All Forum Posts by: Chris Da

In the past I have paid approximately 700 for a 30yd can to be dropped /filled/removed. What I have done in the past was rent a mid sized Uhaul truck. Filled it to the max, drove it to the dump that same day, paid 40/ton to empty, hose it out at the car wash, and return, all for under 400. Works well if you live close enough to a dump. Just an idea that I have used. Buddie of mine flipped 21 houses last year, and that is how he got rid of the trash.

I would wait until the begining of the month. As soon as you get the money from section 8 , go and file for eviction. Post the notice on the door. From what you told us, it is going to end bad. i have been down this road before with the dirt bad section 8 tenant. (I have several Section 8 tenants) and some have been good, and some bad. This one you described would be considered bad, and I assure you nothing is going to change, so get paid, and file, cut your losses and move on. A big hint I can give you...If you find a tenant who is young with lots of kids and no job,...usually the house get wrecked, boyfriends are over constantly and it is just a bad scene. If you find a tenant that has a job, and 2-3 younger kids who seem like they are cared for and polite, you might have a ringer.

2 million dollar complex.. Well most of you won't agree with me on this, but here goes.

I was taught a true successful real estate developer. He is now 68 yrs old, and I confide in him often. I too came across a deal almost identical to this not far back. The numbers worked, it was a nice brick 22 unit in a nice area with a good reputation and was fully rented. 1.6 million.. I secured the financing and it was a done deal.

I ran the deal by my experienced friend and I was shocked at what he told me...

"Chris, why are you attempting to buy this, you can't afford it."

I explained that I am no longer going to waste time on single homes and deplexes and tri-plex units, that I am now in the big leauges, and making the move.

"But Chris, you are not in the big leauges yet, and the small units make you money, why do you feel like you need to buy this unit you can't afford?"

I can afford it...I have the financing secured, and it will even produce some cash flow.plus, you don't own single houses, and neither do your friends, you own strip malls and apartment complexes, so why would you suggest I not buy this?"

"Chris, when I deceide to purchase a strip mall or a complex, I don't finance it, nor do my friends. We look for a certain retuen on our money, say 8 or maybe even 10 percent, which is hard to come by these days, and we pay cash and treat it like a CD. Too many guru types tell you debt is okay, you are buying cashflow ect, but the truth is, too many people over extend themself, never really account for problems, and end up selling to someone like me for a song and a dance just to get out of the great deal they were able to finance by the seat of thier pants."

My friend is right, and no he is not interested in the building, as he has enough.

Just be careful when looking at these big purchases, as most of us are really not ready...Unless you really have 2 million in liquid cash at your disposal..

Update Steve...

Well, this is a turn for the better...The girl got out of rehab..the boyfriend is out of the hospital..Can't beleive this, but they felt bad as to what they did and offered to clean the entire place, as I was nothing but good to them and leave. Honestly, they cleaned the apartment to the point of it being cleaner than when I gave it to them. they paid me the rent owed to date and left nicely. I CAN"T ask for anything more. All I can say is "WOW!" I would have never guessed this would be the outcome in this situation.

I have spent the last few days remodeling the apartment, as I knocked down a wall and expanded the kitchen, added a few cabinets and a new floor. I am no longer going to rent this unit as Section 8 or to maginal tenants, as the handicap lady on the first floor does not deserve to deal with the nonsense. She had made it clear to me that she wants to stay here for many years (hopefully her Section 8 Cert will pay off my building.) I will be renting the unit to a decent lady in 2 weeks. I figure I would really tune up the unit to make it more desireable, and accept $750 month for a decent tenant verses $990 for a dirt bag Section 8 that may cause conflict with my down stairs golden goose tenant..

And Scott, you are not the first person to suggest the comic line of work to me..:)

Thanks for the input and here are some answers for you. The rental is in an okay section. Not the hood by any means, but more like a blue collar area (factory area.) The tenant downstairs has been there for 7 years and plans on staying forever. She is handicap. The place has 13 yrs of a 15 yr loan left on it. The paymnet which includes Princ/Int/Tax is $1100 mt. Water/sewer trash runs about $350 quarter. The total rents are 1100 and 750. The longest the upstairs has ever been vacant is 3 weeks. (I have owned it since 2008.) So there are some numbers since you asked.

The lease states all of the above. No drugs, no extra people, no bad behavior, ect ect..To be honest, the lease is VERY harsh to the point that some peopole have read it and asked me, "How do you get people to sign this?" No her parents didn't co sign, but they so control her money which is SS check every month. As of now, I could have the unit cleaned out in 1 day, have my garbage truck driver pick all possessions up for $100 bucks, and start over.

