All Forum Posts by: Doneshia Marinnie

I'm an aspiring investor and during one of my meet-ups, another newer investor mentioned the idea of BRRR'ing just to get they're money out but then selling it right after they refinance. I know it depends on the goals of the investor but I thought the whole benefit behind BRRR was achieved with holding the rental property long-term. Is this an incorrect assumption?

The local, state and federal laws will always supersede what may be written in a lease agreement. Therefore, any clause you may have in your lease that may contradict a law can be voided by a judge. If you haven't already, I'd double check to make sure your lease has a severality clause stated in it. This will protect the legality of your entire lease even if a judge declares that one of your clauses are invalid. In this particular scenario, I would inspect the property after you receive possession back, looking for any repairs that may have been done and see whether or not they were completed correctly. If any repairs that are done compromise the integrity of the property, I would document and record anything associated with repairing their repairs and charge it back to the security. Good luck!

Hi Maayan, ultimately since you have an active license you could manage investments. Though, all of your transactions would still have to take place through your broker. So I would check with them first to see what kind of arrangement would be possible. There may also be some state specific laws/regulations that you should preform your due diligence with looking into but your broker may also be able to give you some insight on this. Hope that helps!

Good luck!

Hey Julian, Congrats on your new venture! If you're holding fee simple ownership in your property it is apart of your ownership rights that you are able to rent it out. However, I would still double check your lender if there was a clause you agreed to stating YOU would be the primary resident for a specific length of time. If they did do an inspection of the property and discovered you were in breach of the contract, they could call your entire loan due prematurely. 

A pro to dealing with vouchers is that the rental payment is guaranteed and likely to be timely each month. However, the quality of the tenant could potentially be a con. If you are unfamiliar with the process of screening a tenant and/or may be relocating long-distance -  my best advice would be to find a qualified property manager to screen and onboard your new tenant as well as maintain the asset. Good luck with everything!

Revision to answer your last question: start advertising your property on internet listing sites to attract interested renters. Hotpads.com is a great one that also sends your property's information to several other listing sites. It's also free. Craigslist is okay, you really have to pre-screen inquires that come through that source to make sure you're not wasting your time on someone that probably won't be the right fit. There are a number of sources for free lease templates, google one for your state specifically. 

Hi Ben, as previously mentioned, I would make sure you have a non-refundable pet deposit, with a monthly pet rent fee in place if you decided to accept pets. However, making sure you have a pet addendum that indicates the rules and regulations surrounding the pet is crucial. 

When we know there is a pet, we will perform routine inspections of the dwelling (which is a clause listed in the pet addendum) to ensure there's no damage being done to the property (outside of normal wear & tear). If we find damage, then we send the violation notice and charge the residents account for the repairs to be done (which is all stated in the violation letter). If it is a reoccurring issue, then we send our notice to cease and begin the eviction process. This way, 1) if they are not caring after their pets the way they are supposed to - you charge them for the damages in real time versus at the end of their lease term (hoping there's enough in the security deposit) and 2) you're not surprised when they finally do turn over keys.

Good luck! 

@Tim Wilson, congrats on the investment! I agree with Keith, states can be very different in the type of language and clauses that can be used versus cannot be used - so personally, I'd either research a find a generic lease or hire an attorney to draft your lease. You may also want to research if there are any specific lease addendums and/or literature that your state and/or local municipality require landlords to supply new tenants with. 

For our clients, I have used NTN as well as Corelogic's Saferent application. I would recommend both, though I personally think Saferent has a more user-friendly interface. 

Good luck!

A property management software such as AppFolio or even AMSI are really good with consolidating all of the information, keeps track of service  repairs, allots for accounting and maintaining resident ledgers, can keep record of correspondences and of course store archived information from previous residents. 

Some states do have laws that specify how and for how long documents should be kept, I I'd look into that before deciding to go paperless and throwing all your hardcopies away. However, I do recommend that if you decide to store documents electronically, that it is backed up to some sort of cloud as a precaution. For my clients, I use dropbox and google docs - incredibly user friendly and affordable.