All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Kasey Libby Welcome to real estate. I'm a PM in Alpharetta, we're neighbors. Hit me up if you'd like to connect, I'm still pretty new in my journey too, and although not an attorney, the end goal is the same. There are also Atlanta based groups out there for networking and knowledge. Good luck!

HI Austin, welcome. I live in Dallas, and work for a PM in Alpharetta. Hit me up if you'd like to connect.

I'm looking at a property with a long term Section 8 tenant. When considering it, I realized I know nothing about S8 and thought I'd start here.

The rent is about $300.00 below market right now. I know there's a process to get the rent increased, I just don't know what it is. I'm hopeful one of you can assist.

Of course I won't be raising the rent on the tenant. Their lease ends next summer and I may just discontinue S8 then depending on the answer.

If I had to speculate, I'd think I would need to petition/request of the state that the property be approved at a higher rent. I'm sure they'd want more from me than just a "pretty please with sugar on top." They would (they being I don't know, the state? the housing authority?) would investigate my petition and provide their ruling at which time the rent may or may not be allowed to increase.

Anyways, any help here would be great.

I'll be honest, I've had a pretty stressful time of it too lately. I have a great realtor, who understands investment property and to my knowledge exists solely in this space. We just cannot find the right deal.  It's frustrating, you want to throw the baby out with the bath water after each failed deal only to realize that changing at every obstacle is also not wise.

There are two things I already knew, but are worth mentioning. Well three.

1. Nothing is easy. Especially when you're learning. After ten years as a property manger I know a lot, but there is so much more to learn. Yes, at the end of the day money may have come through simple deliverable processes, but I doubt I'd ever call them easy. You have to understand that mistakes will be made and have planned accordingly.

2. Nice....and Business are not words that need to go together. Your realtor is either right for you or not right. Nice, good people skills, well connected, whatever....those don't matter if they don't understand what you're looking for. Friend, acquaintance, recommended by a friend...NOPE! Investment focused realtor or move on.

3. Personal analysis. There are million get rich quick videos on the internet. Some folks have copied those videos and made a fortune. Most have failed because of their work ethic. It's cliche, but the damn truth. If you're not willing to put in the work, then you need to find something else to do. Raising/Saving capital is a part of that. Making the connections, meeting quality contacts, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT....are all a part of that. It's very easy to read a website, but until you're truly sacrificing something to save capital, you're not really committed to this.

Number 3 is the hardest. Probably what makes my wife and I bicker more than anything in our marriage. The self reflection...you have to be able to say "Yeah, I suck at that."

This is why you have insurance.

IDK what kind of property you have but I'd guess going after your tenant to catch some of your loss would be a pretty big waste of time. Who knows, maybe not.

Call your insurance company, file a claim...move on.

You're in the right place, and welcome. However, with all due respect you have about 20 podcasts to listen to and about 2K forum posts to read first.

Learn a little, ask a question, read a bunch, watch a video.

Learn a little more, ask another question, read a bunch more, watch more videos.

Get an idea, apply what you've learned, realize you need to learn more, ask a question about your idea, which leads to a bunch to read, and 4 videos.

Modify your idea, apply what you already knew, and what the changes to your first idea taught you. Realize you need to learn more, read a little....

And so on.

Welcome to the best place ever.

Get comfy...

You can but it take's WORK.

I was a Regional Facilities Manager for years. I had 27 commercial sites and only 2 or 3 had in house techs. So I'd have to call vendors, get pricing emailed to me, send purchase orders or pay over the phone.

I do it with my rentals now, the business is the same. It requires good follow up, and quality control. It is a LOT of work, but it's not really that hard. My tenants know I call after I send someone by, if they don't feel like picking up or getting back to me...I very sternly remind them if they complain again that they blew me off.

I'm not saying everyone can do it. You definitely need the mindset of being comfortable not knowing what's going on every second. Plus you have to learn how to ask for pictures...and not be afraid to send someone back for the pictures you asked for.

It's very easy for me, but I do also us PM's for some of our properties. I just make sure they know that I know what I'm doing and ask them politely to not give me a reason to take my property's back.

I self manage my Georgia properties, and even though still in Atlanta, they might as well be in another state. If you can manage across town without being on site for every little thing, you can do the same across country.

Best of luck! 

@Brian Pulaski I'm sorry this entire thread is a complete waste of time. You're asking us, when you can simply call the utility in question and find out. I'm not sure what a fellow investor, not from your town and with no experience or professional history with this exact utility company can offer you.

The first thing I ever learned about business "Take advice from the experts." In this case the utility. This is the part of due diligence when you actually have to do diligence. (Yeah, I did that on purpose).

Ask the utility. Please be smart enough to realize if you just call in you're talking to a minimum wage employee whose jobs is made a million times easier if they get you off of the phone. Ask, then ask again, and then get something that will actually hold up more than "Susie, the manager told me."

Now, for the utility itself, since it's tied to the SSN of the account holder, it should, in theory follow them. The next occupants of the home should be able to start new/transfer existing service to that address. However, you should be smarter than to take mine or anyone elses word for it who's posting on this thread.

The easiest way to find out, is just to call the utility and inquire about setting up new service at X address. Tell them you're looking to see if you have a deposit. It's a soft credit check, has no impact to your rating and they'll tell you right away if there's a problem.

If the balance is the responsibility of the home owner, then you two need to talk. I personally wouldn't be too willing to negotiate, but that's up to you.

Take advice from the experts. Get tax advice from YOUR CPA, legal advice from YOUR attorney, etc.

Anything you learn here or anywhere else for that matter should always be validated several times over...as a good rule of thumb.

I'll keep in brief. What is the general philosophy regarding paying off an investment property?

I'd really like to hear the opposing sides. More equity means lower payment and higher monthly cashflow...my beer math tells me that. Somehow I feel that sitting as equity is not the best use for the capital. Is it common to refinance regularly to pull out as much liquid or possible? Do folks even regularly hold on to paid off investment properties?

I'm curious to learn thanks.

It comes down to one thing with me.

Did this person lie.

Did you ask for a criminal history or just search.

Did you ask for 7 years and this is ten?

I this person lied, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If they didn't....tough call.

If they disclosed or answered truthfully.

Yes.