All Forum Posts by: Corby Goade

If I could do it all over again, I'd house hack. Buy a duplex or a four plex. Live in one unit, rent out the rest. Learn how to be a landlord and how to fix stuff around the house- basic plumbing, electrical, etc. They buy another duplex/fourplex, live in one of those units, etc. If you buy smart and do this four or five times, you should be in pretty good shape. 

I don't have a list of five things that I look for. Regular and honest communication with the owner and tenant are essential. Some property management companies forget that the tenant is their customer too. If tenants aren't treated with respect, they'll leave, which is expensive for an owner. 

What are you planning to do? Flip? Buy and hold? Wholesale? Lots of ways to make money, but you should focus on one and learn everything you can. Once you are comfortable, if you have the interest and drive, you can try another strategy. Best of luck!

I am actually dealing with the exact same problem in my personal home right now. While $15K seems very high, keep in mind, cutting the concrete, trenching, installing the new drains and replacing the concrete is very labor intensive and very messy. You've had a couple people suggest trenching outside and running the sewer line around the house, which would be the least invasive and probably least expensive solution. If you can operate a shovel, saw and ABS glue, you could probably do the job yourself for the $150 mentioned above. However, there is a possibility of pipe bursting- have you checked in to this? Basically, a machine will pull a new drain under your slab at the same time it is destroying your old cast iron ones. It would require much less concrete cutting and it's much less messy. Just Google "pipe bursting Wylie Tx," and get some bids. Best of luck!

Section 8 has not treated me very well. The guaranteed rent is nice, but I've never really had trouble collecting rent from non-section 8 tenants anyhow. In my neck of the woods, the housing authority sends an inspector out to every section 8 property every year. Any time there was damage that the tenants did to my property (holes in the wall, broken locks, etc) the housing authority withheld rent until I fixed it. In my experience, the section 8 tenants didn't have to pay their own rent, so they didn't value the property, it was "free." I am sure there are great section 8 tenants out there, I just don't have the time or energy to weed them out.

I write into every lease that the tenants must have a professional carpet cleaner come service the house when they move out, and they must provide me with the reciept. 

I do most of my maintenance myself, but carpet cleaning is not one of those things. If it must be done, it is one of the simplest and least expensive things to hire out. I'd happily pay a pro to come do the job. 

I just got through a similar situation with a hostile tenant, though they never demaned the deposit during the walk through, and I would not have given it to them. They threatened to sue me multiple times for anything they could think of. 

I performed the walk through with them, pointed out a handful of problems and told them that I would have those things repaired within a week and mail them their check along with a copy of all of my invoices. I did exactly that, and ended up keeping most of their deposit. Never heard another word. Not sure if your tenant is bluffing about suing you, but if you are following the law and your lease, then you have nothing to worry about. 

Best of luck!

Thanks to all for your two cents- sounds like this has been a common struggle for many landlords- some really good advice here. @Account Closed, thank you for your especially detailed response as well as the compliment on how cute my son is- you're right! Luckily he got his mom's good genes!

Most leases I've seen have a "grace period," rent is due on the first, but a late fee is not assessed until the 3rd or the 5th. We've had this in our leases and it has not served us well, and to be honest, we have included it because it seems to be an industry standard, though I don't have a clue how it benefits the landlord. Anyone have a good reason for why you should offer a grace period? Why shouldn't rent be due the 1st, and a late fee assessed at midnight?

Anyone have a late fee structure that has worked well for them and does not include a grace period? Anyone successfully use a progressive late fee that grows daily up to the point that notice is served? Has that worked?

Great advice from @Mark B. If they were great, long term tenants and this was the first problem, my advice woule be to suck it up and tell them that next time something like this occurs, they'll need to cover the cost, it's their responsibility to monitor leaks, etc. However, if they aren't great tenants and are going to be asked to leave at the end of the lease, get a letter from your plumber and document everything. Send it to them, asking them to reimburse you. If they refuse, keep it out of their deposit at the end of the lease, assuming you are certain that this was not normal "wear and tear."