All Forum Posts by: Damon Duperre

It is section 8. Some people say they like it. Personally I won't do it. For starters you have to attend a class that they only have on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Then you have to pass all kinds of inspections on a regular basis. Also section 8 tenants rarely take good care of the house and lower the property value not only of your house but of the whole neighborhood. This is just my opinion. I'm sure somebody on here will completely disagree.

If you do then require the tenants to have renters insurance that covers you should their dog bite somebody. While you are at it require them to have you named as "additional insured" on the policy. Many insurance companies will not do that but there are still some who will. The reason you want to do that is because if there is any kind of lawsuit the insurance company will also have to cover you and not just the tenant making it a lot less likely that the tenant will sue you.

I use the standard TREC (Texas Real Estate Commision) application because it is intrusive enough but tenants really can't say it is too intrusive since it is the official TREC application.

If a felon gets sent back to jail (and many do) it will probably make them less likely to pay the rent on time.

If you buy the house they usually give you back the earnest money check uncashed. I always paid either $50 or $100. You can still back out after the option period but it will cost you. 7 to 10 days is typical. If you have never done this try to get 10 days because it might take several days or more to get your inspector out there. You could always call a different inspector if yours is booked up but it is a lot cheaper to find one you like and use them all the time. The guy I use only charges me $250 per inspection (sometimes less) but I have hired him to inspect at least a hundred houses. 

The reason I say go for as long an option as possible is that several times there were things I didn't realize until after 7,8,9 or 10 days even after the inspection. Sometimes you talk to different people and find out things you didn't know before and it changes your mind. One time I was going to buy a house really cheap that had foundation problems. I have a great foundation guy. After about 7 days I found out that the entire neighborhood was built on top of a landfill so it is likely that the foundation would have to be repaired over and over and over. I passed on that one. I have only actually bought 7 houses but had over 100 under contract. Many realtors will try to pressure you into a short option period. Some will say 2 or 3 days. I wouldn't do that unless you have a lot of experience. 

A good realtor is great but a bad realtor is really bad. One way to try to get an idea if they are good or bad is mention bidding on a house without looking at it first. A really good buyers agent will advise against doing that and a bad one will be all for it or maybe even suggest doing it. There are some buyers agents who actually look out for the best interest of the seller rather than the buyer. Stay away from them.

It might be different if you are getting a mortgage. I have always paid cash until now. Now I have a home equity line of credit with Spirit of Texas Bank but I haven't found the right house yet. So I am still actually paying cash for the house I am just borrowing the money. There are not nearly as many houses for sale now as there were last summer. At least in Tarrant County anyway.

Actually I am not sure about Penn. but in Texas all of that is at the county level.

It's going to be county not city.

Why wouldn't you keep the deposit?

If the property manager would gladly take her back then why did they evict her? Are you sure it was actually the property manager and not one of her friends? 

I would say too many red flags especially for your first rental.

In Texas if the house has AC when they rent it and the landlord does not fix it within a "reasonable" amount of time, the tenant can have it fixed and deduct the price from the rent so I doubt she was evicted for doing that.

A bunch of kids and a cat doesn't help. Dog urine can be cleaned up but cat urine will ruin a house. It can even ruin a concrete slab. 

Still I would think there would be somebody who wouldn't care about that. I would look up evictions and criminal histories on yourself and see if somebody else with the same name has a bad history. If that is the case then point that out when you apply for the next place.