All Forum Posts by: Filipe Pereira

Hey @Dean DeMattia, congrats on getting started! My second property was a house hack, and it's treated me VERY well. After two and a half years of it, I'm putting an end to it this spring though. I'm looking forward to having my house be my HOME, and I'm in a financial position where I can finally afford to not have housemates. 

Stamford is a tough market to get into for real estate investing, but buying a Single family that you will house hack certainly makes it doable!

What's next for you?! 

@Jake Belden also consider Marlene Jung. She’s a CPA with almost 30 years of experience, and an active real estate investor. I have not used her services, but she did a presentation for our group and had great tips for us. She is located in Avon, CT. (860) 677-6001

Water and sewer look accurate @Sadierose Saucier , but I think your trash costs are way high. I would certainly shop that rate around. Is there a town option? I know some of the towns in CT we manage properties have it included in the taxes, but other towns (Windsor) require you to deal with the waste company directly. 

COZY is so easy, free and simple to set up, I really think you'd be doing yourself a disservice by NOT doing it. Plus, before you know it, 1 tenant becomes 2, which becomes 5, 10, 12, 15, etc. At 15 you will be SO thankful for the systems you set up at "only 1"! 

It's seamless in the sense that tenants can auto schedule it, and you can even charge late fees from cozy. Plus, it makes you look that much more professional, if that's something you're concerned about!

The sooner that you let go of the idea that you should be the one doing the repairs, the better your life will get, and not to mention, much easier! On a typical week, 90-95% of my time is spent in the office, with the exception of leasing. Your contractors will be the lifeline of your business, so treat them well, that's the only way you will have any sanity!

Hi @Stephanie Szeto, I run them based on renting by the room, because I plan on living in it. If I moved out I would probably switch it to a SFR and rent it out to one family. I'm not a big fan of renting out bedrooms in a sfr, as it can become quite messy with who claims ownership in the common areas.

Simply put, most single family homes in most markets don't make sense as viable rentals unless rented by the room. Some PM firms will take that on, but we generally try to stay away from it. There's also potential zoning concerns with this, as your town may see it as a rooming house which comes with special requirements.

@Samarth Patel 

You should be running an analysis before you even visit the property for a showing. Know the neighborhoods you want to invest in, find properties that are for sale or potential leads, then run your numbers. If the numbers work go look at the place. If the numbers don't work, you just saved an hour of your time in terms of having to go look at the property.

You may also think about switching to a video walkthrough method for your contractors. Do a 5 minute video of the house, and ask them to look it over. That will save at least 30 minutes to an hour of travel time for them and you may find that they would be willing to discount what they would charge you for a loose quote in terms of rehab numbers.

Thank you @Jonah Kolsrud!

By the way, I see that both of us are based in Windsor Locks, CT. Let's get together sometime and grab a coffee!

As to your question about the chatbots, they are usually a subscription-based service. Not many things in the tech world can be purchased once and only once anymore unfortunately.

@Angelika Roerig happy it helped you!

Inherited tenants is by far the tenants who give us the most run for our money. I think our screening methods are so good, that without sounding boastful, when we get a tenant that someone else screened - or worse, didn't - they just don't match up to our standards. 

Too bad so sad is unfortunately probably the best option here for you. We are pretty adamant about not having dogs in the properties we rent out, but I also understand that some landlords see it as a profit center. I guess if you plan to live there long-term or long enough that you don't move in somebody else who doesn't have a dog to replace you, it probably won't be the end of the world. 

The thing about some dogs is that they bark endlessly and for no reason. For someone who doesn't have a dog they may not understand that and it can be a point of frustration for them. If you are going to be open to renting to tenants with dogs long-term, then obviously it's fine to offer that to the current tenants.

You're overthinking it. Even if things are clunky at the beginning that's totally acceptable and to some extent expected with a transfer of ownership. Things don't have to be perfect as much as people make it out to be here on BiggerPockets. I would potty train the tenant into getting the mindset of paying the rent online, so I would present an option like cozy as you first option and see what s/he says.

It could be wrong @Bruce Lynn, but if this is anything but a buy and hold, he should consider fixing it. In most areas the local MLS will want to go by what is on county records, so if @Ken Hui is thinking about flipping this, it would actually be in his interest for it to be 4 bedrooms on the assessor's card (if it is actually 4 BR). 

Obviously if it's his personal residence, there's a valid argument to keep it hushed, lol. No one but the entire BP community needs to know! ;)