All Forum Posts by: Greg Scott

All else equal, I wouldn't want a pool. 

I've had pools in single family rentals and all our large apartments have one.  With single family we hired a company to come in weekly and care for the pool.  If there was any damage, we knew the family was responsible.  

On our apartments, our maintenance staff takes care of the pool day-to-day.  It is a big PIA to manage those things at an apartment.  Kids pee in the pool, idiots jump the fence at night, all kinds of things.  The insurance industry calls them an attractive nuisance and they add a lot of liability.

With a 4-plex, it seems you have the worst of both worlds.  Your property isn't big enough to have someone dedicated care for it, and if something gets damaged you wont know who caused the problem, and you'll probably have a lot of non-residents using your pool, adding cost and liability.

Plus, if you are from Kansas, you get to use the pool maybe 4 months.  Its not worth it.

On a fully-leveraged house hack you can't look at the deal the same as a normal investment.

If you would normally pay $1,000 per month for rent, but by doing a househack, you have negative $500 per month cashflow, you are still ahead of the game.  You've basically cut your housing cost in half, plus get some tax deductions and have an asset that will grow in value over the long run.

Of course, you need to factor in potential vacancy, repairs, etc into that cashflow calculation.

Why do you assume the price was set by the agent?  The agent may have advised them the price was way to high but the owner insisted on listing it there.

You can find deals that cashflow like that in ANY market, including today's market.  In some markets they are plentiful and in others rare. The real question is: how hard are they to find today?

I still see deals coming across my desk that will get this level of cashflow, but they are not beautiful properties listed on the MLS. You may need to look off-market or find that ugly, ugly property that needs a big uplift.

I'll add to this list:

- If I pay you rent, how am I supposed to save up for that vacation I have planned?

- It is my birthday month. You don't have to pay rent on your birthday month, right?

- I was in the hospital for a several days and have a doctor's note.  I wasn't even here, so I shouldn't have to pay rent. 

Ouch. Glad they took him down.

Painful to hear from some of the victims.  There are so many investment options out there. I don't understand why some people throw a huge portion of their net worth at one person.

Populations growth.  I always prefer swimming downstream than upstream.  The same amount of effort gets you much farther.

Quote from @Lutfiya Mosley:

Sarah Sullivan advertises herself as an expert in investing across multiple asset classes, yet she is primarily just a capital raiser — her AUM jumped from $220M in 2022 to over $900M by 2024.

Like everyone else, I’ve seen various amounts about her AUM online, which only adds to the lack of clarity. Before our property foreclosed, I was listed as a co-GP with her on a $15.3M apartment syndication. She played no real role beyond bringing in investor money.

When our property was on the brink of foreclosure due to mismanagement and neglect, she undermined my role by having private conversations with the lender without my knowledge, even though I was a loan guarantor and she was not.

She presented a  ‘rescue fund’ that I wasn’t informed about until it was too late. The GPs excluded key stakeholders from that process, and the offer itself insulted the lender with its terms, pushing us closer to foreclosure. Our property ultimately did foreclose in December 2024.

Sarah has lost significant investor money across multiple asset types, and I don’t believe these losses are being fully shared with her investors. She was also involved in raising for a carbon capture fund that the SEC has since deemed a Ponzi scheme. With this track record, one has to ask: why is she still doing business?”

Sad story.

"She played no real role beyond bringing in investor money." 

This statement says it all.  She broke the law at the start.  Unless she was a registered and licensed (unlikely), she violated SEC regulations.  If SEC gets enough complaints about her, she might end up in jail.

Here are my thoughts:

- The interior pictures look good

- Why no pictures of the bathrooms?  Kitchens and baths are a big driver. Even though bathroom pictures tend to be boring, you want to know that part of the house matches the quality of the other parts.

- The house seems priced right based on bath / bedrooms / square feet.  However, the house is more rustic, something you play up in your post.  The gravel driveway is one thing.  Add to that a well / septic system and that turns off some people.  

- Is there a garage?  It doesn't appear so. That puts you at a disadvantage to other properties for rent in the area.

 - Compared with other houses for rent, the landscaping appears overgrown.  That one tall tree in front should probably be cut down, and others trimmed back.

 - I like that you highlighted the lack of a water bill.  Turn a potential negative into a positive.

 - The only other thing I see is that not all renters have a washer / dryer.  That might be something to think about.  You could always rent a set and have it installed.

In short, I would do some landscaping then retake pictures of the front, add bathroom pictures, then consider lowering your asking rent due to the lack of garage.  

Quote from @Colleen F.:

@Greg Scott Not in California but what we have done is an addendum removing the old roommate and adding the new one that is the sole term of the addendum and everyone signs including the leaving roommate.  This removes the old roommate access to the property as of x date. My lease states anything left or not retrieved by x agreed date is considered abandoned.  That likely leaves possessions if they all sign  between the roommates to deal with and most states have abandoned property laws on how long they have to keep stuff etc.   For the security deposit I have done it two ways, an agreement to transfer or a new deposit and return the old deposit to everyone minus deductions. Unless I get written agreement to separate and deduct from 1 person the security deposit check is written to all of them. Anyway not sure how any of this flies in California but the problem with the bad roommate still on the lease is access and conflict. Typically I have had to change locks but it also hasn't typically been amicable splits. Think it through, see what is possible and talk to your lawyer.

You said "not in California" but it wasn't clear what you thought I said was incorrect.  Some of your comments supported mine.  I'm curious what is different in CA.