All Forum Posts by: Matt Gdowski

Joshua,

  Three's not enough.  You've got to find the right match, and we are pretty sure that involves talking with a lot of banks.  Just call, explain who you are and what you want to do, and super nicely, ask to speak directly with the right person that's the decision maker.  You'll usually get a lot of frank no's in the subsequent conversation, but you can move on to the next bank real fast.  30 minutes, tops, promise.

To do this, you need a list of banks:
- Start with the references above, of course!
- Is your rental a condo?  If so, talk with the COA board, or accounting staff (if those exist...), and ask them if they know of any other suitable banks.  Often times they know because they've seen the paperwork on other rental owners.  Alternately, they might be able to provide contact information on those rental owners.  If it's SFH, try the HOA.
- Do you use a realtor in Meridian?  Does that realtor have suggestions or do they know other owners in Meridian that you could talk to to get a reference?  If not, I'm sure you can find an investor friendly one here.
- Can you just find, online, a list of small, locally owned banks in Meridian, and call them one by one?

We hit this problem months ago with a remote condo that we knew was a cash cow.  Local banks weren't interested even when shown the numbers because the remote location was a risk to them. Remote banks weren't interested because the property was smaller....until we found the right remote bank that ALREADY knew it was a cash cow, knew the area, and were as excited to partner with us as we were with them! This took us 1.5 days and calling probably 12 banks...it actually gets sort of fun after a while, you get a "patter" going.

Bonus:  When you get shot down, ask WHY.  Most times it's out of your control - but sometimes it's a completely fixable problem, like you need to put more % down, or they want you to sign personally on the paperwork.

Don't give up!  Good luck!

--Matt

Diego,

I thought your post was pretty intriguing - you might want to talk with QED property in England, https://www.qedproperty.com/.  They built a 5 story, 36 unit complex to house the homeless, back in 2014, so I'd think they would have xp with holding multis of this size and type.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-en...

--Matt

Matt - Funny, I just watched this one.



Buy and Hold Real Estate—What Works and What Doesn’t with Tim Shiner | BP Podcast 221

Derek,  

I've done this in the past.  I'm not sure of your goal - are you trying to purchase tax liens in Jefferson County?  Or find owners of properties?

Regardless, I suspect you would probably be far better served if you used Tax Master instead of getting the list off the FTP site.  Here's a quick and dirty tutorial for Tax Master:

1) Go here:  http://jeffersoncountyclerk.or...
2) Click on Login in bottom right (you'll log in as name 'Guest', password 'Guest')
3) This will take you to a Lookup screen.  Don't enter anything, and click on Search in the bottom right.
4) Give the system a minute.  A megalist of properties with delinquent taxes will come up.
5) Change the 'Display 10 records per page' in the top right to 500.  Click on Search.  Wait.  Same list but easier to click through.
6) Note the Amount Due and Amount Paid columns.  I would guess you're looking for properties that have tax due where no one (owner, third party buyer) has paid any of it off?  Look for properties with Amount Due > 0 and Amount Paid = 0 then.  Click on ones of interest.

I will say the officials that work in the office downtown are great and will walk you through it if you show up in person.  Do explain that you're new and want to learn.  Remember they frequently have to deal with owners coming in that are upset over taxes, so being extra friendly will help.  If you get an official that really assists you, filling out a positive comment form for them is like gold.  There used to be a big box near the entrance for comment forms, I would assume it's still there.

--Matt

I'm assuming these are tin/bronze ceiling tiles ?

1) Ebay for originals, search for "vintage ceiling tiles", Amazon for possible new replacements.

2) Don't know if this will work for your situation, but let's say you have 3 rooms with the same tiling, and each room needs replacements. Take down ceiling tiles in the smallest room, replace with drywall or another new pattern. Use original tiles from smallest room as replacement for the other 2 rooms. If each room has different tiling, or if it's impossible to get it down without major damage, this won't work of course....seen this trick done with old exterior siding.

3) Any neighbors renovating too?  There's the possibility that nearby properties have the same tiling on the ceiling, and maybe they aren't as interested as you in keeping the original look.

4) Property have an attic or basement?  Any salvageable ones tucked away there?

Here's a couple possibilities that have helped me in the past:

- Are the tax bills are being sent elsewhere? 

- Talk to the neighbors.  Usually they aren't thrilled about living next to a place with grass that's two feet high, and sometimes they have contact or forwarding information.  

- Public court records, particularly if the owners have a unique first or last name.  This can reveal a legal counsel's name that might be easier to find too.  (Not sure how free or available this is in Florida, sorry.  Varies greatly per county here.)  Some records reveal an upcoming eviction with the property address.

-  Facebook, especially if unique first or last name.  They're probably on Facebook, and some relative of theirs is on Facebook if they're not.  Few people lock things down, so it's usually a lot of private data.  You can usually glean some details on contacting them, and if you're really lucky, they'll post a phone # or data on their new job, which you can then find.

It depends on the work you need to complete and the state and local ordinance the property is located in.  Start with the city's building commission and talk with them.  The larger the city, the more probable it is you will have to get a licensed contractor to do the job and deal with multiple inspections.  The smaller the city, the more likely you'll be dealing with few rules and loose inspections.

Usually a building commission is staffed with crew that are willing to help out beginners; call them and explain what you're thinking about and they can explain process.  Some, like this example (https://cityofjeff.net/building-commission), clearly lay out what's allowed and what require a license. 

When in doubt, assume HVAC, gas, elec, plumbing should be done by a licensed pro and budget accordingly.

Rene - Since you're just starting out, I would recommend reading 'Landlording: A Handymanual for Scrupulous Landlords and Landladies Who Do It Themselves'.  This is a tome, but it's worth the read, and answered many of my questions when I started out.

Biggest key is screening your potential tenants, and filtering out all the crew with bad records as early as possible.  Your tenants will be 95% of your success or failure.  Review their eviction histories, background records, credit histories.  Check out the state of their current place if possible.  The shape it's in now will be the shape your property eventually.

Have you given thought to who is going to manage the property - as in, who will take the phone call when something that is both important and urgent (say, the furnace in December) breaks?  Does that 'needs lots of updates' extend to, say, the state of the roof or the water heater?  This might increase the frequency or urgency of those calls, so might consider updating a few things.  Fresh paint and new carpet can go a long way for both potential renters and potential buyers of course.

You could be right on the rent qualifications, I have no clue of your market.....but rather than assume there will be no tenants, try scrolling around in Zillow in your area for a bit *as a renter*, and checking out what's currently for rent for a 3/2, if anything.  This should give you some idea of what properties can really rent for in your market.  I have not found that Zillow's 'monthly rental cost' data on a single house to be too helpful or on point, as a warning.  

Best of luck.  Yes, you can do this.  Keep asking questions and reading.  Personal experience is a great teacher but a very, very expensive one.