All Forum Posts by: Garrett Christensen

Yeah, I think we're all a little biased to where we currently invest. I've liked the Heber Valley. Prices are higher, but rents are very high as well. Although, rents are starting to plateau all over Utah, if not come down, so just be cautious of that while running numbers.

They tend to go heavily off of the Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR). So how much capital you need will largely depend on the deal. Most lenders want to see at least a 1.25 DSCR. As far as reserves go, they would love to see 6 months, but that doesn't mean they won't do the deal without it right out of the gate. They will look at your net worth and current reserves and tell you what they require.

Commercial lending is kind of the Wild West when compared to residential mortgages. That's not a bad thing though, a lot of the time it can be helpful.

Short answer is that I'm not sheltered. I'm not an attorney so I'm not a pro at all of this, but I've heard that even if it's in an LLC they can still come for everything. You must set it up in a proper way in order to reap all the liability protection benefits.

As far as college goes I think it's still worth it. And that's coming from someone who studied mechanical engineering and is now a realtor. You learn a lot of problem-solving skills that still get used even if you're not working in that specific field. You also meet a lot of people in college that can lead to future opportunities (That's what happened to me and eventually got me into real estate). Also, being a college athlete is a great thing on a resume. 

As far as your plan to house hack while in college goes, it's a great idea. That's one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't start in college. Live in the dorms for one year while you save and then purchase the property. 

Hope this helps. 

Obviously I haven't seen your rental agreement so I can't say for sure, but the answer is likely yes. The tenant's obligation is to pay the rent in full each month, if that is not done then a late fee applies. If your agreement is written such that the fee is a percent of the late portion of the rent then you would need to only charge the partial late fee. 

The most important thing is to have a good line of communication with the tenant and see what their plan is. You can then act accordingly. 

A lot of people still just keep them in their own name. My properties are kind of a mixed bag of LLCs and my personal name. If you wanted to put it in an LLC you can typically just do a quit claim deed. You probably have a "Due on sale clause" in your loan agreement and technically transferring it to an LLC could trigger that, but it rarely happens. Let me be clear though, it could.

Basically, anytime you see a residential property owned by an LLC it means this happened as there are few lenders willing to give a residential mortgage loan to a business unless that business has a credit history.

We manage 150 units and use Rentec Direct. Works great for a lot of that stuff. Listing is still done manually for the most part, they syndicate out to a few places, but we have to still list it on Zillow, Rentler, etc. 

It's likely that these people wouldn't appear on services like applycheck for the same reason of not having a social. Most of the time prospective tenants without socials don't haven't ever applied for a line of credit, they have always used cash. The service might catch a few things, but I would recommend just doing a, for lack of a better term, manual screening. This means getting references of multiple past landlords and employers and calling them all. Landlords especially. You probably already do this, but you might just have to go more in depth. Here are some examples of questions to ask.

1. Employment-related questions:
   • How long has the applicant been employed with your company?
   • What is their current job title and role?
   • Can you confirm their income or salary?
   • Have they been reliable in terms of attendance and punctuality?
   • Can you give me an example of a time they exhibited professionalism and a good work ethic?
   • Would you consider them trustworthy and responsible?
2. Rental history-related questions (for past landlords):
   • How long did the applicant reside at your property?
   • Can you confirm how much the pay for rent?
   • Did they pay their rent on time consistently?
   • Did they give proper notice before moving out?
   • Were there any complaints or issues during their tenancy?
   • Can you give me an example of a time they maintained the property well?
   • Can you give me an example of a time they didn't respect the rules and regulations of the property?

I'm actually moving away from pulling credit and running background checks as it has failed me in the past. There are many people out there with bad or no credit that can make great tenants. I also find that open-ended "Can you give me an example" questions teach you a lot more about the perspective tenant than anything else. 

You probably do a lot of this already, but I hope it is still helpful, or at least helpful to someone with less experience than you. Good luck!

I recently got an email from Openphone saying the following. I think this is what you're referring to.

"Good news: The Campaign Registry has processed your application, and you now have Low Volume Standard status. This means you’re officially registered to send text messages to US numbers, which can help with deliverability."

I think this means I'm good as long as I don't do high-volume text blasts.

I would say go for it. I have one property where a company pays their employees rent and it's great. Now it's a much smaller company, so our lease agreement didn't change at all. That would be one thing you would want to check. Are they wanting you to sign their own agreement? If so, make sure you review it very thoroughly and ideally with an attorney. Also, make sure it's the company is signing the lease as a guarantor not just the employees. Sounds like it could be a great opportunity. Just make sure you review everything thoroughly.