All Forum Posts by: Christina Tkacs

I'll clarify, sorry guys!

I'm transferring from a property manager to Hemlane, the online platform.  In talking to Hemlane, they advised me that having the tenants sign a lease addendum notifying them of the changes to their lease is what's required legally.  Otherwise, they can say their signed lease tells them to pay the PM and not Hemlane.

I know it's WA state law to notify the tenants where their security deposit is being held. It's moving from the PM to my LLC account.

I did notify them via email as well.

Thanks

I'm transferring property managers (from a company to an online platform that I will manage) and I sent a lease addendum to my tenants notifying them of the changes to their lease (ie. that the management company has changed, that rent will be sent to the new platform, and that the location of their security deposit has changed).

However, only one person of two 2-tenant locations have signed.  Since both people's names are on the lease, I'm assuming both people need to sign the lease addendum.

Or is it ok that just one person per household signs?

I live across the street from a house with unauthorized tenants in it.  Long story very short - they're destroying the property and neighborhood, and the landlord cannot get them out.  He's dealing with real estate attorneys and sending letters to Washington State government officials daily.  I believe the holdup is that he initially allowed them to stay on a weekly basis, which technically makes them non-paying tenants and not squatters.

Not looking for comments on his mistakes!

What I'm wondering is, if I buy the house, do I have a better chance at getting them evicted?

Location is unincorporated Pierce County, Washington.

@Jameson Sullivan, me too, I'd like to be kept in the loop for the next Tacoma meetup as well.

@Charles D. As far as I understand it, you don't actually have to prove the tenant received the mailing.  I didn't feel comfortable with it, so I hired a third party to hand-deliver the notice.

This is really solid advice, and exactly what I used:  (notice that it says AND ALL OTHERS OCCUPYING THE PROPERTY.  That covers the people you don't know the names of)

http://washingtonlandlordtenant.info/tacoma-notice-to-terminate-tenancy.pdf

I have a rental in Fife that I had to start eviction proceedings on last winter.  Email wasn't sufficient.  The notice only needs to be mailed regular mail, but I wasn't taking any chances.  I mailed it certified AND had someone hand-deliver it to them.  There is also a method of pinning it to their front door so it's very obvious, but I didn't do that.

What I learned the hard way is to include every single tenant on the eviction letter AS WELL AS "all others occupying the property".  There were two people on the lease plus at least two unauthorized people, so I mailed six copies and had six copies handed to the tenants.  Because I wasn't careful to include every single person, I had to restart the entire process.

Good luck  :-/

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) other investment in Fife.

Purchase price: $300,000
Cash invested: $20,000

Small 1970's duplex in fair condition, 2br/1ba each side. Tenants on one side were hoarders; seller moved them to the other side two weeks before purchase. Rats, human and cat pee on drywall and subfloor, all trim/doors/flooring destroyed, burned kitchen, filled with garbage, etc.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Purchase included an acre of vacant land next door, location was great with a lot of yard space and a farmland feel.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Real estate agent acted as dual agent and called me because she knew I was interested in a fixer upper.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Fixed it up through sweat equity.

What was the outcome?

Duplex is now appraised at $450,000 and rent for one side pays the entire mortgage. Will be refinancing as soon as investment loan rates improve.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The challenge was me learning how to renovate homes. My husband is quite good at home renovation and taught me how to do a lot. Another lesson learned was removing tenants before things get worse and they surreptitiously move in their tweaker relatives who convinced their family to quit paying rent.

I know the area, but I don't see an address in your calculator or post.  There are great areas of Tacoma located next to sketchy ones.

@Tyrone Green  Who did you end up going with?  I'm in Tacoma and am trying to find a RE lawyer who can go through purchase contracts with me (I don't want to use a realtor).  Thanks!

I want to write the title in quotes because it's not like I had much of a strategy to start with. I bought a duplex and a turn-key SFH at a normal price for houses in the area. Both were conventional loans with 25% down because they're investment properties. All three doors are rented at the high end of rents in the area.

I can't keep paying 25% down on homes - it's cost me nearly $160,000 cash so far and of course that money is all tied up until it makes sense to refinance. 

Am I missing something, or is buying a home at appraised value an effective strategy?  It's killing my savings account.  25% down is a lot of cash.  I want to buy another house as a short-term rental, but I don't want to tie up another $80,000 in cash - I'm not that rich.

(I'm looking to BRRR at some point as soon as I can catch the deal fast enough)