All Forum Posts by: Kristyn Grimes

Quote from @Guy Gimenez:

Yes, anyone can fraudulently file a lien on real estate in Texas and it becomes your problem. The staff at the real property records section of the county clerk's office are not able to determine the validity of a lien. This is why construction contracts should be air tight and include binding arbitration and contractual POA authorization so you, as seller, can release the lien without the contractor's signature. And always get "progress" and "final" lien waivers that are in the statutory format. Attorney fees alone to file the suit and attend court will likely be $10K+...and possibly considerably more if the contractor shows up to court.

1.  Do you have a 1st lien mortgage on the house? 

2.  Any other liens outside the mechanic's lien?

3.  Any taxes owed from 2022?  

 Guy, I really appreciate your insight into the contractual area. I'm incredibly lucky this time around that the contractor was a terrible record keeper and didn't understand some required documentation rules including having a signed contract from both owners since my husband and I both own the property. He got sigs from neither of us. I'll be googling those contact components you mentioned for sure. :)

1. Yes, the bank whom financed the purchase. 30yr adjustable, hence the desire to sell lol

2. No

3. No

Hey y'all, it's been a while. So I finally got my money pit flip under contract. As it turns out, in the state of Texas, any unscrupulous d-bag can place a mechanics Lane on your home. And does not even have to follow property code rules to do so. Long story short, I had a contractor quote me 22,000 in repairs to finalize and make turnkey and was paid 19,150 before he dropped off the face of the earth. We tried from October 2022 until December 2022 to call, text, and email for completion status (unfinished projects abounded) with no return whatsoever. Then a few days before Christmas 2022, we get an email with an invoice for an additional 18,000 for projects he was never asked to do and or did not complete in the previous months. We tried to return his email and phone him again to discuss the invoice and unfinished projects with no answer. We assumed that if he really wanted his 22,000, he would get in touch.

Subsequently, we ended up finishing up some of the projects ourselves and listed it for sale in February 2023 and finally when under contract the middle of July 2023. The title company returned to us a few days later that there is a mechanics lien on the property for 22,000. We provided an attorney with all of our documentation: emails, texts, a copy of the recorded lien the title company provided, the unrecorded lien we received at the beginning of July in regular post out of the blue, and invoices with cleared checks attached, we now know the lien is unenforceable because:

1. All projects that were completed have proof of payment and unpaid portions are still unfinished with photos.

2. Lien was filed after the Texas property code statute limit for residential property (15th day after the 3rd month of project completion date).

3. Notice of initial affidavit of lean was not given by the claimant (not sent registered mail).

now of course we're under contract with some buyers from out of state who are looking to do this deal with the 1031 exchange. I am hoping I can go back to them and say unfortunately the title is clouded and it will take some time to resolve and remind them that the 1031 has a ticking time clock and they will be more amenable to just canceling the contract all together. I am even considering giving them back the option money they paid to sweeten the pot. My agent for this property of course consulted some attorney friends and her broker, all of who would have a financial interest in this deal, and advises me to get her friends to send a demand letter to this guy to settle up for a smaller sum or demand him to sign a waiver of lean. Lean. I'm just curious everyone else's opinion but I'm leaning towards taking the home off the market and leasing it for the deed restricted minimum of 6 months which also happens to be the exact amount of time left on the lien. This is a cheaper option in my eyes. Then possibly instigating a lawsuit and counter suit just for me to have to go and spend 10 minutes in court to prove it's invalidity and never see my court costs refunded to me because Texas...

Comments? Thoughts? Laments?

Plz & ty 🙂

Such a great suggestions. I really appreciate everyone's input. 

Hi there! So my mom is retiring in a few months. Her current home will probably go for 375k and she owes 70k. She is looking to move on to improved land (approx $50k) and build new construction or a modular home ( approx $260k). I'm trying to think of creative ways for her to finance this because she would like to keep as much of the capital she receives from the sale of her primary residence to use into retirement and have no mortgage. It will be a balancing act but I'm wondering if she should rent and use a construction loan? She has credit in the 800s and I know lenders will look differently at someone who is no longer working. She has a few liquid assets totaling about 150k but I'm not sure for which type of financing that might help her. I hope this makes sense. Let me know if I need to clarify. Would like some others to help me spit ball on this. Please and thank you!

Quote from @Wendy Vaidic:

I have guests sign via Docusign.  I feel like it sets both myself & the guests up for a smooth visit as they know what is expected & what happens if they break the agreement.