I posted the eviction notice on the door, and have to wait a few days to file at the court. (Opens Monday.) Now here is a question...There will send the court date out quickly for me, within 2-3 days. Now if she is in rehab when the court papers come in her mail, and she misses the court hearing...Do I win automatically? Or can she go get herself some legal aid lawyer and plead that she was in a rehab and wasn't able to get her mail...You know where I am going with this..
Also, if she is the only person on the lease, do I have to file for eviction of these other people that have taken up residency in my building? The police told me that since this criminal was given permission to stay there with her, that there isn't anything I can really do about it. (If he pisses me off enough, I am going to handle this my own way as I am not going to let some dirt bag ruin my investment.) Any more input??

Hello all, has been a long time...Anyway, need some advice about a situation I had tonight in PA.

About 4 months ago I agree to rent a unit to a girl who I was told, had an alcohol problem in the past, but has been clean for over a year and needed a break...Her social worker told me that she has SS income which her parents control, and they do send the rent every month.. Anyway...Being a nice guy, I rented to her, and so far I always get paid, and the place for the most part is fairly clean..
Lately there have been some odd characters there visiting her ect. The downstairs tenant has reported this to me, and I have confronted the new girl and let her know that I won't stand for any bad behavior.

Well, tonight I find out that she "relapsed" , and she has been in a re-hab for the last week. The reason I found this out that is the downstairs tenant informed me that the police and ambulance were just there to take away the BOY FRIEND.

When I got there, I missed all the excitement, but I went in the apartment to find 2 girls (really strung out types) and I told them to GET OUT NOW. (I am being nice in my post.) I go through the apartment and I find only a few needles on the night stand along with the BOY Friends wallet. In his wallet I find an ID, and guess what...His address is listed as MY Apartmnent! I find mail in his name addressed to MY Apartment. She let this junky move in. Then I look around more and find piles of court papers. Guy just got out of Prison for Armed Robbery, Assult withg a deadly weapon, and a strew of other charges. There were even pictures of the differewnt guns he used in these crimes. WONDERFUL.

Anyway, I go to the police department, and they basically told me to evict my new tenant. That she let him live there, and that is just how it is. They let him go free, as all they did is respond to a 911 call for an "unresponsive person". He was given CPR, and is in the hospital now recovering. The blood work isn't back yet, so they can't prove why he was in the condition that he was, and that even whern the blood work comes back, it will takes weeks for his parole officer to even find out.

Bottom line is, I can't even lock this guy out. What I did do was see to it that I cleaned the apartment carpet with 3 gallons of amonia. Very quickly doused the entire place as I want to make sure all the germs from the blood ect is safe.
(Big Smile) and I did go out of my way to post on the door that "Do to an emergency, irritating chemicals had to be used to clean blood from floors. " You can't enter that place for more than 5 seconds and you are right back out the door.

But other than what I told you guys, what else do you do with this situation? I know the easy answer is evict, been there done that, but I don't need a bunch of gun slinging heroin addicts (who by the way don't mind shooting thier guns.) living in my building until an eviction is final. I have delt with jerk tenants before, and did my yelling and screaming, but sometimes you have to pick your battles, and death is not worth a rent check. Any input??

Another thin I noticed is that the heat exp is 8k a year. I see he converted it to gas heat, but I think in my experience that new windows, and installing electric baseboard heat which the tenants pay is the way to go. I don't trust people and have never paid anyones heat bill before. I have my Sec 8 idiots that have their windows open in the winter. If the landlord pays for it, they will waste it, at least that is my opinion.

Lady I spoke with also told me this guy is NEVER around and it is a shame because it was a nicer place till he let it go.

I guess my real concern where I need the help on is putting a price on the building and making a deal that will work.

It has been awahile since I have called on any of you for your input, but I have come across a property that has struck my interest. I have included the link from the mls for you have the best description possible.

http://www.trendmls.com/MLS/Report/MemberListingReport.aspx

The situation is as follows. I now have 5 total rental buildings that for the most part seem to be working well. I finally have good cashflow and the units are in good shape and all is going well. Just re-fi them for 4.62% at 15yrs fixed via fannie/freddie money and I am happy with the results.

