All Forum Posts by: David H.

start with just the hook ups.  It's a bad idea to not include hook ups if there are no laundromats in convenient distance.

From there, guage if the tenant desires the appliances and price it in. Everything in real estate is negotiable.

Lots of naysayers.  You can get cash flow and appreciation in New Orleans.

This thread is amazing. Is this real? Who knows...

I'll add this much. If you want to be successful in this business, you have to be a little bit of an ***. I'm a nice guy, very nice. I respect all people and life. But you have to have some ******* in you to make it through tough times and pull hard triggers, like firing someone. No one likes firing, but the best managers i know can identify these situations quickly and move without delay.

the problem with real estate is the relatively high fixed cost. Also called operating leverage. You make a lot when it's rented and lose your shirt when it's vacant. You lose your marriage when it's losing you money.

In this case, the OP appears to be too much of a nice guy, trying his best to trust someone to finish a job who had pneumonia and a stroke. I would have sent him a get well card and fired him immediately.

respect for others is important, and sometimes you just have to be an ***.

Partly sarcastic, but still very real.  There's no requirement to have underwriting policies documented.  You just have to make sure you're not approving/declining an applicant based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, age, familial or marital status, handicap or disability or sexual orientation.  So, if you're declining someone because you thought they were rude and mean, so be it.  If the prior landlord complains that they play loud music, you don't have to approve them.  If you want to go high horse and approve everyone, so be it, but have a contingency plan when tenants default.

Some will argue that discriminating against Section 8 means you're discriminating against black people because there's a high correlation between the two.  The argument fails though because you still did your underwriting and were able to provide whatever reason you came up with that isn't a protected class.

There's nothing that says you can't decline applicants who are poor with bad credit and don't have enough cash for a deposit.  On the contrary, there are multiple blogs I get spammed with that stress the importance of income, credit, and cash for deposit.

I thought they were generally very amateur. Maybe a few years ago they were cutting edge with the online portal, but everyone has that now. They've grown rapidly the last three years, which means the talent pool has diluted, and it feels like mortgage brokers circa 2005. Very salesy and just plain amateurs running off scripted sales pitches.

I'd recommend using a local bank if you're in smaller markets. Chase/Wells aren't bad and you can even try your local small community back or credit union. Capital One isn't the best, but they're trying, which means you might get them to negotiate.

Shop around. I wish I did before spending money with Quicken loans.

If I really don't like someone, there's always a way to make then go elsewhere without denying them housing, this enticing them to reject your offer of housing.

charge higher rent

ask for a higher deposit

make fun of their car or clothes

be late for an appointment, continue to offer them appointments at weird times or locations

charge for applications and or showings

approve their application, but for a different property, not the nice one.

charge a move in fee

In general, it's okay to charge a higher rent/fees if you think the tenant is high risk. It's good business, and banks do the same thing with interest rates. They charge risky borrowers more. You can too. Sign a month to month lease and charge $300/mo extra. If they take it, then great. You're making extra. They'll probably decline and go elsewhere.

my point is that you can structure the rent in such a way that you could profitably accept nearly all applicants. Just know that you don't have to charge everyone the same price for everything.

i have b and c properties. When a renter asks if i accept section 8, they're asking about the nicer single family homes. I'll tell them that i accept section 8 for my reminds and apartments. That's a quick way to trek then nicely to bug off.

interesting that you can view deposit slips online. I asked two banks, and all they have is "customer deposit" in the GL. I'll check with Chase.

 I'd buy some new carpet and lay it right on top.  keep the old padding...still good.

 Aly, How do you know who made a payment if two tenants have the same rent?