All Forum Posts by: Jay Orlauski

thanks Steve - that's the kind of stuff I was wondering about. What about some kind of certification after repairs? does the city need to sign off with a special fire inspector and some kind of reinstatement forms or how does that work?

I was wondering if anyone here has done anything with burnt units. I recently came across a 4-plex with fire damage - from the pictures , it does not appear to be too horrific, however , I have yet to look at the property in person. I was wondering what kind of issues to expect from a burn situation - things like water damage, permits, blueprints, regulatory compliance, etc - that sort of thing. I used to know a construction guy that specialized in burnt homes and you wouldn't believe the homes he worked on ever had a fire - by the way, the 4-plex is selling for $40k and is in a decent area ( not the best part of town , but certainly not the ghettos either) anyhow, was just looking for some thoughts on the subject - thanks in advance

wow... completely opposite of when I was there ... of course that was 18 years ago. I was very close to buying and renovating mobile homes in Killeen to rent out to soldiers and families. I guess it just goes to show, the environment can change drastically and turn around on you.

also great advice about looking out for closing bases, which happens more often than people think about.

One of the things I like about MFR vs SFR is with an SFR you take a chance that one vacancy actually means 100% vacancy, or if they are late, you need to pay their rent. With a MFR, if one tenant leaves or is late, than you are not 100% exposed. Also , trying to evict a sticky tenant from an SFR could set your cash flow back by several months.

Moguls

When I lived in ft.Hood located in Killeen, Tx , there was a year long waiting list to get on base housing and most apartment complexes had a three month waiting period because there were so many soldiers that needed housing. I remember thinking at the time that getting a rental complex would have been a great idea if I had the money. I imagine it has to do with how large the base is - ft Hood is the largest base in the U.S. ) 330 sq miles) so there was quite a market for renters at the time. Not sure what the condition is like these days, but that was my observation of a military town.

you can make the contingency of the offer upon the inspection of the property - then if you have multiple acceptances , you can decide which property you like - the others do not meet your inspection criteria and therefore there is no deal. I had about 8 -9 offers out at once, but never had two accepting at the same time, but I had the contingencies so I would be covered.

I have to agree with Jon , that living next door to your tenants is a bum deal. On one hand , you can keep an eye on your tenants. On the other hand, you can keep an eye on your tenants. in other words, they never go away and you are mixing life styles. Also , if you get to know them too well, you may fall into the trap of being too lenient on late rents and what not, since you start to develop more of a relationship with them. I do my best to avoid my tenants unless it for maintenance purposes. But like Jon says, I am compromising my home, instead of optimizing it for the best rent.

I can say this much though, for the price of the triplex your looking at , I could have bought three of them. Do people really pay $3400/ month to rent someplace? That would be a pretty hard sell here in Fresno, obviously you are somewhere where even considering these numbers must be feasible , it's just hard to imagine. If one tenant is late, you will be paying their rent for them , so you may want to have a few month of mortgage payments set aside.

I am in California and would like to classify my triplex as a senior living project. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in making your rental apartments into a senior living apartments so that you can rent to seniors only and not worry about discrimination of younger people or people with children. I was wondering what paperwork should be filed or if any special changes to the property might be required. Thanks in advance.

of course I let her know that deposit does not count as the rent , but she got short timers disease. In any case, I had another face to face with her. She was moving some more things pout so I approached her and tried to nail down a day when she would be completely out. She would not commit to a day , but admitted that she would definitely not be out by the weekend - she went to on say that I'm bullying her , and I kicker her out at the worse time , and she had no help and was trying to do all on her own etc, etc. I offered to assist her in moving the items out , but she said that she did not want to ask me. I assured her that my offer was legitimate and that i could see she is moving out , but I know she is not sleeping there, and cannot simply use the place for storage cause it's more convenient for her. we agreed that whatever was not out by Friday I would help move into the garage , where she could take a another week or so to get everything completely out,

That night I got a call from another tenant.. she has a truck there and is clearing out the garage. I went over the next day and the apartment was completely empty , except for some empty shoe boxes and a boxspring/mattress. I left her message thanking her for clearing out the place and what would she like to do with this bed?

the garage still has her lock on it so we are cleaning up the apartment this weekend and if she has not returned my calls by monday , well, I will have to get into the garage on my own to store the mattress. Thats about where it stands right now.