All Forum Posts by: Gretchen P.

Don't know if you've tried FirstBank, but they are very investor-friendly, I haven't done this but have a property I hope to refi next year.

@JamesCarlson - interesting ... furnished traveling nurse rental, should those be near hospitals? I have a 3 unit property (1/1 house, 1/1 apartment and 3/2 house) within walking distance to a CO Springs hospital, and I keep thinking I should furnish one unit. 

No Ray, we didn't. I didn't want the wife finding out and ending up with a crime scene on our hands.

@JustinK, at least she'd make rent. ;-). 

I completely forgot  20 years ago, when we became accidental landlords, we had a couple look at an apartment we were renting. They were Russian, and she was about 25, was wearing a full-length mink, and very attractive. He was short, portly and about 40 years older. They didn't share a last name. He would be paying for her rent, and it was to be all cash, one year upfront. We guessed it was a little love nest away from his wife. 

My listing says "only small dogs", a potential tenant called to say her Weimaraner was 50lbs ... so small for a Weimaraner. The listing also says "no smoking of any kind" ... potential tenant's Facebook and instagram have marijuana-related photos in the banner. Duuuuuude, I have Google. 

Overall it doesn't sound like a home-run, but it certainly isn't a dog either. Maxing out your rents is the best strategy now, so do some renovations that make it a little nicer than others in your area, but be careful too. You could save some money by managing it yourself for now. 

I have a house/cottage property in the Springs and close on another one today. Rents are rising, and if you make sure the property is in good shape upfront and find good tenants, you should have very little management. To give you a perspective the house/cottage property was purchased in March, for $212K, I renovated the front house and did some landscaping and exterior work for 18K, and get $995 for the cottage and $1175 for the front house. The property that closes today was $280K and I expect to put around $20K in improvements, rents should be around $3275/mo total for 3 units. Both were 20% down at 4%. Tenants pay water/sewer/electric, I pay trash.  Good luck. 

Thought I'd update everyone. The title company considered the agreement a title matter and issued a title exception. We didn't close, but extended. It turns out the seller was unaware that we didn't see the agreement, he is a lovely man, has owned the property for 30 years, and at a point in his life that he doesn't want to be a landlord any more. His realtor failed to produce the agreement at the off-records title matters deadline, or at any other time before we realized it existed (it is unclear when he got it). The seller is working with the neighbor to install a tap and new lines, which will cost 25K+ and is now on the hook for our legal fees. 

In Colorado, Realtors, not lawyers, handle most matters related to real estate contracts. I am incredibly thankful we have the most amazing, knowledgeable realtor imaginable. She is connected to everyone and knew the direct contacts at the utility company, county, title company, utilities, etc. immediately. Her main priority was to protect our earnest money and to bring the deal to a conclusion, because we do really like the property. 

Thanks, yikes 10K!

Are there other online rent collection companies that automatically add late charges?

I had some minor delays with eRentpayment, that said, compared to tracking renter's checks and trying to collect late fees, waiting for checks to clear, it was worth the $3 per transaction, but this thread is making me nervous. 

Has anyone out there not been paid at all, or do you have reason to believe the company is in trouble? 

Yes Matt, see my post above, I noticed that too. Luckily the only issue I had was a slight delay on my October payments, which due to travel I didn't notice until after the fact, but they have been reliable other than that for me. That said, I don't think I would have recommended them as others seem to have had issues.

Do you know of another service that has similar features, no partial payments, automatic late fee collection, etc?