All Forum Posts by: Jason Tougas

Hello everyone,

I’m a newer investor from Michigan but have been in texas for the last 5 years. I have bought and sold numerous primary residences since 2012 but began investing in rentals in 2019 in texas. 
I currently have 4 long term rentals and a 5th project under renovation. I’m interested in acquiring a short term rental on my next deal once I complete my brrr to try to learn more about that space. I currently renovate and manage all the properties myself (in addition to my W2 job!) as I'm sure many of you can imagine- I stay busy and scaling has been difficult with this strategy. 

This is my first BP conference and I am super excited. I plan to arrive to N.O. Either Friday night or Saturday and will leave out on Wednesday afternoon. I look forward to meeting with you all and hope to make some longtime friends and possibly partners throughout this experience! 

@Kip Cline

Howdy kip!

I’m originally from Michigan (troll from downstate) but have been out in texas a while now and various other states before that.

I’ll be out at the conference this year - would love to meet up and discuss real estate back home!

Chat with you soon!

Thanks again Linda. I will keep my eye out on the postings and look forward to meeting the group. I’m very excited to expand my network and meet some new friends in the business! 

Hello Linda! 
do you plan to host any future events? 
how had the turnout been and what are the discussions like? 

@Jonatan Barbera

Excellent response- in my opinion one of the best on this thread. I will speak for everyone on here when I say that we really appreciate your honest feedback and advice! Thanks so much for helping us with less experience learn the ropes.

Is it safe to assume the tenant is currently not paying rent? Do you know how far behind they are, whether he/she has income or the motivation behind refusing to leave? I have bought several properties over the years where the tenant came with the purchase. To this day I still have all of them still as tenants and all still paying rent despite several rent increases. My point is this- sometimes buying a property with a tenant has both pros and cons. You need to weigh out both to determine if this battle is worth fighting or whether to be grateful that you are buying a cash flowing property without you having to lift a finger. Pros: - no upfront renovation - no listing of property - no background checks, property showings, or vetting tenants - property beings making you money on the day of cosing Cons: - unable to vet your tenant - could potentially be renting to criminal or sex offender etc - unable to run background or credit checks - difficult to brrr with active tenant if looking to refinance - harder to create the culture for how you want your property to operate since this tenant lived here through prior regime. Just a few things to think about. If you are able to get a seller price reduction as a result of this issue, this might work out better for you. Take the cash, keep the tenant and if it doesn't work out you will be able to evict them later if needed. Just be sure you have a good legally binding lease signed. If the tenant is not currently paying rent and has been milking the covid programs for the past year, I would absolutely insist they are gone before you acquire. That is not a burden you want, especially on your first deal.

@Alexandra West

I will always take out back rent and property damages from the security deposit and return the balance owed. This is how my lease reads which has their signatures.

If the back rent is more than the security deposit, they will receive $0.

If you are wanting to give back their money, I would attempt to contact them via phone or text and ask for a forwarding address.

Good afternoon, 

How exciting to see someone your age with such ambition and a desire to learn. Luckily if you want to learn about real estate you came to the right place! This community is like no other- you will meet great, brilliant, successful people here and learn a ton. My advice to you is to stick your nose in the real estate books, learn all you can. Network at local events and when the time feels right you will be ready to find your first deal. Good luck to you!

I have been using cozy for a couple of years and aside from the 3-5 day hold period it works great. It's also a good app for managing your portfolio, scanning prospective tenants and sending payment notices. I recently started also using Zillow rental manager and feel this platform works equally well to cozy for payments. Zillow seems to yield a much higher number of renters during vacancies, so I'm considering transitioning completely to Zillow. The last platform I also use is landlord studio. They recently started doing tenant screening and accepting payments. This app is the system I prefer for property management. Very detailed reports, great email messages for tenants and easy to stay organized. Biggest downfall is that they charge per unit Hope this rambling helps!

@Dzenan Catic

I’m currently using cozy for rent collection & background checks.

Last month I saw Zillow rental manager also now offers rent payment. I recently tried them and found it to be much better than cozy in terms of generating rental leads and also for background checks.

I haven’t switched to Zillow yet, but I’m definitely considering it.

I also use LandlordStudio for reports & payment tracking. The downside to this app/website is that it does not accept online payments- all payments need to be manually loaded (which is no issue if you’re collecting rent monthly in person).