All Forum Posts by: Kent Harris

About 2 years ago my landscaper's lawn mower through a rock at our 36"X72" double pane window, shattering it into a million pieces. The replacement cost was $300 installed. The landscaper reimbursed us for the window and also provided the Glass installer. Since I have 11 rental properties I have 3 different maintenance people with different skill sets. All 3 can replace single pane glass. None however know how to replace double pane. Since then the Glass installer has moved on and shut down his business. How do I go about finding an installer that does double pane glass? Typically I pay my maintenance people a base rate of $50 per service call, obviously if it requires more than 1 hour labor I pay them more. Last week a bird struck one of the double pane windows and broke it. The estimate I got was $260 for a 36"X36" window. Has the cost of double pane gone up? How do you go about finding the glass supplier? If a maintenance person can replace a single pane can't they replace a double pane?

I just purchased my tenth house on Monday and all was fine and put an eleventh house on an earnest money contract on Wednesday to be closed July 31st. What I have been doing to purchase my houses is getting a short term earnest money loan from the bank, to do a cash closing at the Title Company, then turning around and getting a hard money loan, then a conventional loan. When I would get the hard money loan I would pay down on the equity loan, and when it would go conventional I would pay down on the equity loan. So far this worked for ten houses. When I got to the eleventh house I was told there was a 5 houses minimum for a portfolio loan. The terms were a 4 point documentation fee and 6.5% interest with a 5 year balloon or 7% with a 10 year balloon. Currently I am paying 4.5% to 4.85% on a 30 year loan on the 9 houses and it will be the same on the tenth house. My net is $600-$800 per house. The equity loan is only good for 3 years then needs to be paid off in full. It's a 3.5% interest only equity loan. I borrowed $118,000 from the equity loan on my last purchase so the interest is $344 per month. What am I supposed to do after the tenth house? My business partner has a master in finance and will no allow me to roll 5 houses into a portfolio loan because of the unfavorable terms. I was told to figure it out and was told that we would spend all the profit paying down the eleventh house if necessary. My question is how do I buy more houses with these terms? The equity loan is not enough to buy 5 houses at a time even if I got the houses at a deep discount.

Sue, They have not filed yet. That is the problem, as soon as the lease was signed they told me they were filing for Bankruptcy. If it was after Bankruptcy there would not be a problem since there about to file there is a possibility they could include the lease in the Bankrupcy. 

Paul,

I've only been in a Real Estate investor since September of 2014 and don't know much about Bankruptcy. Since that time I have purchased 8 rental properties which 7 are occupied and 1 under renovation. I told the Tenant about a company that specializes in cleaning up bad credit and a lot of times they could do a settlement with the company they owe to. About 8 years ago instead of filing bankruptcy I thought it was better to settle with the creditors and made 20 or so settlements. The settlements were on my credit report for about 2 years and my credit shot up into the high 700s in about 2 years. I told the tenant that was probably there best option. The fact of the matter is they decided not to sign up with automatic debit which is a clear sign that they want to file.

Yes I do a credit check. There was nothing there that was a huge flag or anything. I told them that they should just settle with there creditors and that Bankruptcy was not going to solve there problems. High risk people I get a double deposit. One couple I had pay 6 months advance rent. Typically I will file an eviction notice after the 6th of the month. Not sure if a Bankruptcy is going to effect there ability to pay since they make enough money to pay the rent and have a stable job.

A new Tenant had moved in to my rental, once the Lease was signed they had said. "BTW did I mention I'm filing Bankruptcy next month?" Is this going to effect the rent rate there paying now? Are they going to pay rent at all? What should I do in this situation?

I have been using the same contractor for the past 6 months. He does really good and has good prices on his work but is late getting in the Bids, paperwork and completing the jobs late. This has cost me money with the lender and getting the houses leased. Over the Christmas Holidays it took 2 weeks to get a stove and lost a prospective Tenant in the process. I just now got a contract signed and the new tenant is moving in on the 1st of March! I had to pay an additional $500 for Vacancy insurance plus lost $5,000 in revenue, because an oven did not get delivered on time. Last week it took 3 days to get lean wavers and the title company refused to close on 3 properties since the paperwork was turned in Friday morning the day of closing. We have had several discussions with the contractor and nothing has improved.  

I was told just to hire tradesmen to do the work I needed. I hired an Electrician that way and he pretty much took my money and almost burned my rental down by shorting out the wiring (Can't get my current contractor to submit paperwork so I can report the electrician!) Not sure what to do at this point. I tried going through Angie's list and Home Advisors and all the contractors there are way overpriced. Not sure what to do at this point.

 From what her Ex-Husband told me she won't change Her mind. After the story he told me and I quote. "The devil came calling while I was reading a book. I looked up at the devil and looked down again and continued reading my book. The devil replied. Are you not afraid of me?  I replied, no because I was married to your sister for 21 years!"

Found a property to purchase, the Husband divorced 12 years ago and the property is still in the Husband and wife's name. Technically the property is no longer the Ex-Husbands. His name is still on the dead of trust and on the Mortgage documents. Contacted wife who is 3 months behind in payments and pretty much told me that she was going to let it go into Foreclosure to burn her Ex-Husbands credit. I told her it would burn her credit as well. Didn't seem to care. Offered her money to sell. She was not interested. More interested in burning her Ex-Husband. Is there anyway to purchase it from the Bank before going into Foreclosure? There is $60,000 owed on a $100,000 home. Ex-Husband will sign off on it if I save his credit.

I spent $15,000 for there PIG membership program. The apartments they referred me to were not such a good deal. They have road trips for members. The special road trips were always full even when I responded within 5 minutes of the broadcast. I'm a serious invester and wanted to learn how to purchase apartment complexes. Went to single family homes instead, my mentor kept calling me stupid even though it was their Real Estate agents coming up with the deals for me. I joined another mentoring group that charges me $50 a month for mentoring services, and that shows me what deals should work for me. Lifestyles teaches you conventional techniques on how to buy houses. Currently my wife and I own 7 rental properties which 5 of them are renovated and occupied. 5 of these houses we got through lifestyles Real Estate agents. The other 2 on our own. 2 houses are currently  under renovations. Should have stuck with the basic program. Lifestyles is an excellent program don't get me wrong. Pricy at best. I guess I don't like being called stupid especially when you have different groups in their organization telling you different things.