All Forum Posts by: Christopher Labonte

Happy Sunday All,

I will try to distill the mess I find myself in to just the pertinent facts:

I bought my first flip in January. It was suppose to take no more then 3 months, and 50k to repair. I am now at 6+ months and 75k to repair. In addition, the original CMA done put its value at 230k, where as now its at 210k. Purchased for 93k.

I'm now at the point probably most newbies get to where now I have no money, and the hard money used to finance is too expensive to keep carrying. Originally a concern was getting the equity back out at sale, however that is a distant hope at this point. I need to stop the bleeding. The problem I find myself in now is I switched jobs (was in the army for 9 years) and as of January I started working at a brokerage. So now I find myself unable to refinance with a va or conventional loan (they wont count the income as its less then 2 years). FHA will still be difficult if not possible as well.

Essentially the only way out it to get out from under it and fast, but its been on the market for 25 days (Nashville market) and there has been little to no interest.  My gut says drop the price to break even and try and sell it there (however there are other considerations as well), but I would be much better off BRRRRing it.  Except I dont see a way to make the Refinance portion of it work.

Any suggestions are welcome, and please PM me for more info if you need it.  Thanks everyone

Although no-one had any suggestions for me, I figured I would throw up my resolution--Ebay!

I found a coin operated dryer in good condition (and got the money back guarantee!), but it was located in New York!  Well, having recently quit my job I had some time on my hands.  I did the math, and (excluding my time) the gas + cost of the dryer was still about half the price of buying a new one.  

I made it a little east coast adventure, seeing friends along the way, visiting family.  All in all not too bad of a "business" trip.

The things I do to cut costs.

@Marcia Maynard 

Wow, that was one heck of a response.  This being my first rental unit, I have learned a lot along the way (only owned it for about 6 months), so  let me address some of your points:

1- Unfortunately I do not trust my property manager to handle this.  He is a small operation with 150-200 properties, and it doesn't seem like he has a very good system in place.  With that, I am looking into changing managers to someone who can more appropriately handle properties.  

2- You are correct, this is my folly.  Like I said in my original post, my property manager suggested I do what you suggested, but due to my inexperience I decided to separately bill.  This is the first tenant (which I inherited) to move out, and moving forward I will be including a water charge moving forward.  Do you have any suggestions on how I could correct my other 3 units?

3- Turning off the water was only an idea, and after searching BP everything said exactly what you did.  

4- Based on the lease that I was provided from the prior owner, I do not see a section for early termination.  It would seem that is a large issue.

5- I did obtain a security deposit, unfortunately for me it wont cover the water bill and months rent.  But if we follow that list, they wont be getting that deposit back.  

As far as 6, 7, and 8, that gave me some ideas on a constructive conversation to have with them on Thursday.  

Thank you so much for your input!

Oh I’m not worried about turning on the heat. I’m going up there Thursday to install another dryer for the laundry room, and I’m going to try at that point to have a face to face. 

Morning all!

I own a rental property in Evansville Indiana, and it preforms fairly well.  I do have a issue that's rearing its ugly head now.  One of the units lease is up March 31.  They called before the 1FEB to let us know they were giving they're 30 day notice.  Apparently they weren't aware of the lease (somehow...).  They also are about 200 dollars behind on they're water bill.  Unfortunately I only have 1 meter for this building (its a quad), but I do have individual in line meters going to the individual units.  I'm getting the feeling that im gonna end up getting stiffed.  

My property manager suggested when I bought the building that I just do a flat rate charge, and knowing what I know now I wish I had done it.  I was also contemplating shutting the water off to the unit, but I read a few BP posts and everyone says that's a terrible idea.  With all this in mind, does anyone have any suggestions on how I might go fixing this mess? Its either that or go the legal route, but with them moving in 2 weeks it looks like they're going to disappear.  All ideas are appreciated!

Hey all!

So heres a little update on my property-- Its now fully occupied!  Only took 4.5 months, but not once did I have to pay out of pocket to own that property.  But now that its full Ive run into a problem-- Laundry

I have a laundry room in the basement that actually has 2 coin operated washers and 1 dryer.  The tenents have...suggested getting another dryer.  Which is great!  Except I have no idea where to get a good used one, and all the ones on the sears dent and ding website are... more then I want to spend.  Does anyone have any suggestions for looking online, or if your in the Nashville/Clarksville/Evansville area, local places to call. 

As always, I love this community and thanks for the help and suggestions!

wow guys. Absolutly awesome. Im following/discovering a similar track and it is quite exciting. Isn’t it funny to see how far we can go when we put our efforts in the right spots?

@Wiley Strahan Thanks!  Ya I just found that site and saw that too.  That's why I was coming up with maybe something else.  More then likely ill just end up doing a .net instead because I think that one wasn't taken.

Thanks @Michele B.!  I'm actually looking into it now.  And I also have a business laywer I'm working with based in Nashville to set it all up properly.  Its all very undefined right now, so I'm trying to map it all out first before I go to him, because once that happens theres no stopping it.  

Thanks Christine! Why you say that?