All Forum Posts by: Gary Robert Burnham Jr.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $415,000
Cash invested: $50,000

"For Sale By Owner" purchase. GRB Properties Picked this one up put the work in and have great tenants in there. Purchased this home in an expensive rate market but rents are also up. The numbers make sense so I buy.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Its where all my investments are I know the area well

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

for sale by owner and called the owner directly

How did you finance this deal?

HELOC and then cash out refi

How did you add value to the deal?

rehabbed the units to modern standards

What was the outcome?

tenants love the place and so do i

Lessons learned? Challenges?

be patient keep working

Hello everyone,  Recently I had a situation where the main pipe in back of the kitchen sink had a crack in it.  Long story short with further investigation come to find out the pipe was cracked all the way up to the 3rd floor.  All the scheduling back and forth a few bang on the door no one home's from my service techs and the repair is finally done but it took two weeks to get all 3 service techs coordinated properly with the tenants etc.  I was on the service techs butts the whole time overcommunicating with the tenants......Now here comes the text from one of the tenants...."hey we have had a frustrating past two weeks with no kitchen sink etc....."  We feel we deserve a discounted month?  Do you feel the same?  We feel we should be credited a portion of the rent for the month due to the lack of use of the kitchen sink?  My response while I understood the frustration was simply "NO"  and I compared it to other things in life that cause some inconveniences.  Does your car payment go down for the month if your car is in the shop for unexpected repairs?  Does your cell phone bill get discounted if you crack the screen and cant use it for a week?  End of the day tenant is paying the full amount and I feel they should.  How do some of you guys handle these asks from your tenants?  

good information here thank you.!

I’m with you.  I always meet them in person as well 

I used to just ask an extra security deposit on a dog or a cat.  Over time I realized I would be losing out on extra income if I simply charged a pet fee instead.  Im curious to hear from other investors out there if they are charging a pet fee, extra security deposit, or both and if so how much are they charging.  With my properties I am charging an extra $25 per pet per month.  

great insight joe and thanks for that information.  

In the 12 years being a property manager of my own properties I have meet some great tenants.  I have also turned away some potentially great tenants because they simply did not have enough cash to move into my units despite 750 credit scores and ended up taking vacancy for a month.  I started asking myself why I was turning away these people simply because they didnt have enough cash to move in at the time.  So instead of turning these people away I simply work with them.  Lets say my 2 bed rents for $1500 here in West Hartford, CT.  I need a total of $18000 in the 12 months they are renting.  What I did was make the rent light in the beginning first 3 months, added more in the next 3 months......etc......This way it helped my 750 credit score tenant get the security deposit back from the previous apartment and get comfortable in the unit with my property.  Is it somewhat risky, yes....but I'll take a 750 and great person all day and bet on them then taking vacancy.  Any other ideas let me know but I found an escalating lease to work great when a great tenant is light no cash to move in.  

So...If you have been a property owner for long enough in the colder climates its inevitable that the call comes in during the sub freezing temps.  "Hey I noticed water pourring into the unit from above can you get here now to help."  Not sure if anyone has experienced this but I have a couple times and that call makes my stomach turn over and my palms sweaty.   I used to race over there as fast as I could speed dialing my plumber hoping he picks up to ask him what to do before they can get over there to stop the water!  As I am driving the internal cash register we all have just simply keep ringing cha-ching......not to mention the possibility of ruining the tenants stuff.   Finally after a couple of these calls its super important to stay home and instruct the tenant what to do.  Heres what I do now.....STAY HOME AND DIRECT THE TENANT TO TURN THE MAIN WATER VALVE OFF IN THE BASEMENT!!  Just simply turn the water off to the whole house.  This will stop all the water in the house.  Yeah you will get calls from the other tenants whats going on.  Just explain to them what happened and I promise you no one is going to be upside down about it.  This has helped me and is the protocol moving forward. Train all tenants where the valve is in the basement and use a spray paint can or some sort of sign with an arrow to show them where the valve is.  You can even tell them what direction to turn the valve in to shut it off.  Do not assume anything.  

1. Tell the tenant to go into the basement 

I finished the units and have awesome tenants in this property. Took me about 6 months to get it to where I needed it to be. Cash flow financed 70/30 LTV is approx $1500 / mo. Very solid property

my mistake the website is usalandlord.com