All Forum Posts by: James DeRoest

I'd say that was true.

You can do it with less, but if you're trying to take any sort of income, no matter how small, then 3 gets you to a point of continually collecting rents. It's too easy with 2 properties to have both empty at the same time or to be taking an expense on 2 on the same month, with 3, not quite so likely, and so forth.

The more you have, the more the income evens out. (Obviously).

 No, I'm saying don't put your family at any greater risk than you have to.

As I said, most people are trying to play this game with either no money, or no control over their personal spending, so their only option is to mortgage their home to get ahead. And that gets them precisely - one property ahead.

I think they need to earn more money then, or what most people should do - spend less.

Real estate investing is an expensive game, you can't expect to play this game with peanuts.

 My home doesn't need to be an investment. I'm in my early 40s, I could have retired on passive income two years ago, why would I ever risk my home?

I have met property investors who risked their homes and lost their homes. Explaining to your wife why you are now homeless is not on my bucket list. Now it maybe on yours, that's great, but mine, nope, not ever.

As for a philosophical point - what sort of man would ever risk losing the home of his wife and family? Draw a line for heavens sake when it comes to your family.

My home is my home. It doesn't get counted when people ask how many houses we own, it doesn't get mortgaged for the business or anything. It's where my wife and my dogs live, and it's untouchable. It is their home. No matter what problems I face outside, when I come home, there are no problems.

We do have a new house we're moving to, that will become home, and the previous place becomes a unit. Simple as that. But the same rules apply. Absolutely nothing gets attached to the new house.

I have never understood investors who put their homes on the line, as ultimately, you are risking the roof over your family. Never understood that. 

 Here we go again.

How can a landlord research an application, if the previous landlords are willing to circumvent the whole system - and prevent future landlords finding a well deserved eviction? You push you're lack of backbone onto others by saying "look past the eviction for other things". Do you really think a tenant is going to put your name down as a previous landlord reference? Really now?

The fact you have to pay your delinquent tenants to leave says "I'm not in control" all over it. You are exactly at the mercy of your tenants by the very definition you paid extortion money!

And wth? "If we treat the people who are building our wealth with respect and compassion, maybe we'll see better results."

You're new to this, aren't you? I can tell.

I'm really not following your post.

You had a tenant that you had to evict, so you offered cash for keys, they didn't take the cash wanting to remain in your property for as long as possible, you then state "to help out fellow blah blah" you went down the eviction route, and the tenant beat up your apartment?

If the tenant isn't taking cash for keys, then you have no alternative to evict. 

It's not the fault of everyone else that you chose that route, you were forced into it by the tenant. You didn't evict for the good of other landlords, you evicted to get access to your investment again! What was the alternative? Free accommodation for the rest of the tenants life?

 It's a topic that's come up on BP before, and those of us who believe tenants deserve an eviction on their credit report just get shouted down by those who tell us "it's just financial sense" and start paying the extortion money.

Yes they do.

We had one, she was angling for a new fridge. Kept telling us it wouldn't cool, so we'd go in, see that it was set to 1 and told her "there's your problem". 

We would turn it to say 7, it'd start cooling, and just after we left, she'd turn it back to 1. A day later we'd get a call again "not cooling". So we'd go back in and there it was, back at 1. She was so dumb she forgot to put the fridge back to 7 when we rechecked.

Refused to run the fridge at more than 1 because she was frightened about her electricity bill! So she wanted a brand new energy efficient fridge. She showed us a picture of the one she wanted and where we could buy it.

She didn't last long with us.

3.

First one couldn't be bothered as it wasnt a beach rental.

Second one stuck anyone with a pulse in, never got money, and we got continual demands for cleaners and repairs.

Third stole $4k.