All Forum Posts by: Chris Svendsen

Quote from @Tim Coppola:

Hello everyone,

I'll try to make a long story short here. I recently had a tenant who I could hear running the water for long amounts of times (15 minutes or more). After the third time in three weeks I asked them what they were doing and it turns out they were cleaning the bathroom but just kept the water running the whole time. I let them know that I appreciate them keeping up with the cleaning but asked them to start filling a bucket to do the cleaning and explained that water is expensive as well as a luxury here in Chicago (I know people in California who can't even water their gardens). When the next water bill came it was over $100 more than the average bill which I paid and didn't say anything to them and since there hasn't been any excessive usage that I am aware of. 

Cut to today, I have another unit to rent and a family came to look at it. There were a few red flags that I noticed:

- Before the appointment was set up they asked if laundry was free (I have shared free laundry in the building). Not a big deal but...

- During the viewing they asked if I had any plans of changing to coin operated because their last landlord made the change during their time there.

- They mentioned that they do a lot of laundry because they have two children.

Now I may be overreacting here but has anyone ever put it a stipulation in a lease that if water usage goes above a certain point (say the average over the past 6-10 bills) then a tenant has to pay extra? They seemed like a great fit but I can't stop thinking about worst case scenario that my water bill doubles once they move in.

Thanks,

Tim

We have a corporate client that We help acquire properties (Single family and commericial). For the single family homes their leases require the tenant to pay the water bill.  For their multifamily homes their leases include a prorated water bill item.  All of their properties with laundries are coin operated.  Bottom line- This is a business, not a charity.  My recommendation- Change your laundery to coin operated.  When you renew your leases & increase the rent consider the water expense.  You naturally must stay competitive on what your charging for rent.  This is what we do.

This is all very valuable information, thank you. I do want to stay away from hard money as much as possible especially being new to this. I will look into HELOC or just slowly rehabbing with my own money when possible. Maybe like a slow BRRR
thanks for the info! 

Hello, new investor here. I have been trying to educate myself as much as possible and decided to attempt a BRRRR strategy for my first property in Las Vegas. I found a duplex that requires some rehab, but I believe I still got under market value (I payed significantly lower than what appraisal came back for).
i am about to close on property using conventional loan and locked in a somewhat decent interest rate before it has continued to increase in recent weeks. 
since I went the conventional loan route, I wasn’t able to wrap up a rehab loan in the deal. Would It make sense to get a hard money loan for rehab and then refinance (considering the interest rates keep climbing, in afraid the refinance will have a much higher interest rate).  And I don’t wanna be stuck with a hard money loan for a long time either. I could also try to rehab as much as I can slowly as I save up more money. 
I would appreciate any insight into this part of the process, thanks! 

Need to sell 30+OFF Market Properties across San Diego!

Social media? Any other forums?

Thank you!

I currently have a SFH under contract with an FHA mortgage. The purchase price is $148,000 with $5,000 in closing credit. I'm doing 3.5$ down and I have about $13.5K in closing costs with the mortgage company.

From my understanding, that $5,000 in closing cost goes towards that $13.5k so I will only have $8.5K in closing cost. Is this right or am I looking at this wrong? I am starting to second guess myself. Thank you! 

I am a new real estate investor. I just had my first tenants moved out after renting my first unit for 15 months. A few months ago, they reported water damage. By the time I was notified the whole master bedroom laminate floor was ruined. They blamed it on the bathroom shower doors not being installed correctly. This happened after they lived in the apartment for 13 months. After they moved out, we realized the water damage covered the whole master bedroom (16 ft), so I have to replace the whole floor. I have not given them their deposit back. My rental home insurance does not cover tenant negligence. We have sent plumbers and restoration companies and the conclusion is that it was the tenants negligence. The tenants is blaming me for not having the doors installed correctly. The plumber that went to help 2 hours after they reported the incident said said they had wet towels on the floor and that  he believes the bathroom doors had fallen and they installed them back incorrectly. Not sure what to do to prove that their negligence is going to cost me more than their deposit. I don’t think they should get their deposit back. Any advice and/or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. 

@Chris Svendsen - Look up the IRS Applicable Federal Rates (AFR's). I am pretty sure that is the rate. There are different methods (long term/short term etc). You have to do digging to understand which category you would fall into, since its the IRS, nothing is simple / black and white.

Hi all, 

I'm curious to hear if anyone has, or is planning to invest in cashflowing townhouses. I found one in 3741, but am not sure if I will move forward. The deal is over a 1% rental, however I have stuck to SFH so far, and would love any insight people have on this different type of property.