All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Social media is not something we use so it is interesting and worth exploring how that works for  our demographic. 

Your process for picking tenants to follow up on won't  defuse the "professional complainers" who happen to be Fair Housing Testers. Think you are playing with fire there. 

 David,

See Joel's post here and repayment demands.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/1106...

I didn't say it was perfect James and correct UK doesn't have national identity cards.

However the "de facto" solution in the US is to misuse the SSN.  It creates a horrible identity theft problem, which I am surprised you are so blase about and it's not as de facto as you  think. 

http://www.justice.gov/opcl/social-security-number-usage

James,

Credit reporting in the UK uses your address history as a differentiator. I don't know how they handle a Frank Jones JR and SNR living at the same address. I would imagine at some point in their history they had different addresses and this can differentiate.

Aside from not requiring an NI/SSN number I think you will find the UK/US systems have much more in common than not.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rati...

Interesting .....financial institutions use them to gauge how profitable you will be to them 

In the UK credit checks are based on name and address (several addresses may be needed if you've moved alot) they also look you up on the electoral roll so not being a registered voter can hurt your score. As far as I am aware the only entities with legit reason  to ask for your SSN (using US equivalents) are the Social Security Dept, Employers (so you can be credited for salary deductions) and the IRS. Some recruitment systems have started asking for it as an applicant disambiguator to stop different agencies submitting the same candidate but I always give a fake number an this is misuse similar to how the misuse in the US started.  

We don't do credit checks . We save the credit check to last and don't process multiple applications. We have consistently been  able to make a decision on an application from the prior steps of our screening process i.e running a credit check wouldn't influence our decision. For more detail see

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/1908...

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/187848-rejecting-prospect-tenant-non-refundable-application-fee

Ways you can check their creditworthiness without their SSN. Tell them to pull their own credit report and bring a copy. Or ask them what you will see when you pull their credit report (they don't know you won't pull it), but as I said we haven't found the need to rely on credit reports

The LOL is because you've never known a system that doesn't misuse SSN's in that way.

In the UK banks and insurance companies never ask for and don't know a customers SSN equivalent (national insurance number)...... neither is it necessary for a credit check. Now I don't expect that's going to do it for you  so here.

https://epic.org/privacy/ssn/testimony_0501.html

Some observations for someone who has always had to pay cash.

The need to service debt affects the way you run your business. You are that much more eager to fill the rental and that much more likely to  take chances with your tenant screening process.  

You are also that much more likely to nickel and dime your contractors, skimp on or delay upgrades you should make, mismanage a landlord/tenant situation or  ***** about your property manager keeping late fees instead of you.

By all means borrow - I would draw the line at leverage because that means that the value of the assets you are controlling are beyond your means, which means if anything goes wrong you will not be in control of the situation.

So yes borrow, but my rule of thumb would be to ensure that your monthly repayments could still be comfortably made if you lost half your rental income overnight.

Thats cool. 

I'm not one to avoid people in general but if I were I'd avoid  those who think or call others ignorant.

It's way too strong and  offensive  a word for the sentiment you are trying to express , in fact some may feel the use of that word in the specific context you  applied exhibits it ig.....( oops I nearly  did it myself)... impaired judgement.

Just awestruck at how this system works. 

OP is looking to finance property purchase on credit cards.

I have collateral. Fully rented  owned free and clear and the bank will not lend me a dime because my credit score is not at least 680 ( I've never needed to borrow). 

The people you are calling ignorant evidently have a different opinion.

But really and this goes out to all the people that feel that certain people should be avoided?

What are you afraid of. Are you all that easily led?