All Forum Posts by: Dan Kelley

What kind of information do you have pertaining to their credit scores? I'm wondering if his low score is simply due to a lack of credit history or accounts rather than late or missed payments. I personally wouldn't mind renting to someone with a poor score if they can show me a credit report that demonstrates that they never miss payments or are late. Can they provide you with a creditkarma report that details the determining factors of their scores?

Hey @Gracen Kostelecky, welcome! I'm from Dubuque, Iowa. Currently own a duplex and I'm closing on a 6-plex in a few weeks here. I'd definitely suggest learning everything you can from this site. I made the mistake of paying for some very expensive real estate investment training before I found bigger pockets. Use the free tools that are here at your disposal! 

Hope all goes well for you as you get started. 

Dan

My wife and I are currently owner occupied in a duplex, however I just got word yesterday that the seller has accepted my offer on a 6 unit building!

The agreed upon price is $108,000 with seller paying closing costs. We are set to close around March 4th. 

Super pumped to finally get some momentum. At the end of 2015 I set myself some goals for the next 2 years. My first goal was to get a 4-plex under contract by 12/31/15 that cash flowed at least $400/month. I missed the deadline by a few weeks, however I got more units and better cash flow, so I think it's a fair trade!

My next goal is to purchase another 4 plex or larger by September of this year. I think I may have to get a little creative if I want to make that happen, but we'll see how it goes!

@Shane H. I'm more concerned about a tenant making a partial payment after they've been given a 3 day notice for non payment of rent. If they deposit $10 then the judge could rule that I've accepted partial payment and rule against me for an eviction. 

I've submitted an offer on a 6-plex and currently own a duplex. If I do get the 6-plex, I'd really like to start off on the right foot and have a solid system in place to handle the larger tenant pool. 

Are any of you using VerticalRent or Buildium or similar? I'm on vertical rent now and I have a trial of Buildium, but there are a few things I'm not certain of. 

1. Without actually setting up the online rent payment collection (which involves a setup fee a linking it to my account) I can't tell if the tenants are able to apply partial payments to the rent. Obviously, I don't want any partial payments to be applied. Do you guys know how they handle this?

2. Are tenants able to pay their rent before their due date? I'm sure it's a rarity, but my thought is if I have a tenant who is, let's say, going on vacation for a week and wants to pay their rent before they leave, will either of the programs allow this? Or do they only allow rent to be collected on the 1st?

I'm sure this has been covered but I did a search for VerticalRent on the site and couldn't find much. Thanks.

 I think one caveat to that is, if you are going to hire the work, finding a real CRAFTSMAN. I've seen a lot of "professional" jobs that were pretty terrible. The owner would have been better off doing it themselves with their eyes closed. Granted, in the instance that comes to mind, the property owner doesn't have much passion for things being done right. 

If you're going to hire it out, you've got to be willing to pay for the quality work.

@Wayne Brooks hmm... I was under the impression that any realtor is legally obligated to forward any purchase contract you choose to use (whether they like it or not.) My agent told me that they COULD use my contract if I wanted to but she advised against it. This was after she talked to her higher-ups within Ruhl and Ruhl. 

What kind of things can I get out of with an inspection clause? Let's say I have a plumber and electrician walk through with me and find out that there's no possible way to every cost effectively switch utilities to tenant-pay... am I still stuck in the contract? I'll take the property either way, but just want to understand the limits of the contingency. Thanks for the input. 

When purchasing real estate, do you guys usually use the standard contract that the Realtor uses (working with a Ruhl and Ruhl agent right now) or do you use your own contract? I have a contract that I got at a Rich Dad training that my attorney said looked good, but the realtor wasn't too thrilled about using it. 

My main concerns are that I want to make the contract assignable, have a finance contingency, an inspection contingency, and partner approval contingency. I'd like to develop something that I can use on every offer..

Something else I'd like to know: Let's say I make an offer on a property right away just to get it under contract, but I later find out the owner was inaccurate on his figures for utility expense or rental income or can not provide proof of the income- Am I able to rescind the contract due to the inaccurate or insufficient information? If so, what clause in the document would allow that to occur?

@Michael Boyer Thank you for the reply.

Yes, 5 is referring to all 3 tenants being on the housing voucher program. My current Duplex tenants are NOT on housing. I don't think I'm opposed to keeping housing, but it is another world I'll have to learn and grow in.

I will do some more digging on getting the factual numbers for income and expenses and see how everything lines up.

Also, I may not have been clear on what I'm looking for...

Just wondering if you all think the numbers look good enough to move forward and I want to make sure I didn't miss anything. I currently own a duplex that I bought back in 2012 before I really knew much about investing and wish I would have purchased differently. I want to make sure that my next purchase is really worth while. Thanks in advance for any input!