Now I am really thinking about making the leap into larger buildings for the long term. I cam across a fellow on the MLS who is selling his entire portfolio. There range from 3 unit buildings to 12 unit buildings. From doing the research he has owned them since 1997 and I called him direct and asked why he was selling them in this poor market. He clains he is 53yrs old, been in tbhe game long enough and would like to do other things. He is a real "Numbers" guy and seemed rather sharp. After some more research on this fellow, turns out he graduated from M.I.T. I guess that would explain his savy numbers ect.
Anyway, the concern I have is that I really don't have any exp with units more that 3. I never used commercial money, and I am worried that more commercial loans ballon in 5 years, which bothers me as I see hyper inflation in the future. I could be wrong, and maybe since I don't have the exp in this matter, I can't speak intelligently.
Now, I spoke with the realtor as well, as the owner directet me to speak with his realtor. (The place has been listed for a year now, so I would think it is not selling because the price is too high. I drove to the property today and looked it over as best I could . Spoke to some neighbors and it looks, from the outside that it could be alot nicer with some cosmetic improvements. I also noticed that the owner pays the heat, but the windows are old. I don't know why he wouldn't put replacement windows in with the price of heating a building like that.
The realtor told me that "IF" the owner felt confortable with me, that he may do a second mortgage to help with the down money. I have never done this before, but he mentioned that I buy the place, and the next day we do a second mortgage and the guy basically gives me back the down money. What if he changes his mind the next day?
Anyway, I am going to get the exact rent rolls for this building and ask for copies of the gas and water bills for the last 2 years along with the tax returns, which he agreed to show me this Saturday. Now the interesting thing is that the realtor in not so many words said that the building is priced fairly and they are not going to move on the price. I thought that was interesting since it has not sold in over a year. Now I have some other investor contacts that I would like to ask, but it seems like everytime I find something I like and ask their opinions they suggest I don't buy it, and next thing you know, they own it. (I am getting good at doing outer peoples homework.)

The nice thing about his building is the origial house is 6 units, the there was an addition that was built in 1986 that in also 6 units. I guess you are able to see that from the picture. There is plenty of parking and it is caddy corner from a nice school. The area is very decent and the school distric is what I am attracted to, as my kids go to this school, and there are not to many houses for sale in this area. Now, 6 miles down the road where I own some of my ghetto properties, everything is fro sale, and sorry to say, I would take a loss if I had to sell these now, but I don,t and didn't plan on it anytime soon.

Hopefully you will be able to see the link I attached and give me an opinion on how to put a price on this building. Thanks

Very good reply. And you are right, I should keep my mouth shut about that, but I figured that plenty of guys on here think the same way. Hopefully Obama is a member.
I also agree that our congress will not stop the wasteful spending(hell Ben will just print them more money) but I wondered about cuts in programs.

Hello all. WOW 2 post in one night. Anyway...

I have recently been very interested again in pushing my real estate ventures to the next level. I have in my opinion done well with my current rentals, but now feel I need more.BUT...I am concerned about Section 8.
Let me explain. I like Section 8 tenats, and they have done well by me (don't get me wrong, I have had some bad apples) but I really have nailed down how to screen them and I have become half animal as well, meaning they know not to break the rules, as I don't play by the typical landlord rules. Sometimes you have to sink to others peoples levels to let them know you mean business.
Anyway the way I see it (and this is just for myself in my area) is that example...I have 1 house that the mortgage w/taxes/insurance is $800mth. I could rent it to a regular family for about $1000mth..But I rent it to a 5br Sect 8 for $1722mth. I like this lady, and I am good to her, as I want her money. Point is this, so I am making an extre $722 month with section8, but if Section 8 were to go away, so would my great profits. I have another duplex. Mortgage wtaxes/insureance is $675. Upstairs and downstairs are 2 br. Normal in this area I could rent it for $675mth, but Section 8 gives me $795 for a 1br voucher, so I take it..Thats $1590 mth. I have another mortgage $900mth/tax insurance included both units pay me $992 month. Normal rent is about 675 and 800.
That is just a few, but in my opinion if you can screen Section 8 tenants well, and you put the fear of God in them that you can go from a really nice guy to Hannibal Lecter in point 2 seconds so faar so good.
What I worry about is what many worry about I would think that the gravy train could run out. I dunno.
If they started to do away with Section 8, where would these people like? How would they live? I figure they pay higher rents because most landlords don't want them because of the reputation,so in turn they pay more to compensate.
Just wondering if anyone else had an opinion on this. Hope fully Jon will chimein, as I like his opinions. Thanks all!!