All Forum Posts by: Tim Czarkowski

@Amy Solomon I am not a member of JaxREIA but I have been to a few of their meetings. It seems like it would be an excellent club to join if you will attend regularly. Each meeting I went to I always met someone local and experienced to talk with and learned at least one thing I didn't know before in the meeting. As others have said you can learn just about everything you could need for free here on bigger pockets but JaxREIA is what I would consider a big club and have way more locals active than on here. That and extremely local knowledge is something that you will find in spades in a local club. The price is reasonable if you use it.

I'm not sure if you know this already but you can attend up to two meetings free to see how you like it. Once a year they also have a large vendor show which anyone can attend. I went there as an agent a few years back and that's how I found out about it. I just find being able to get on Bigger Pockets at 2 am if I feel like it is great, the set times just don't work as well for me. Every few months I tell myself I am going to start going but it hasn't happened yet, lol.

Joseph T Welcome to bigger pockets, it's the best place I have come across for learning and networking. It seems most other real estate forums border on the guru side. Here there are actually a ton of real professionals. I am a real estate agent and investor and work exclusively with other investors doing both buy and hold and flipping in Jacksonville.

Keith Shoemaker and Joseph, the hedge funds certainly have been busy buying here in Jacksonville. From what I have seen they are more interested in the 100,000 to 200,000 range and if you are above or below that you are OK. Most of them also seem focused on 2000 or newer homes but there appears to be at least one buying 1990 and newer. Them effectively owning that market does drive up the prices in other ranges. Deals can still be had though.

It does seem that the small multifamily rental market has tightened up significantly over the past year. I used to see a decent deal once a month and I haven't seen one in probably three. Of course it's because I'm personally looking for some now, lol.

Josh Rowley That looks like an interesting service. It would be worth a try considering the price. As long as it's not contested it looks to be a good way to get acquainted to the process. Thank you.

Thankfully the tenant has moved out. He said he was going to move out at the end of the month. I told him that was not good enough and that if he wasn't out by the end of the three day period we would file the eviction and make sure to get a money judgement. It worked, another eviction successfully avoided. Much cheaper and simpler!

JOSE LOPEZ Here and in most counties in Florida the foreclosure auctions are held online by the company REAL Foreclose. The web address are different for each county so I don't know what it is but you should be able to figure it out pretty easy with a little work on Google. I would suggest you do as much research as you can before you go and start bidding on things. It does not sound like you know much about the process.

Wendell De Guzman Yes it will be interesting to see what happens as the law takes effect. Personally the slow process seems good for me. Even with as slow as the process is there are still many more properties than I can currently hope to purchase. The speed up may allow a higher ROI but for a much shorter period of time.

Did you hear about that case down in Fort Lauderdale (Maybe Miami? don't remember for sure) where the HOA was awarded a 1.5 million dollar condo because the bank missed filling their foreclosure before the 5 year statue of limitations?

Jason Varney Thanks for the referral. He's actually one of the attorneys I have used previously. He was referred to me by another investor out of my office when I first got started. Yea I've been out to his office a few times now, not the greatest of location but he's been willing to give me advice before without billing me. I think that's who I'll probably end up using, he seems to be the go to attorney for most local investors.

I am hoping this guy will just move out. I think it's unlikely though, he was probably just stalling because he gets paid on Friday. I'd really prefer to be rid of someone with such a bad attitude. His lease is up though so I guess I can just non renew him if he does pony up the rent.

Can anyone recommended an eviction attorney here in Jacksonville, Fl? I have attorneys I have worked with previously but in relation to eviction. I'd like to work with someone who can walk me through the entire process so I'll be well prepared next time. I have handled evictions of previous owners from foreclosed properties but never a tenant. The process seems a bit more complicated for tenants but not too involved.

The tenant called me up tonight screaming and yelling claiming he didn't like the way some repairs had been done. Big surprise this coincides with my asking about the rent and late fees yesterday. He also claimed his "attorney" told him not to pay the rent. I have been going through the book "Florida Landlords' Rights & Strategies" and I find that pretty hard to believe. It sounds like in order to handle that properly the tenant would have to send a seven day notice requesting the repairs and would still be required to pay rent.

The repairs he was so upset about were some water spots on the ceiling from a previous roof leak. Hardly cause to withhold rent, especially since the repairs were done. It amazes me that a tenant would think that calling and yelling at his landlord is going to get him a good response after not paying rent. If he had called me and calmly discussed why he was late he would have received a much better response than "I'll have the eviction notice to you tomorrow, goodbye, click."

I plan to give him the three day notice tomorrow and allow him to pay the rent including late fees or move out otherwise I'll move forward with the eviction. I would appreciate your thoughts on the situation.

As Keith Shoemaker said there is a lot of competition for homes here with the hedge funds buying. The best thing to do is stay out of their market because they are willing to pay full retail on homes they shouldn't. That said deals can still be found but you have to work for it. I basically work full time just to find projects.

As for the real estate license, although it's probably not in my interest to, I highly recommend it. The time, effort and money to get it is worth it just to have access to the MLS for running comps. It's also nice to be able to sell your projects yourself and keep half the usual commission.

As Jason Varney said it's important to provide some buffer on your rehab estimate. Something extra almost always comes up. You just have to try not to be so conservative that you never get anything.

Stephanie C. Doing a deal is a great way to learn about the process. I think I learned as much from my first deal as all the reading over the years while in college. That said you should at least try to make some money on the deal. I have found that your money is made when you purchase. If you can get that process down everything else will fall into place.

Jason Varney If he owned it for two years with the non paying tenants he cost himself a lot more than having an attorney handle the eviction for him. No need to come out here. That would have been $14,400 in rent. He could have paid the taxes with that money and sold the property for whatever equity was in the property. Even the cheapest, ugliest properties are worth a few grand here and it sounds like it was better than that.

I certainly wouldn't have just flushed that money down the toilet because the tenants were jackasses. A cursory internet search could have supplied him with an attorney who would have been glad to take the case. I don't want to come off as rude, just matter of fact. There are very few good excuses for wasting a gift like that and the cost of the eviction is not one of them.

That's too bad, sounds like you could have had a nice cash-flowing property cheap. I bet those tenants were already thrown out by whomever bought it. What do you think the property would have been worth? Do you know what it sold for at the auction?

Jason Varney
Wow what a situation. You ought to get a good deal as it doesn't sound like the owner is very interested in the home or rentals in general. I've heard of people allowing tenants to stay rent free for a couple months and I thought that was bad. Two years is just insane. I'm almost certain the tenants will give you a hard time since it worked so well for them with the current/previous owner.

As Patrick L. says the eviction process is fairly efficient here in Florida. I have not handled one other than from properties bought at the county auction, which is a bit different and even more streamlined process. I believe the cost to file an eviction here is $250 and takes about a month. My attorney handles them at a cost of $800 if they are uncontested. If you would like to do it yourself I recommend the book "Florida Landlords' Rights and Strategies" by Mark Warda. It has a pretty good guide to the process of eviction along with in depth information particular to managing rental properties in Florida.

Good luck, it sounds like the makings of a good deal. What part of town is it in?