All Forum Posts by: Dean Klein

Here's my situation, looking for input on the right move. 

I took out 2 heloc loans on 2 investment properties for the down payments of two other properties earlier this year. The heloc payments are 1% of the balance a month, so around $650 a month. I have enough equity in the two properties that I borrowed on to cash out refi and pay off the helocs, which would save me around $425-440 or so a month over making the HELOC loan payments. I assume it wouldn't make sense to continue making the HELOC payments over the long game due to the minimum monthly payments.

Just wondering what others might do in this situation. I'd be looking at next year to cash out refi if that makes sense to do for the long game.

@Kim Meredith Hampton

Do you have any suggestions or advice on how to amend the situation with the tenant? 

@Kim Meredith Hampton

The exact line says "This lease may only be terminated with notice of at least 45 days from either party"

Am I misinterpreting this? 

I just closed on a duplex and inherited some tenants. The current leases are written in such a way that they lock rent price in for a year period, however there is a termination clause of 45 days to non-renew the lease. The rents are way under market so I decided to send non-renewal letters with almost 60 days notice and offer a lease of my own explaining the current rental market conditions, and current going-rate prices. I heard from the previous owner who I bought the property from, that one tenant is livid about the rental increase, and is going to turn me in to some rental board, not sure what that is. This tenant went to the previous owner to complain because he rents a commercial spot as well from him. This tenant only has about 6 months left of the original lease. I have never seen a lease that locks in a rent price for a year, but has a termination clause with a set amount of days notice, anybody else deal with this? I believe this tenant is going to be difficult to deal with. 

EDIT: Property is in Wisconsin. 

Hi BPers,

I am closing a duplex in 2 weeks with tenants in place. I have a dilemma that I am looking for advice on. The current owner just signed a new lease with the tenant downstairs for $650.00 per month on a year lease, however the lease has a 45 day termination clause in it. The current market rents are $800-850 for this unit. The new lease goes from August 2021-August 2022. He's been in the unit for a couple years now. I'm not sure if I should just let this guy stay at the current market rent for a year, then either issue notice, or raise the rent. I'd ideally like to raise the rent right away or issue notice to vacate. The rental market here is very low supply, and high demand. I could get new tenants at $850 pretty easily. The current tenant is not the most ideal, he smokes inside, and when I walked through the unit, he had 2 cats that the current owner said he didn't know the guy had. 

Thoughts?

Lifeproof is the only vinyl plank I use, have it in several places, and has held up well. Make sure to take your time and seat the planks properly. Vinyl plank is one of those products where you get what you pay for.

If you can, I would get up on the roof and remove snow that could be melting causing this and take a look up there for roof damage, gutters froze up, ect. I took precautions this year with all of the snow we had and removed excess snow on the roof tops that I could safely access. I also checked for excessive ice damming. I have 5 properties, and because of my pre-planning for the thawing, I have received no calls about water leaking. 

Hi Jonathan, I recently bought my 5th rental property (1st one bought with primary loan 5 years ago, rest bought as strict investment loans) with a 15% down primary residence conventional loan and moved in. I would like to do it again when my one year of required occupancy is up, any rules against doing so if I'm purchasing another property in the same area? I am wanting to purchase a duplex 2 blocks away from the current one I just bought in one year and I am not sure if the bank will allow me to as an owner occupied loan.

I issued a 28 day notice to vacate to a tenant who has gone bad after more than 2 years of good behavior, and on time rent. The notice was issued February 26, before the ban on evictions in WI. The move out date was set to March 31st, and on March 31st, I noticed he was still there so I sent him a message basically offering to extend the notice to vacate out until May 31st because of Covid-19 and I thought I couldn't evict him anyway so might as well work with him. The agreement was only if he paid April and May rent at the normal rent rate by the 4th of the month. He said he would pay half that friday and the other half in two weeks, I agreed but he has not paid, and I'm getting nothing but excuses. I believe he is going to take advantage of this and not pay. This is a tenant who has several lease violations in the past several months such as unapproved tenants living there, sneaking pets in, ect. I noticed in Governor Ever's Emergency Order this provision "However, if the tenant is holding over on the property, in violation of Wisconsin Statute § 704.25, the Emergency Order does not bar a landlord’s right to seek relief against the hold-over tenant."

Would my offer to extend the notice, even though it was based on him paying April and May rent as usual, constitute him as not a holdover tenant anymore and therefore, I would have to wait to file the eviction? I understand that contacting an attorney is the best option however I am just curious if any other WI landlord has any input on the situation. 

@Gp G. I would deliver the pay or quit notice to the tenant asap even though they say they will pay on Friday. I would just tell him that you have to protect yourself and if he plans to indeed pay on Friday, he has nothing to worry about. Delivering the notice now gets a jump start in case he doesn't pay, then you saved yourself a few days where you can then start an eviction.