All Forum Posts by: Jeff Bridges

The good news is small claims in MA goes up to 7k, so you can make a claim for 7k even. Collecting the judgement is the hardest part and certainly might give you pause before you follow through with $150 small claim fee and time/ energy spent in court. expect a couple of visits to court to obtain judgement, even if defendant doesn't show. You will absolutely have to successfully serve a summons before the judge will hear your case. The easiest way is to hire a process server, have their info ready to put on the small claims paperwork, then have them find and serve the summons. there are a couple of process server companies who will charge $50 for the service fee (I like the ones that offer the no serve no pay service) and then another 25-30 for the skip trace service (they track down the defendant for you). Just put the last known address and provide any info/ SSN you have that may help them. See below for steps to garnish wages, but again, if they have no job, there will be nothing to garnish. finally, there are more fees/ process server fees/ and energy to force them to pay you judgement on top of above (obtaining the writ of execution). Usually a lot more pain and minimal likelihood of being successful means, its best to move on in my opinion.... All of the above is just personal experience, not legal advice...

info on collecting a judgement in MA:
http://research.lawyers.com/Massachusetts/MA-Collecting-the-Judgment.html

You will quickly learn that MLS listing descriptions quality vary considerably and that some are better than others. I LOVE THE ALL CAPS ONES ESPECIALLY:) However, a ready buyer with 20% down will never be able to finance a house with a known issue that disqualifies the property from any loan. I am assuming that he knows the specific issue that would make bank financing impossible/difficult on that and many other non-retail properties he is advertising. Lets say this issue hypothetically is mold in the basement. As a realtor, he knows a bank will reject financing, but he is also not going to put this on MLS and scare away cash buyers too. He also wont volunteer this information to you either over the phone. This is likely why he is only requesting cash offers. You can make an offer today if you wanted to sight unseen; there is nothing stopping you. But he's trying to save you and him the time of having to automatically reject it because its not a cash deal. I suggest you let this minor issue go and spend energy on finding more valuable deals, since reporting realtors for questionable violations is not going to make you any money unfortunately... don't get stuck in a rut and keep your patience and be ready to move on when a deal doesn't look like its going to pan out. good luck with your search.

FYI bait and switch is trying to advertise one item, while ultimately trying to sell another item. He is still selling you the same item, only he is requiring cash for it. Just because that requirement is not on his poorly worded MLS description, doesn't mean he isn't allowed to enforce it... its irritating, but not illegal/ unethical

I think pennsylvania sells outstanding tax debt at tax deed sales/auctions. So if the original owner doesnt pay in full, they just sell the deed to the highest bidder above the original tax debt to satisfy that original debt. There is little reason for them to need to negotiate with owners besides maybe a payment plan for the full amount. they are going to get the outstanding debt from either a tax deed auction or the original owner, they dont care.

I had a good experience with erentpayment.com, but you should also check out sparkrent.com, which offers similar tools and direct deposit, but only costs $1/month vs $3/month. A lot of the monthly reminders are also included... Take a look at both of those. I haven't used sparkrent.com however since it is so new. $12-$36 a year in putting rent payment on auto-pilot is a godsend.

You essentially need to do a simple business case analysis before you move forward with any condo purchase that would be short term owner occupant, and long term rental. There is the consideration of wanting to become landlord again, and then there is the estimated profit to see if it would be worth your time and effort: this is unique to every property. This way you will know if the condo would be profitable/ worth keeping as a rental after you plan to move out and convert to rental. if you do this after, you risk having a condo with negative cashflow.

Use rentometer.com to get ballpark rent estimates for a unit in your neighborhood. Look at craigslist etc to confirm what you might be able to rent it for (same units/ same condition/ amenities). Then take the estimated monthly income (Subtract 8-10% vacancy) and further subtract estimated monthly mortgage/tax/insurance payment based on your budget range. You can do this in a monthly equation or an annual equation, whatever you prefer. Finally dont forget to subtract the condo fee, which for much of the units, sinks the cashflow into negative or breakeven territory. The end result will be your estimated cashflow. Use this number to decide if that estimated cashflow is a) positive b) enough to make the time/ effort managing a rental for you. If you want to use a managment company, subtract another 10% from the rent. You'll find 10% management fee + condo fee makes it tough for many condos to turn a profit. They are out there and I own 2 profitable condo rentals myself, but its certainly not guaranteed or easy to find. Finally, some of the profitable condos might not be the ones you would ideally want to live in initially either depending on the neighborhood. finally, you NEED to check condo bylaws to ensure that renting is allowed and unrestricted before you purchase. some ban rentals or have restrictions and you need to know. good luck!

