All Forum Posts by: Ryan Redmond

Since we don't have an official lease or contract, I just want to make sure that if need be, I won't have to go through the courts or anything. I just need them to be gone by the time the 30 days are up, that's all. 

Oh, I've been through the wringer with them. They've cost me about $1100 in unpaid rents and one of them just quit his job to focus on school. In an effort to find a way to pay back some of this debt without cash, I suggested they take on the cleaning responsibilities. Every day the place is clean I take $10 off their debt. Seemed like I fair deal to me and they agreed. So I gave them both a simple and specific list with daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning duties. But from the start they half-assed that as well. Then I found out that one of them quit his job (without telling me) to focus on school, which hadn't even started yet, leaving the rent they were already struggling the pay to his girlfriend. At that point I realized without a doubt that paying rent just wasn't a priority to them. They clearly weren't taking it seriously.

I had given them multiple warnings and tried my very best to propose win-win solutions to our problems but it just hasn't worked out. I could go on and on with the details that lead to this but the final straw was definitely finding out that the guy had quite his job. 

So I've been living with a few tenants for about half a year now and I've finally had it with two of them. They haven't been following our agreement and, of course, have been consistently not paying rent. I should also note that we didn't have a formal written lease agreement so they're just living here month to month because these are friends. But now I'm tired of being taken advantage of so the other day I gave them a 30 day eviction notice. I also kept a copy for myself. I doubt they'll be difficult about moving out but in the event that they are, am I covered now? In the unlikely event that they were to be difficult, what would be my recourse? Could I simply call the cops and have them escorted from the premises for trespassing? I know it can be a pain to evict difficult tenants but does the fact that this is my house that I still live in make it any easier? 

And yes, I know I've made a plethora of stupid mistakes and this is all my fault. I have little doubt that I've induced a number of facepalms from just about everyone reading this. I've definitely learned some good lessons the hard way. 

Well, guys, I tracked down the owner of the property and it turns out that another investor beat me to it. He owns at least 13 properties and a self storage business in my area alone. Well played, Mr. Leroy Fox. Well played. 
At least I got some good experience tracking down a hard to reach property owner and got to run the numbers on a potential property. Thank you guys for your assistance. 

On to the next one!

Dave, I'm glad you said something because I was actually planning on calling you with some further questions about this. If I can't call today, I'll definitely call tomorrow. Thanks in advance, sir.

Thanks for all the great ideas. everybody. I'll be trying some of those ways to get in touch with the guy. And I'll make sure to keep people posted as this progresses (IF this progresses.)

Thanks again, everyone!

Well, it's only a 2 bedroom so wouldn't 1 bath be normal? In a 750 sq ft house I'd be surprised if there'd be unused potential for a second bath.

First things first- I need to get a hold of the nephew who seems to be the de facto owner. Besides talking to the other neighbors and leaving a note on the door, any good tips on finding home owners in a situation like this? After all, if he's not motivated to get rid of it then this is all just a fun hypothetical. But I suspect he doesn't like the situation he's found himself in and probably wants out. Here's hoping I'm right. 

I'm also concerned because even if he is able to fix it up and rent it out, I don't want an accidental landlord with no experience choosing my next door neighbors for me, as you all can probably understand.

Lots of good advice here! And yes, I've confirmed it's a 2 bedroom and it's supposedly paid off. While I believe that to be true, I still have to confirm that for certain though. I understand that small 2 bed/1 baths are typically difficult to sell quickly so I'm also considering the rental option. Since I'll likely be turning my current house into a rental in the Spring, it'd be awfully convenient to own another rental property right next door. However, unless I was to go the private financing route, I simply wouldn't have the capital to rehab a house myself yet. If all else fails, but I can get it under contract and the numbers work, I'll at the very least wholesale it. But going half and half with a probate investor sounds like it might be appealing too. Let no one ever say that the real estate business limits your options, right? haha 

I tried putting the info through the BP wholesale calculator but I'll need more accurate info to get a better idea of potential profits for interested investors. But if my current estimates are remotely correct, I'd have to offer about $20-25k to get an investor $15-20k profit from a flip, netting me about 3k. Keep in mind, these are very rough but conservative numbers.