All Forum Posts by: Josh Prince

Hi @Nick Jones - It is hard to find a good buyer's agent as an investor for a number of reasons.  

If you are just looking for comps, your best bet might be to just use redfin or loopnet to find your own comps. Both allow you to search closed listings with a number of restrictive perimeters (geographic, size, price, etc.) Loopnet will charge you a few dollars to access that kind of listing, but if you are really ready to buy, its a minor cost.  

It is also hard to find a decent buyer's agent because most of them work with regular customers, or they buy properties themselves.  As @Brett Synicky says, if it is not clear that you are going to close the deal, what is going to motivate them to spend time with you.  There are a lot of buyers out there in this market.  If you are comfortable with your offers, you might want to write using the listing agent, and if you close a deal with him or her, they will be happy to send you more deals going forward.  That is the real unicorn, IMO, getting agents to feed you their listings before they go on market.

Hi @Dave Kay - In my experience if you are getting a traditional residential mortgage, the fact that the building is vacant/occupied/paying/not paying/etc is not that important. They lender is underwriting YOUR individual ability to satisfy the loan obligation and the appraised value of the property as collateral.  I generally find that lenders will not take the rental income of the property into account - unless you can provide multiple years of financial statements on the property and then they hit it with a big expense and vacancy factor that usually makes it less helpful.

In a commercial loan, the rents, and the fact that one tenant is not paying and about to get evicted is much more important as they evaluate the financials of the property itself.

All that being said, I don't think it will cause a big problem if you are otherwise approved for the loan.  It sounds like you knew the tenant was not paying, you just didn't know how long the delinquency had been ongoing.  If you can acknowledge your understanding of the facts in writing, I would think the seller would be satisfied, and would not need to enter the eviction filing into escrow, whatever that means. 

As other BP members have mentioned, this is a good opportunity to try to negotiate a price reduction as it is a materially different fact that was represented to you prior to escrow.  If you think the deal can stand a reduction, go for it - on the other hand, if you really have a great deal here, I would just try to close it - there are other buyers out there looking for 4 unit properties, even with a nonpaying tenant. 

@Jay Hinrichs 

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you offering another view of the "amazing risk-free high yield turnkey out of state deals" that we Southern California investors have dangled in front of our faces.  Of course I don't know anything about real estate in Memphis (or Dallas-Ft. Worth, or really any other market other than my local one) and the truth is subjective, but its good to hear something other than pie in the sky stories. So many people on BP are selling TK deals that sound so good that I don't understand why they aren't buying them themselves. 

@Account Closed - those numbers sound like the kind of deal I find around here.  Markets out here are just so different.  Congratulations on getting the deal.

Hi @Andrew Werner 

 - Welcome!  I think you are on the right track with trying to follow the new train lines in LA - however, I am not sure if there will be many deals available there as many people have had the same idea and I suspect the smart money got into it back when the lines were just a plan sitting in the city hall basement.  However, I think there are always deals to be had if you look hard enough!

Hi @Raquel L. 

I was wondering how your AirBNB was going?  I am considering this with a property in Echo Park and I would like to hear about your experience!  How have the revenues been vs. renting it to long term tenants?  Would you do it again?  Any tips for new AirBNB landlords?

Thanks, 

Josh

@Francis A. 

It depends if you want to rent to section 8 or not.  If you don't, you can tell prospective tenants, or put in your ad that you do not accept section 8.  If you are willing, then I don't think you need to be pre-approved.  Section 8 does an inspection, which is pretty basic - no double-cylinder locks, no obvious vermin, etc. If you pass, then you enter into a section 8 contract.

As for saying no pets, you can say that you don't accept pets, but as you probably already know, without citing the sections of the federal (ADA) , California state (FEHA) , and municipal laws (I am sure there are some LAHCID regs on this), I will just say that you cannot legally discriminate against disabled tenants who have service animals by claiming it violates your a no pet policy.  

Service animals are not pets and if you refuse to rent to a potential tenant based on their disability and their service animal you are opening yourself up to substantial liability.  Even if you discourage or "chill" a potential tenant by saying "no pets" when they ask about a service animal, that could be actionable.  Civil rights lawyers or fair housing groups will often take cases in borderline situations like this assuming that they will be able to find more evidence of bad behavior as the case goes on.

Edit: craigslist probably flagged no pets as they have a dog/cat button on the post that you check or not.

@Matt Mason - in this situation I don't think she would take a buy out.  It is an old widow who is part of a tight ethnic community in the area.  Her husband used to own the property, and basically when her husband died and her relatives took control and tried to kick her out (as she had no rights to stay), but her lawyer was able to outmaneuver her relatives and have her declared a tenant at this ridiculous rent. Then the relatives were annoyed and decided to sell.  I bought knowing all this and that she would never leave.  I just figured it to be one unit smaller than it actually is for income purposes (it's a 15 unit building otherwise). 

I don't mind rent control that much.  Sure there are some crazy situations, like the tenant renting one of my units  for $106 per month which is about 1/20 of what it would go for on the market, or the other tenant in another building paying about $340 for a $1500 unit, but those are exceptions rather than the rule.  

And anyhow, the deals in LA that have made the most sense to me are rent controlled properties with upside -where the current owner cannot or will not deal with it, but I can.

We recently started playing board games again as adults and found there is a whole world of European (or Euro) style board games that are a lot more fun and sophisticated without being too complex.  In Germany and other European countries, board games are very popular among adults - without being considered nerdy.  

Generally the games do not have much luck (rolling dice, etc) and they are fun to play the whole way through - unlike Monopoly which can get pretty boring after a few go-rounds the board and there is a clear dominant player.

A good first one to try is called Settlers of Catan - it was the first Euro board game to be popular in the US.   it is a lot of fun to play with another couple or a group after dinner. Of course, I still like Monopoly and Risk, but that is more for sentimental value.

Hi @Joseph Davis - Welcome!  Koreatown is a popular area for investors.  I would be interested to hear about any good multifamily or commercial deals you come across.