thanks for the input, everyone!

I am weighing the options here and also considering the decision to do nothing.  From what I can tell, the house does not actually encroach upon the other parcel, it's just riding the line.  That may itself be a violation of our local codes that supposedly require structures to have 10 foot spacing from property line, but again, that would be a violation that the seller created.  My opinion is that nobody is ever going to buy that tiny sliver of land, perhaps I do wait it out or even let the future homeowner buy the lot at a steep discount because they can't sell it.