All Forum Posts by: James H.

I agree that there is a lot of merit to talking to someone to get a "feel" for them, and this is something you can do if you don't have too many rentals to deal with where you can take the time. My instincts on my first two tenants based on conversation alone was correct, but I still get an application to verify past residences and work history. The application also is a place to keep their information all in one place so I can keep track of all the applicant's contact info.

It is not that much work and it did help screen out my first ever applicant that I might have approved based on my conversation with them. They were very good liars and verifying their application saved me from a bad experience and it really did not take that much time or work to make the phone calls.

I can't see people's body language on the phone or in emails. To me, that completes the picture of someone just as much as the words that come out of their mouth.

Congrats to Tom Goans, but I'm not even sure why you posted this in the first place. Are you recommending others follow your lead? Are you just tooting your horn? What is your point?

I have not heard the term "rent roll" before either. I would just ask your banker what she means by that and ask her what format she needs it in. You mentioned it was a "rent roll form". Maybe this is a specific bank form that you can down load form their website.

Haha, that made me laugh. And through email at that.

Easy answer:

Come to a verbal agreement with the seller.

Ask the lawyer on staff at your title company to draw up the contract (for a fee) and they will guide you through the rest.

Who cares if the due dates are close to each other if you have sufficient reserves? The rent payment and the mortgage payment should be completely independent of each other, financially, mentally and emotionally.

For example, on my mortgaged rental, I pay my mortage on a biweekly schedule - autodraft. The tenants still pay once a month (due on the 1st). Mortgage payments and rent payments use the same account. There is enough reserves to cover the mortage in the event of several missed rent payments and there is enough cashflow in the property that the account is continually building higher reserves despite the mismatched due dates.

You are trying to create problems with your tenants by imposing non-standard due dates in my opinion.

Unless you have more than 10 units with carpets, then a commercial cleaner and its upkeep would probably not be worth the hassle.

A good entry level carpet cleaning machine (carpet extractor) worth having will cost you around 1500-2000 bucks, used. Then you have to have chemicals which are not cheap. I think that rather than investing in a commercial carpet cleaner (which would be the only way to go in my opinion) it would be better to invest that money in better flooring.

I disagree that you would necessarily NEED a truck mounted rig to clean your carpets. Truck mounted rigs are almost always preferred, but speaking as someone who cleaned carpets with portable commercial units once upon a time. a portable commercial machine can get good results - it just takes longer. Red stains and such require special treatments regardless of truck mount or portable cleaning methods.

For practical purposes, I would hire someone with a truck mounted rig since it is questionalbe whether you could depend on someone with a portable to take the necessary time. Also, portable units can bring great initial results when a lot of soap is used, but the residual soap collects dirt right away and the carpet looks bad again real quick.

I think it is reasonable to estimate carpet life at 3-5 years.I would estimate one capeting per tunover myself, but I would not replace with carpet anyways.

Manuel, there are exceptions to everything. Congratulations on being exceptional.

I think interest rates are about 1 to 2 percent higher for loans 5 to 10 but not sure. Am only on mortgage no. 2 right now. Another question is where will interest rates be in 3 years? Nobody knows.

I don't think there is an easier way to get where you want to be. Maybe different ways such as rehabbing to fund buy and hold deals, but not easier. Not that I know of, at least.

Depends on how much money you have to start with. You are going to hit financing barriers between 4 to 10 4plexes and will have to look for higher interest rate alternatives beyond that.

Is it realistic to find two 4plexes per year at 20 percent equity? Not really if you stay local. Why would anybody sell something for 20% less than its value? Just because? No. So that means you need to bring value in through rehab (more money out of pocket to add to your 40K) or be able to close very quickly and/or not need financing at all.

Your plan is a good road map, but I would not expect it to happen unless you already have a bunch of money. Otherwise, I would expect it to take longer than 10 years.

This is just my opinion based on my own limited experience. I would say 20 years would be more realistic.

There is no need to fill yourself with such negative feelings on my behalf. You do not need to waiver and I don't need to be condecending in my comment either.

I think your unwaivering stance is a little naive if at least good intentioned. It is okay to see the truth for what it is - even when it is not attractive. Dawn A. makes very valid points in addition to Matt Devincenzo. There are exceptions in all cases, but the big picture is undeniable.

It's not like we are snickering around about it. As I said, I have poor friends and family. I myself lived paycheck to paycheck for a long time and know what my mentality was. It's just the facts of life. The poor people that I know do not have the time of day to hear about how to handle finances or get education. It goes in one ear and out the other. Mostly it bounces off the ear.