All Forum Posts by: Casandra M.

@Nicole A. - That's exactly what I thought too. I have no idea how many units the person had (I was straight up eavesdropping at a restaurant), but it just sounded like unnecessary work for units that will probably get rented out regardless. 

I overheard another landlord in the  S.E. Wisconsin area stating that last year they started a rent promotion program where if tenants have a certain amount of volunteer hours logged with a list of pre-approved organizations in the city where the rental units are, that they got a 10% reduction in rent. 

Assuming these are non-profit orgs that are not restricted to religious organizations or targeting protected-classes, is this actually legal? I know that it's legal to give rent discounts to serviceman and those in the police and fire dept., but I never gave a second though to other types of discounts?

Are you looking to do a BRRR or flip & sell? Like any rental purchase, just make sure to do your neighborhood research, and I suggest being more hands on with the contractors that you hire if flipping in the beloit area. I've had friends-of-friends that flip in Beloit and have only seen a good return (by their own definitions) when purchasing foreclosures away from the downtown area, and using only trusted contractors (not necessarily choosing the cheapest bids). Keep in mind the cost of the rehab vs the max rent for the area that you could charge.

We've chosen to stay away from the Beloit area, but have been interested in how others are successfully renting and in what areas of the town. Hope to hear updates from your experience!

I  haven't read all the replies so I apologize if my answer is redundant...

Wisconsin is a great place to start investing. If you are a little turned off by Madison prices, I suggest trying for a rental outside of Dane county first (Dane county also has additional tenant-protecting laws that can get a bit tedious). You'll see a significant drop in home prices, property taxes, and still get cash flowing properties.  I suggest feeling out different realtors also... we have found that having a great relationship with one realtor has been lucrative to us vs using different realtors each time. 

Our first mortgage was a 203(K) rehab loan... it was a..... unique process? We had an issue with the lender who I won't name on the forum, and the underwriting for the 203(K) requires the construction contracts to be worded very specifically so the initial contract we had from the general contractor had to be revised I believe 5 or 6 times.  Other than than, it's a great way to build in instant equity if you can manage to be smart about the type of improvements you make. 

My advice would be to identify up front what work you are willing to do yourself and what work you want contracted out in you are doing BRRR's to save you time and sanity. We love the BRRR concept, especially for the rental units that we have with a commercial bank, which carries the value and equity as a portfolio (so you can draw on combined equity).

I also know that opinions vary greatly on this topic, but I also suggest when accepting bids, to not immediately go with the cheapest guy, but rather the guy with the most reliable reviews and references... going cheap every time is a sure way to lead you down a much more expensive path in both the mid and long term. 

I suggest using LexisNexis Community Crime map for neighborhood research (I'm not sure if Madison participates in that, but I know Janesville does). We also ensured we stuck by our screening criteria and were consistent with our rental paperwork, and could afford a few months of vacancy if need be.

Hi everyone - thanks for the input so far. Just to clarify, we have gone through the Section 8 inspections and approval in the past and are familiar with the workings of our section 8 units.... we decided to not renew our Section 8 contracts with our local city due to the negative experience. If accepting section 8 again, we would simply include the section 8 payments in their income criteria in order to fairly screen the tenant. 

My husband and I are considering accepting Section 8 again at  a few select properties. We originally decided to no longer accept Section 8 because of damage at properties that we purchased with Section 8 tenants inherited from the previous owners. 

We feel confident that once we apply our own screening criteria, we could find decent section 8 tenants, however, I am questioning, as a safe guard, if it's legal to give a tenant a notice of terminating a lease if the tenant has caused enough damage or incurred enough fees to deplete their security deposit.

For a prior experience example, our last Section 8 tenant (the "final straw" tenant) had a $650 security deposit and at one point, had the front door kicked in, breaking  the door, both locks, and breaking the surrounding plaster (not due to a home invasion). We put in a new door and replaced the plaster with dry wall, just to find out later that there are now imprinted knuckle punches in the brand new door (ouch!), broken sections of the new dry wall, the garage man door was also kicked in, and the tenant also still owed a $50 late fee on rent. At the point of the repair for damages reaching the $650 security deposit limit, would it have been legal to give the tenant a 30 day notice to leave the property due to excessive damages? 

If yes, take this example: What if there is an $800 security deposit, and the tenant gets enough late rent fees, or fees in other ways pertinent to the lease addendums, that they reach the $800? Granted, this is an extreme example, but if it's just from fees and not actual damages, would it still be legal (assuming the fees are legal to take from the security deposit, as stated in our current addendum)?

Any thoughts or ideas on this would be great, especially from any members in Wisconsin!

We currently invest in rental properties in our home state of Wisconsin but are looking into possibly purchasing a 1-bedroom or studio condo in Lincoln Park in Chicago, right near the zoo (with a great zoo view and bit of a lake view), with the intent of trying out AirBnB and other short term rental sites for the first 6 months-year of owning the property due to it's location. We are a bit nervous jumping state lines, even if it's less than 2 hours away.

What has been everyone's experience in purchasing an investment property out of state, near high-tourist areas?

Exhaust every mortgage lender in the areas you are pursuing.... the 2 year rule may have lean way if you are coming directly out of college and if you've already found a property with tenants that produces positive cashflow. We did an FHA loan for our first multi-unit about 4 years ago and we believe it was the best start to our portfolio that we could have done (to be clear though, we did a 203(k) FHA loan).

My husband and I are looking for recommendations for sites that do the tenant background screenings for you (criminal history, evictions, debt in collection, etc...). I've seen quite a few posts on BP on this, but many are old and may be outdated, and there are none that I've seen that have specifically described if multi-state is included. 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

@Scott Schultz - It's interesting that you say that, because I called the title company that we used for all three rentals, and they said that they would only be involved during an actual sale and that they suggested using an attorney, which I found really odd.....