I’ve had guests realize they were bringing extra people & that people in their party smoke when they read over the agreement.  Both no smoking & guest limits are listed in my rules on the platforms.

I always feel like I dodged a bullet when guests decide to cancel after reading it.

 That's exactly how I would feel. Thank you for your thoughts, Wendy!

Quote from @Ken Boone:

@Kristyn Grimes  I initially did the agreement on the two platforms and had the statement by booking you are accepting the agreement.  I was never really happy with that so wanted a signature at least and it was always a challenge for guests to get us back a signed agreement.  I have indoor pools and hot tubs in my properties and my insurance company requires me to have specific verbage in my rental agreements.  I never felt good enough just going with the accepting the rental agreement by booking method.  I finally switched over to using SignNow (very similar to DocuSign but much cheaper) and since I did that I no longer have to deal with problems with tenants not being able to figure out how to get me the signed document.  The other nice thing about it is I control what they initial as well, which means I can enforce them to initial next to some of the key components in the rental agreement - such as issues concerning the indoor pools.  I also, collect the names of each guests staying at the cabin.  This does two things for me - #1 lets the guest know that I do have a limit on the number of people and that any additional persons need to be approved by me, #2 and it gives me extra leverage if someone shows up with tons more people than they said - i.e. large parties which we do not allow.

I have it all automated so when a booking occurs on either platform I send the guest a thank you letting them know they will receive an email with a link to digitally sign our rental agreement.  Once that is done, it is automatically saved under the guest and cabin name and then the typical welcome letter gets sent out.

It may be overkill for a lot folks, but it makes me comfortable.

 An entrepreneur after my own heart! I knew I couldn't be the only one that just needs a bit more than a general acknowledgement. Thank you for that info. I'll take a look at Signnow. I pay for DocuSign to use as an agent but I really just wanted something specific to use with the Airbnb side of life. 

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Hey @Kristyn Grimes, I have our agreement attached to the booking. When they book the agreement is right there and they agree to it when they accept the booking.

It has been working just fine for 5 years now. I do get the occasional question about how to sign it, but I just tell them they did it when they accepted the stay.

Thanks for the reply, michael! Do you say anywhere prior to booking that by accepting the booking they are agreeing to your agreement? I can just see that this would make certain people feel like they were being trapped into something. There's always those folks lol

Hey y'all! Happy Friday! I'm about 4 weeks away from opening my first official STR. I'll have another opening here in about 60 days. I'm curious about the method of delivery for fellow str investors rental agreement. Do you send it via docusign? Do you send it via the Airbnb platform and just ask the guest to respond with a message saying they understand and their name? I'm big on using official means of agreements like DocuSign but I wasn't sure how invasive this seems to guests. I would simply just ask for an email and would forward using my DocuSign account. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Originally posted by @Todd Rasmussen:

@Kristyn Grimes

Get paid dividends instead of charged fees and find a regional credit union.

 Been there done that. I was with a local Texas CU for 11 years and last summer we tried to get a mortgage with them. Absolute nightmare. First loan officer had a mental breakdown on the phone and wept violently then hung up and said he'd call back (didn't). Second loan officer who claimed to be that guy's boss took over. He sent the appraiser out to the wrong house. Appraisal came back too low because that wrong house was dilapidated whereas our house was a total head to toe renovation. We couldn't figure out why the appraisal was so low but sent the "sorry we can't mortgage this house" letter and appraisal to the seller and their agent to get our earnest money back we were absolutely humiliated when the seller pointed out that the appraisal and comps were for the wrong house. Had a nasty three-way call with the lender who refused to admit his error, begin yelling at everyone on the call and ended the call by asking us if we were in the business of buying crack houses. Prior to making a complaint with NMLS we googled his name and it turns out he's actually the vice president of their mortgage department. Needless to say him and the basket case both lost their jobs.

I have had it with Bank of america. They charge for everything possible right down to nickel and diming you for transactions that take five business days. As an investor quite frequently I need to wire funds to title companies etc and even in 2022 when all that is handled electronically, I'm still charged $30 each and every time. I get conflicting information from customer service even on the same phone call. And although this may be across many banks why are bankers hours of 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. still a thing? The whole rest of the working world works from 9:00 to 5:00 at minimum.

NerdWallet says Chase and Wells Fargo are the best for small business but who knows if companies pay for these promotions on the internet nowadays. What is everyone's experience with their own banks? There's the very small concern of the number of brick and mortars that I would need to go to but less fees and better customer service would make me drive a bit further to get large amounts of cash if I had to.