All Forum Posts by: Charles Baisden

Hey Scott - just curious... does your lease specify who's responsibility it is to maintain the pest control needs of the property?

I know that we maintain the termite policy on the house, but our tenants are responsible for maintaining their pest control.

If it is addressed in the lease, the may be the answer.

Rob K - I'd love to see your "nerd sheet"! :)

If you are so inclined as to share it, would you mind emailing it to me? If not, no hard feelings.

Thanks Dan A - that's pretty much what I decided on. We went with a local bank that is a "Florida" based bank, just to ensure full compliance with the statute. Non-interest bearing, here we come! :)

Keith A. Dan A Kyle J. - can you guys recommend a bank in Florida for holding security deposits in a non-interest bearing fashion?

Scott W. - when you say a tenant won't leave if they don't want to leave...

Have you had this problem?

Scott W. - I'm lucky that there is no fee of any kind in the neighborhood.

Joel Owens - the roof is 9 years old, and the AC is 14 years old. I figure I've got at least 5 years left on the AC, and longer on the roof.

We just paid for the HUGE septic to sewer conversion, which set me back $2000.

We re-piped the house while living in it, and replaced the hot water heater. All appliances were purchased new in 2005 when we moved in.

So I feel like we've already survived the big expenses for the next 3-5 years, and I hate to leave all of my money in improvements on the table by selling at a loss.

That's kinda what I've been wondering about: DIY vs Property Manager.

The pros for the DIY approach are that I feel like I'm more familiar with the house than a property manager, and I know what needs to be done to maintain the property. I don't want to let our investment decline.

I feel like right now, I'm not allowed to make contact with the tenants, or visit the property, which means I can't get any actual information about what things look like, and what needs to be done.

Simple things, like an air filter change or a water filter change, require me to pay either the property manager or my handyman to make a trip to the house. It's just pissing me off.

Plus, if I go the DIY route, I can create a positive cash flow.

However, I am a little nervous about getting steamrolled by a bad tenant. Horror stories are easy to find on the Internet.

I'm willing to put in the time (especially on the tenant screening end of things) to make sure we get a good person in there, and I'm willing to do the work of being organized.

I actually already have a good handyman, and good accountant, and a good attorney because of our existing business. It seems like I could add this on for not a lot of headache, and increase my profit.

Hey Joel - those are great thoughts.

I completely agree that a lot of our "perception" was probably exaggerated. There truly is a difference between bad neighbors, and criminal activity.

I haven't actually done ANY research on the old neighborhood. I do know that our street had about 12 houses on it, and at least 5 of them are rented out by the owners. Most of the owners are local owners.

Charles

Hey Scott - I dunno... call me old-fashioned, but I just am not a fan of the short sale / foreclosure approach.

The house was renting for $795. The property manager called us 7 months into the lease to inform us the tenant would be walking unless we lowered the rent to $700. I didn't want to lose the tenant, who despite running out of money, was actually taking good care of the property and had always paid on time. Plus... it was a show of good faith on their part to even ask for a rent reduction, and try to stick with their lease rather than just skipping town, and leaving me high & dry.

So currently, the house is rented for $700 per month. The PITI comes to $605. The property manager gets his cut of $95 per month, which means that we are at "break even" on cash flow.

As far as our new house, we already moved across town. So we're all set there.

Hi everyone!

First of all, let me start off by saying this website is an INCREDIBLE find! I've been reading articles for HOURS already. I feel like I'm reading people's life stories and learning so many things about what to do, and what NOT to do! So thank you!!!

My name is Charles, and I hail from Pensacola, FL! My wife & I work full-time as professional wedding photographers. I also work part-time at the local community theatre as the Box Office Manager. I never intended to get into real estate as an investment, but here I am!

I'm a "reluctant landlord" in Pensacola, FL. My wife & I moved to the area in 2005 shortly after graduating from Florida State University. We were coming out of college apartments in Tallahassee, FL and knew that we wanted to buy our first house. We did, and we were loving it! Within a couple of years... surprise! Our $108,000 home was worth $70,000 or less.

Of course, being first time home buyers, our credit was so good that the bank didn't even require a down payment!!! (that was a bad joke in case you didn't catch it). What is the result of not putting money down... oh yeah... no equity!

At first, it didn't matter. I kept telling myself "it's just on paper". But after a while, our neighborhood got a one-two punch that I didn't expect.

Many of the owners in the neighborhood were original owners, and therefore fairly old. They started to die off in the 7 years we lived in the house. What happens when old folks die off? Their good for nothing kids take over the house, and rent it out to the first person that comes along. Ugh.

So with prices falling, no equity at all, and rentals rising, we knew we had a mess on our hands. Worse - these weren't the kind of rentals you hope for in neighbors... not the kind of renters a seasoned member of BiggerPockets would screen for. No... these were the drug dealing nightmare renters, and they were popping up all around us.

We decided it was time to move. We listed the house, fully expecting that the wonderful over-improvements we had done would make our house a hit with prospective buyers. Not so much. Turns out that remodeled kitchens, and custom decks don't fly in crappy neighborhoods in a declining market.

So we had two options - stay in the 'hood, or rent it out. The choice was clear: we were becoming landlords.

For year one, I was certain that using a property manager was the answer. I had read articles espousing the benefits of property managers that explained how wonderful these people were, and how they will protect you and your asset.

However, I quickly discovered that our property manager was in business for himself (duh), and was not protecting our interests. It felt like they were working us just as hard as they were working the tenants. We were actually getting bullied by OUR vendor.

At that moment, I knew it was time to make a change. It was time to manage the house myself.

So here I am, just about to step off the ledge. I've got 3 months to consume as much information as I can, and get ready to try leasing the house on my own. I'm looking forward to getting involved here, asking lots of questions, and hopefully, learning from all of you.