Ok to confirm what my experience has been. FNMA posts an asking price, if that price is not met or bid at, after 30 days, they lower the price maybe with coordination of the selling agent. I bid at a price I thought was fair, but it was way below 93% asking, so instead of considering that price, they will only do a price drop later, then consider offers at that next level (hopefully having someone bid asking). The first one i bid way below asking, they rejected. the second offer, they countered at around 93% list, but still way over market value.... There was a recent price drop on the unit after I refused to accept their counter, and I bid 93% of that new asking, and they just plain rejected the bid. I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I might just wait a bit and then re-bid at around 92% asking. no one else seems to be bidding:) Patrick L. appears to have had similar luck with FNMA preferring to sit out deals waiting for someone willing to bid asking price....

Your settlement company (you have to pick one out that you like) OR your loan officer can give you a loan worksheet (loan company) or estimated HUD (settlement/ title company), which will give you a sense of what you will need to pay at closing (it includes all closing fees, transfer fees and such listed out). This sorts out how to find and estimate of what you might expect to pay. Your bid offer cant say "I want you to pay for everything," rather it must include a specific seller credit for costs incurred at closing. So if your closing costs are ~$3-6k (average financed closing cost before down payment), you can ask for seller concessions for that same amount. If you are financing your offer, you need to ask the loan officer what your maximum seller concessions that are allowed to meet your loan conditions (conventional is usually 3% of bid offer max, but cash offers you can ask for whatever you'd like (and whatever seller might accept)). Finally, with financed offers, buyer is usually not allowed to receive credit from seller for escrow items/ fees. You need to fund that yourself (insurance, taxes etc). So in sum, you need to find out your max allowed seller credits/ concessions, you need to then find out an estimate of your closing costs (not including your down payment), then even then, you might only be able to ask for 3% in seller credits for closing, which might not cover all of your closing costs. Be prepared to have to pay for those closing costs that arent covered. you'll know what to expect to pay at closing if your offer gets accepted. hope that helps!

and no, you are not usually allowed to roll escrow prepaids into the loan. They need to be funded by you so they can pay insurance, state property tax etc. Not just an IOU to them:)

While I mentioned I used erentpayment ($3/ payment fee), I just looked into 2 other new options: sparkrent.com, which Igor S. mentioned charges $1 per transaction and is owned by intuit (maker of quicken) and "Intuit Payment network" https://ipn.intuit.com/?

Sparkrent looks like a very new and slick but easy interface and very easy to track/ accept rent from multiple units, sends automated email reminders and offers recurring auto payments. No experience with them yet however but looks worth checking out.

Intuit also offers "Intuit Payment network" which charges 50 cent transaction fees for ACH transfers and invoicing feature, recurring payments etc. but it doesnt seem to have the same level of unit tracking or auto reminders that sparkrent offers. You have to decide if the 50cents is worth the additional organization of rent/ units etc and automation of reminder emails. Of course paper checks dont have any of the features of these services so to me, they would save time depositing checks regardless.. both are run by intuit so they are not fly by night companies.

Either way, there are 2 new options that are either 50cents or a dollar per month, which defintely beats some of the $3 or $5 per month offerings that have been around the past few years. Hope that helps people out...

Are you familiar with what type of work that needs to be done or are you looking for a GC to inspect and quote out what he thinks you need done to rehab. Are you flipping or rehabbing for rental? I do minor rehabs but have a handyman, some plumbers, electrician and HVAC contacts I can provide. all PG county based... but the thing is most of them might charge a fee if you dont already have it under contract since they know the chances of you of getting the offer AND choosing them for services is much lower than a homeowner getting a quote. A licensed inspector might be a good start for a quick idea of what rehab is needed and to help you get a sense of what to look for. I cant provide you with a list per se but if you need a specialist once you purchase, let me know and I'll send you a contact... Finally, i have an inspector that charges $250 if you want to go that route...

I've used erentpayment.com briefly with one of my tenants, but unfortunately had to discontinue due to tenant unable to maintain enough balance in their checking acccount when the monthly rent was deducted on the first. They had great customer service and the fee was $3 per monthly deposit ($36 year) while most charge 5-15 per deposit or month. For middle/ upper income tenants, I would suggest using this or a similar tool. Otherwise for lower income, you need to pickup/ dropoff rent in person sometimes to ensure they get to it and dont have checking problems. The bottom line to keep in mind is that you cant automatically charge a ACH late fee if they dont have any money in their checking account to begin with:)

I also found out that amazon payments lets you use the credit card to pay someone up to 1000 per month. Might be dangerous to pitch to tenants but not a bad tool for my roommate to pay me monthly:)