All Forum Posts by: Craig Williams

You know what PNW you hit it right on the head with the tenants wanting to buy their own houses. I seen banks loan to people six months after going bankrupt. Since the banks got in so much trouble I think that this trend has to reverse in the future.

It's funny but it is not just this time of year. It has been years now. every thing is slower when you are trying to rent a house around Akron Ohio and nearby communities. Maybe it is true that there are a lot more rental properties out there than before.

The funny thing about that property is that the code that they were going by was just put into place. In fact it was the first property that the city was able to enforce this rule upon. Another rule they enforce in my city is that there has to be a electrical inspection after a year of vacancy or you can not get the power turned on. It is usually not that big of deal but it is a pain.

I would buy rental property again. I have had a lot of problems with properties and tenants over the years. There is nothing nicer than seeing your properties get paid off by someone else. It really does give you a financial freedom that a regular nine to five job can't give. I would say that you should definately get into the business and learn as much as you can through this forum and other sources so that you can see and possible avoid problems that you may have. When I started there was not even a internet so I had to learn the hard way.

I was working on buying a abandoned property a few years back, and it was vacant for about a year and a half. That was not a problem because I knew that I could repair anything that was wrong with the property. The problem was and it was a huge problem. Since the property was vacant for more than one year the city had a right to enforce all new building codes. So in effect it had to be brought up to todays codes. Unfortunately the code that was enforced was that you were not allowed to build on a lot that was to thin. So the solution was to demolish the property and turn it into a vacant lot that could no longer be built upon. This house sat on this lot for fifty plus years and now it is gone. At the time I had no idea that a city could do something like this and I am very careful when a property has been vacant for any amount of time.

It would be a good idea to seek out a real estate investor and work closely with them. This time when property is hard to sell I list with a Realtor just to speed up the process. I know that I have trained many realtors over the years. Call the ads in the paper or online that real estate investors put in to get properties and talk to them. I am always open to talking to a realtor because you never know what they are going to bring you.

When I bought my first rental house my brother told me that i was not going to make any money and it was the dumbest thing to get into. I'm glad I never took his advice. After 4 years watching me invest in real estate he bought his first house to rent. Now he owns 18 houses and flips three to four per year. And I might ad that he does not work any job but real estate now! I think he is probably glad I never took his advice.

I have bought 10 properties on the courthouse steps over the years. Now I focus on word of mouth and whatever my realtor can find me. I have made a lot of money on each property when I got one. Our area, Akron Ohio, has a sale every week and the lists are getting very big usually pages of homes. The lists are four weeks ahead of time so you have a good amount of time to drive by the properties. By the time you drive by ten of them a week it takes a lot of your time and most of them will be cancelled or over bid on. But there is always that one or two that you can seriously bid on. You can usually get a good property if you spend the time.

Is it my imagination or are there less tenants than there used to be. I was wondering if others where experiencing the same thing. I bought my first rental house in 1992 and it was so easy to rent that all I had to do was put a ad in the paper with a open house time and I would have twenty people come to the house. And they came there on time! Most of the time I did not even need a ad because when prepared the house for rent by painting etc... I would have many people stop by and ask if I was renting. Now the same house takes longer to rent and it is even in better condition than it was then. Now a ad might generate a couple of calls and one or two people looking at the property. That house is not the only one that is harder to rent, all my properties are generally harder to rent. It might be that it is easier to buy a home and less people are renting or something. That is just a theory I thought about

I just found out about forums and I am looking foward to participating in the community. I have been in the real estate business for the last 18 years. I have rented property and flipped properties in many areas. I am still investing and look foward to many years more investing.