All Forum Posts by: Christopher Brainard

@Alexander Wardell

The answer to your question is yes....and no. 

If I remember correctly, HUD states that two persons per room, as a general rule, is acceptable. I think we can all agree that if you have five adults living in a two bedroom apartment, they are over the limit.

The problem with the HUD position is the 'general rule' part and it doesnt clearly define the ratio of 'children' to 'people'. They may find more than two people acceptable based on the age of the children, size of the bedrooms, layout of the residence, and who knows what else. For example, if you have a one bedroom unit which is occupied by an infant, the mother, and the father, there are three occupants. If you evicted them based on this, you would be in a world of hurt. Now, lets say that its a single mother with two kids that sleep in the living room? Is this ok? I have no idea.

My wife and I own a mid sized apartment complex and the advice that our lawyer gave us was pretty simple - two adults per bedroom, ignore the kids. This interpretation of the HUD rule gives us the least legal liability and we really haven't had any issues with it. We've had several occasions where we had a mother and four kids or two parents with three in a two bedroom without any issue. The problem is usually the quality of tenant, not the number of occupants.

In your case, given they are month to month, no-cause ending their leases is defenately the easy way out. 

-Christopher

@Ryan Saldanha

I doubt it and I don't have good news for you. The contract you agree to when you contracted out the work is going to take priority over any demand letter you can send them. Ten weeks, in the realm of permitting, isn't unheard of and I've had similar issues on past projects. I'm sure the contractor is going to say that he has no control over the permitting situation, which is somewhat true. 

I would recommend your first step is a little investigation - learn more about the General Contractors that you hired and confirm they are even a real business. I assume you got some references when you hired these guys, so hopefully they are stand up and will finish the work, even if it is at a slow pace. 

Other than that, you learned an important lesson - don't give huge deposits up front. Always have a timetable for completion of the work and draws. Always get signed confirmation of payment receipt when a job is complete. Also, I've found that if you consistently visit and evaluate the work being done, its less likely to fall behind and you're more likely to have a contractor prioritize your house.

-Christopher 

@Alexander Wardell 

Before you get involved with this property too deep, you need to read up on federal fair housing guidelines. Just because you think there are too many people (in this case children) living there, doesn't mean that removing/evicting them is legal. This is discrimination based on familial status and is subject to enormous fines levied by HUD.

With that said, last I checked HUD guidelines allow two adults per bedroom, so it sounds like they're well within compliance with federal laws. You can check with local code compliance to see if there are any local limitations on occupancy. You can also select other reasons to evict them, but they can still file a complaint.

Also (don't quote me on this), I believe that landlords with three or less units are exempt from the HUD requirements and you may be able to skirt this issue, however, you should create a firm set of rules to run your business and I do not recommend starting off in this fashion, even if it may be allowable. My guess is they could still cause you a lot of trouble.

I agree with @Mark Bookhagen - take the property vacant at closing. If not, be willing to wait the tenants out and do not renew their lease. In the future, screen your own tenants. Don't allow situations like this to develop, but don't address them from an illegal viewpoint. 

-Christopher

Yes, they aren't taking you seriously. 

Real estate agents are paid based on commission, so if they don't feel like you're going to bring in some money for them, they aren't going to want to show you any homes. So, either you aren't presenting yourself as a serious buyer of multiple deals (just saying you are isn't sufficient) or you aren't coming off as professional. Assuming you already have some deals under your belt, I would go back to the agents that have benefitted from those deals and see if they're interested in making some additional money.

-Christopher

I'm pretty sure that a situation like this calls for an estate sale, however, I'm a real estate investor, not a junk dealer :) 

I believe most of the people who do that as a profession use Ebay to gauge the prices for items. 

-Christopher

How does your lease say payments are to be made? The tenant is correct - you can't bully him into using a payment system because you want to....unless its specified in the lease.

-Christopher

Hi @Kevin Christensen and welcome to BP!

Before you try to figure out what you want to buy, you need to figure out how you want to invest. Real estate investment covers a wide variety of vehicles that range from very time intensive (ex: doing your own flips) to very passive investments (ex: buying notes). Figure out what sounds good to you and research it as best you can. Try to find someone who is doing what you want to do and build a relationship. When you're starting out, the worst thing you can do is over-leverage yourself and not prepare for the unexpected.

-Christopher

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. 

-Christopher

Hi @Andrew S.

Typically, we only provide items which are fixtures in our rentals, these are things that are permanently attached to the house. With that context, we do provide microwaves, we would not provide any of the other items. While the other items seem like they may make sense and encourage the tenant to do what you want, buying a broom for a tenant isn't going to make them clean more. A strong lease and good screening criteria will ensure a quality tenant.)

-Christopher

If you are 100% sure that you won't be keeping the property, I would take the arm since it should carry a lower interest rate. Otherwise, a 30 yeah fixed would most likely be the safest bet and give the most flexibility down the road. Choosing FHA or Conventional is a ROI calculation based on what else you can do with the money.

-Christopher