All Forum Posts by: Jacob Rogers

Hello all!

I have a unit I am looking to rent in Cedar Rapids, IA and I had someone apply for the unit. Their credit score and income were borderline out of my requirements but I figured I would still approve them if calls to their previous landlord and current employer went well.

The landlord that I talked to was a local property management company in my area. I talked to them for a few minutes about her and they sent me a filled out Rental Verification form after we were done talking. Basically the form states their name, residency dates, rent amount and describes how they were as a tenant.

The form says that she lived there for 3.5 years, had 15 late payments, significantly damaged the unit (carpet replacement, dry wall repair, blinds and door replacement). The person that I talked to also said that they failed to give notice that they were leaving and did not pay the last months rent (I guess they took her to court and settled with the cosigner). Finally, the form also says that if she reapplied and met their criteria, she would be approved to live with them again...

I sent an adverse action letter to the applicant stating that they were denied in part or in whole by the credit report we received as well as the reference we got from their previous landlord. She emailed me back thanking me for the response, but wants a copy of the form that was sent to me by the previous landlord so that she can submit it to a lawyer. She claims that she has evidence contrary to what they have been telling people and that they are keeping her and her children homeless out of spite.

Should I send her the form? Obviously, if the PM company is spitefully harming her chances of finding a home I want to help her, but I don't know if I am acting in the wrong by sending out information that the PM company gave to me.

Thank you so much for any help!

Hello!

I have a duplex in Cedar Rapids Iowa and I am wondering if anyone in the area has a recommendation for a handy man?

Thank you in advance!

@Stan Thampi

These were the qualifications that we messaged people before they came out to look at the unit:

Have a credit score of 600+

Have no prior evictions

Have no felonies within the last 7 years

Household gross income greater than 3x the rent

And then when they wanted to apply, we had them go through Zillow. The credit and background check is pretty cheap through there I think and we were planning on having the tenant pay rent through their website (the tenant we put in wants to just mail checks so that was fine for us).

Hey @Russell Caraotta,

I recently bought a duplex that needed a new tenant. I put the property on Zillow, Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. It took a couple weeks to fill with a great tenant that met my criteria but I will say that the number of people that at least responded to my ad by asking if it was available was much much higher on Facebook marketplace. Probably 20 times higher. Now 30ish% never responded when I said that it was and probably 50ish% didn't meet my criteria but I would definitely recommend Facebook as a method to reach a lot of people! The tenant that I ended up renting to came from Facebook marketplace.

@Andrew Postell Thank you for your quick response! The location I am looking in is in a low income census tract so there is no income limit. I am a little confused because from what I have seen, Home Possible is the program that allows 5% down on 2-4 units, while Home Ready is 15% down for 2 units. Also, can I ask why you suggest not to pay the PMI upfront?

Thank you for your help!

Hi BP Community! I am submitting an offer on a duplex in my market as an owner occupant. I am looking to make a low down payment (3-5%) and so the obvious choice was FHA. However, I don't like the idea of paying PMI for the length of the loan, as well as having an upfront fee. I saw that the Freddie Mac Home Possible loan is available for 2-4 units with a 5% down loan. I also saw from looking online that if you have PMI, you can have the option to pay a single payment upfront at closing and get rid of the monthly PMI. Does anyone have any experience dealing with this or know if you can do this with this loan program? Thanks!

Hey Daniel!

From my understanding the Total Profit if Sold figure is calculated by taking the current value of the property and multiplying it by one minus the sales expenses for your realtor and then subtracting the current loan value and the cash you have invested in the property (i.e. any private/hard money you couldn't pull out when you refinanced into a traditional loan. This number will be negative if you were able to pull out more than you owed.). Finally, you add in the sum of cash flow that you received over every year that you owned the property and you get to your total profit! Let me know if you have any other questions about it. I will be of whatever help I can!

Best of Luck

Hey Jacob,

First of all great name, gotta say! I definitely don't think that 400 units is out of the question especially considering you are only 23 years old. I also plan on using the BRRRR but obviously you need enough money to purchase and rehab the property but if you have the right numbers that's all you need! Either way my recommendation would be to house hack or live in flip a small multifamily with a 3.5% down FHA loan and then save for the BRRRR property, or better yet, find a private lender to finance you. IMO waiting until you are 27/28 would kill a lot of your growth potential.

Best of Luck!

Hi John,

I haven't done any BRRRR deals but I would imagine typical terms for private financing would be around 8-12% interest only. Considering you have only done one deal so far your terms would probably be on the higher side but too much more and you're basically hitting hard money terms. As far as marketing for financing from friends and family I would bring up the conversation slowly and talk about how you can help them more than how they can help you. Everyone wants a better return on their money and if you can show that you can provide a better return for equal or lesser risk in a professional manner then I am sure they will all give it some serious thought.

Best of Luck!

First of all, I just want to say thank you to all of you for your advice, I appreciate it so much.

@Matt Roghair, @Blake Andera, @Jon Engelman, 

I would love to meet up and chat with all of you. Maybe we try to set a meet up soon.

@Matt Fisher, 

I agree, you can learn so much more from a mistake than you can from a success. I will definitely keep telling people what I do and what I am interested in.

@Dan Cho,

I have definitely picked my father's brain a few times and I plan to continue looking for information and to build upon that my knowledge here on BiggerPockets. Thank you for the advice. 

@David Faulkner,

I hope to do a live in flip when I get my first property. I will likely be looking for a small multifamily that I can move into using an FHA loan. I don't have much experience rehabbing houses so I hope that it will help me learn what needs to be done and how much it should cost once I start to outsource rehabbing one day. I look forward to the hard work because I know one day it will all pay off!

Blake Andera,

When I first started out, I knew that Rich Dad, Poor Dad was a very common and highly regarded book but I wasn't ready to pay money for information yet so I found the audio book on YouTube for free. :) I do have the E-Myth Revisited right now but I have not finished the book. 

@Nathan Leners,

I don't necessarily plan on staying in Ames after graduation. I love Ames and I would be more than happy staying here but I think that most of the companies I might work for after graduation are in areas other than Iowa. I have looked a few times on Craigslist in the real estate section for part time jobs. While there were a couple property management companies offering positions, they were only available during times that I am currently at my full time job at a lab on campus. I would love to talk with you as well if you ever have the time. I would love to hear how you are working on becoming a real estate investor while working as an engineer. 

@Karen O., 

That is a great story and I am happy to hear that your leap was successful! I hope to still have the bug years down the road! Thank you for your encouragement!

@Account Closed,

I would agree completely and I hope that this post and the possibility of meeting some new people will get meet to be more active and less reliant on reading and listening too podcasts. Thank you!