All Forum Posts by: James Conaway

When I was looking into this, the cost to purchase land+build costs didn't compare to purchasing an existing property. Price's have gone way up, so maybe it makes sense now? But construction costs have gone up as well recently with COVID...

I have a property that is managed in AZ. My PM has sent a notice to the tenant via certified mail informing them of the upcoming inspection. They stated they have to wait 10 days after mailing for it to be legal for notification purposes. This seems like an inefficient timeframe, are there legal alternatives to expedite the notice down from 10 days?

FYI for those interested in AZ:

Rental Housing Support : This program is currently accepting applications for those who started an application prior to October 28, 2020 and are currently in “draft” status. Once these applications are reviewed, the portal may reopen to new applicants.

https://arizonatogether.org/gr...

I have my first tenant that is a month behind in rent, in 2020 I have been fortunate with receiving all rent payments to date... I am grateful for that.

My property manager has expressed their intention to ask the tenant to pay their rent and that we should be grateful to be able to collect even "small" amounts of rent in this covid environment.

I goes against my landlord instincts to "ask" or "try" to get tenants to pay "small" amounts of rent in the "hope" that they will pay in full someday.

My concern is some indefinite number of months of this strategy could pass before you finally could obtain an eviction. What incentive does a tenant have to pay rent? (Assuming they don't care about their credit or rental history) 

Typically you would start the eviction process to get a judgement and evict the tenant, but my PM has stated that if this tenant fills out the CDC form stating they can not pay rent because they have been affected by COVID it will stop the court proceedings. I am assuming the tenant can't just state they have been affected and has to prove it? (This is in AZ and their eviction moratorium currently runs through 1/31/21)

Is the following the generally accepted landlord approach today for tenants shielded from eviction due to covid?

- Ask/work with tenants to pay what they can, when they can. Back rent due builds up indefinitely. Hope they pay in full eventually and if they don't wait for eviction moratorium to lift (someday) to obtain judgement and eviction.

There is no law that prevents you from renting a property out immediately after purchasing it. You do not have to live in any property prior to renting it out. 

The problem comes in with the down payment for non owner occupied purchases. You will typically have to put more money down (20-25%) because the lender views it as a higher risk loan than owner occupied. If you are having trouble coming up with the down payment, owner occupied is the path of least resistance from the down payment perspective. You can purchase with as little as 3.5%...

Buy a 2/3/4 plex using FHA with 3.5% down, move into one unit. Have the other tenants pay the mortgage and expenses. Save the money you would use in your budget for rent/mortgage towards next purchase.

What method do you use to calculate your replacement insurance valuations for your properties? 

I have a 4plex that the insurance company is calculating $400k to rebuild, which seems high for me. 

I am also looking for a good reliable handyman.

I have a tenant who brought bed bugs into their unit. I paid to have it remediated to prevent it spreading to other units. The lease agreement states tenant is responsible for pest control. The pest control cost was divided up over multiple months for the tenant. The tenant is refusing to pay for the cost associated with the pest control. My property management company's approach is the only way to force a tenant to pay for the costs is to refuse to accept their rent payments, if they do not include the pest control payment as well and take them to court.

The tenant is refusing to pay it, so my property management company is refusing their rent payments and is filing for a judgement.

This situation is heading towards a judgement and eviction. Which I am not optimistic about getting the rent payments or pest control costs back after a judgement. I am also concerned about how long this could drag out with multiple months of payments missed.

This strategy seems to be a losing proposition for me the owner. Part of me feels that a fast nickle is better than a slow dime. Take what I can get in income and just eat the rest, but I am getting tired of tenants causing problems ($$$) and then I have to pay to fix them.

How do you approach these situations? 

Yep. 

https://www.patpm.com/