All Forum Posts by: Graham Mink

Hi Everybody!

I have a question regarding tenant screening. I was contacted today by a Mental Health Professional about one of my units that is for rent. She is helping a young person with Mental Health issues find a place to live. I am not sure what issues the person has and I am not sure if I can even ask or if the "case worker" is allowed to tell me. This quasi-government agency will be paying the rent for them so that is not an issue. I am wondering how I go about screening this person? Am I allowed to ask questions about their mental health problems? Am I allowed to deny an application based on lack of this information or if I am not comfortable renting to them? I don't want to treat anyone unfairly or discriminate but there are also other tenants in the building that will be living next to them. Can anyone offer any guidance?

Thanks!

I'm in VT and I would love to get together with other Vermont Investors. Feel free to contact me if you find more people to get together.

I am a licensed Realtor and Vermont does not require one to be licensed in order to manage properties. Thanks for the heads up though!

I recently found out about a possible opportunity to manage 36 residential units for an out of state investor in a nearby town. The woman who is currently running them doesn't have the time anymore due to the fact she is going back to school and is looking for a replacement. She says she puts 10-12 hours a week into managing them but that she should probably be doing more. I am interested in the job but she told me that she wanted, and is paid, hourly for the work. I would rather be in a percentage based set up which she said is a possibility but that I would have to work out with the owner. I have managed my own properties for a long time but never someone else's so I am a little unsure about how much to ask for as compensation. My role would basically be to manage the subcontractors, maintenance, advertising, screening, showing, renting, collecting and evicting. What is the going rate for those types of services? I know the answer is probably "it depends" but I am looking for ballparks here. Any help would be appreciated. I am estimating the gross monthly rents at $36k. Thank you!

Will there be one this year?

From all accounts the 2012 Summit was a huge success. I would love the opportunity to attend one this year. A biennial conference would make a lot of sense, although I know the amount of work that goes into it is staggering. Is there anything the BP Community can do to help out?

Do you have any close friends or family members with good credit? If so, you can ask them to add you to one or all of their credit cards as an authorized user and you will quickly inherit a good credit history. It is called "piggybacking" I believe and it may work since all you need at this point is a credit score. There are also companies that will sell this service to you, but I guess it is fairly expensive. If you don't have access to someone else's credit then maybe you can partner with someone to buy something, or simply pay them to use their credit to secure a loan. If that doesn't appeal to you either then perhaps buying all cash, perhaps in a less expensive area, then financing the property after it "seasons" would be an option. Some banks allow 6 months of seasoning, others a year. Good luck!

I think $1600 sounds reasonable, but as previously stated costs tend to vary from place to place. I second the advice that the air sealing is theist important and time consuming part, and it shouldn't be skipped. If you can trust this contractor I would have them go ahead and do it. I have blown in insulation myself personally in 4 attics and it is not a fun job. It takes a day and has cost me about $500-700 each job. For $1600 to have everything sealed and blown sounds reasonable to me. Of course getting another estimate is prudent. Just make sure that you can trust the contractor doing the work. It's very easy to lie and say you sealed properly after everything is covered in a foot of cellulose. How is anyone going to check? Good luck!

Public records are public records, they should be accessible by you, regardless if you have a name or not. I would call a local attorney and ask how they handle it, or if what they are doing is legal. I would stop in and explain what you would like to do to the person behind the counter and ask what you have for options. If they won't help you maybe have an attorney contact them, or alert the media to the courts withholding public documents from the public, that might get their attention. But I would try the nice guy approach first.

The guy sounds like he might be a problem to me. I wouldn't buy the property with him living there, I like to pick my own tenants anyway. I would put an offer with a contingency that the property is vacant before closing. Good luck!

Steve Alexander to get back to your original post/question I would either find a partner to invest with, find deals where the owner will finance, or both. Where I invest it is a little hard, but not impossible, to find owner finance deals with great ROI and CoCR numbers. I am currently working on a potential deal where the owner will finance with 10% down. I wish I had your online cash flow! Can you write a book please?