All Forum Posts by: Frank G.

Hello BP community, I'm panning a move away from the area where I currently have invested and I am trying to figure out what to do with my rental property that I have had for about 6 years now. The questions I am struggling to answer are: should I sell the property, contract a property manager, or continue to manage without? Should I try for a cash out refinance or leave as is?

Realtor recommended I hold onto it as long a possible if I can as the area is appreciating well, but not sure if I can/should since I think the numbers are pretty tight as far as handling the addition of management fees and and future potential reductions in rent.

I would use the cash out for improvements needed to the property and investing in new opertunities.

I have included some additional details on my specific situation and would love your thoughts or anything I may be missing.

Property type: single family townhouse

Current valuation from realtor: $270,000

Mortgage Ballance: $172,000

Current Interest rate: 4.75%

Current P&I: $1020.00 / mo

Escrow payment: $308.00/mo

HOA: $59.00/mo

Rent: $1750.00/mo

Cash out refinance Estimate:

New mortgage: $202,500.00

Interest Rate: 4.624

New P&I: $1041.00

Fees/costs for new loan: $2,300.00

Estimated cash out: $28,000.00

Thanks again!

I have a tenant that I have had for three years. I have always thought of her as a good tenant as the house had always been clean when visited in the past she paid the $50 maintenance call fees the couple of times I needed to address something she broke (window screens, clogged plumbing), and she has always paid rent on time every time.

Her contract is up on June 31st but we agreed to go month to month for one month ending on July 31, and that where the problems started. I informed her that I would be listing the property and begin showing it as we were within the 60 days stipulated by the contract, and she was fine with that (until the day came and she wanted me to reschedule my appointments). When I went to the property the night before just to confirm again, and to make sure my entry key still worked, I noticed hundred of cigarette butts all over the property. I was a little frustrated with this, but when I asked her to clean up before the showing, she did. Upon entry of the property the next day, I noticed numerous violations of our contract:

• She had two unauthorized cats (That destroyed blinds and carpet)
• She appear to have an unauthorized long term guest / sublet (There is a new bedroom set up in the basement with mail sitting on a table not addressed to anyone that signed the lease, but I have not seen these people)
• She had a full size hammock bolted to the ceiling of the master bedroom

My question is, since I only have 45 more days until she is scheduled to move out, should I send her a notice of violation for these items and that if they are not addressed, the contract will end, which based on Virginia law she has 22 days to address and if its not fixed after 30 days, from when she receives the notice, the contract will end. (This comes to about 10 days before she is schedule to move out anyways).

On the one hand I feel that she broke our contract and she must re-mediate the issues by removing the individuals or having them go through a background check  and add them to the lease, and remove the cats or sign a pet addendum / pay a pet fee / pet rent for her last month.

On the other hand I feel that she could make our lives more difficult then its worth to push the issue since she is moving out in 45 days on her own notice. Im not convinced that she would since she has always been willing to pay when she broke something in the past and I had to come fix it, but is it worth the chance?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Wow this is great, I don't think that I have every joined a forum where so many people have responded to the New member board its almost a little overwhelming haha...

@jj 

@JJ Conway It was great way to get into real estate investing and I would recommend it to anyone. Some friends recommended doing the same thing again, but I don't think we were ready to go back to living in a construction zone so soon.

@Carson Sweezy I am interested in attending! I appreciate your help.

@Vanessa K. Thanks! I am on the 66 side of Manassas.

@Reid Thompson Thanks for the welcome! I am really looking forward to digging into the tools and forums offered on biggerpockets and asking questions.

@Carson Sweezy I think I would like to try a REI meetup sounds like a good idea. how do I go about attending one?

Hello my name is Frank an I'm in the Northern Virginia area. My wife and I started our Real-estate journey a little over a two years ago when we bought our first townhouse. We purposely bought a property that was well under our budget and was a fixer-upper. We spent the following year slowly working on it until we got it where we wanted it to be. Once we had done that, we decided it was time to buy a SFH for us to live in as we wanted some more space. Since the numbers worked (rental income was more then our expenses) I convinced my wife that It would be a good idea to not sell the townhouse, but to keep it and rent it out, as I had seen through research that real estate could be a great investment vehicle. Fast forward to the present, and we have been landlords for just under a year and we have had a positive experience. We did our research when selecting a tenant and it paid off as they have been great, although the year has not been without its difficulties as we have dealt with burst pipes which caused a flooded basement, and A/C and electrical issues; but all in all we dealt with it in stride.

Sorry for being long winded, but I thought it would be a good idea to give a little background as to where Im coming from. 

I have been reading the forums and listing to the podcasts for a while now, and I am finally introducing myself because I want to joint the community here and gain more experience and insite into the world of real estate investing. I see the benefit for expanding our real estate portfolio, but we are kind of unsure how to continue. I am interested in fix and flip and buy and hold investing, and financing. Thanks!