All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Donley

Hey Joshua - welcome to town.  You are in luck - we have an awesome investor community here.  I'd recommend connecting with some local REIAs - there's actually one tonight called FasterHouse Buyers Club - it meets monthly and it a good one.

Core Properties has a good one as well - I think you can find it online. If you go to meetup.com, you'll find quite a few others.

Our Facebook groups for STL investors are also very active - do a search for them and join every one you can.

That's where I would start - networking.

Hi Willie - for screening, I do all the things everyone tells you to do - call prior landlords, check credit, background check, verify pay stubs and employment, etc.   If you look here on BP, there is a lot of info on how to screen tenants.

I also include as my final step in the approval process a home visit at their current residence to verify that they've taken "reasonable and normal care" of it.  This tells me far more than almost anything else I do.

It's interesting how much @Account Closed hates SFH - I love them and when you pick a great tenant, it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg to turn a unit. I just turned one for under $2,000. But that's the beauty of RE investing - there are lots of ways to be successful! Good luck.

Section 8 is great when you have a great tenant.  There can be a learning curve with getting approved for the program as a landlord and the different processes that occur with inspections and annual recertifications (when the tenant sends in new income info and their rent portion typically changes), but with one, it shouldn't be a big deal.   Most Housing Athorities will have a process to submit for a rent increase annually - it may be posted on their website.  Tons of landlords miss this, which is so hard for me to understand because you're giving up additional rent/income.

Good luck!

I saw a post last week where someone lamented how many success stories and how few horror stories get posted on here.  So I thought I'd start one to give a little potpourri of what I experienced in the last week in my rental portfolio of 31 doors.  Feel free to add your own!

In a week's time, I had:

• 2 great Section 8 tenants renew leases and choose a 2 year lease 
• A house with significant smoke damage from smoldering incense sitting too close to a fake plant (tenant thought she fully extinguished it before leaving but obviously didn't)
• 2 tenants notify us they'll be late on rent this month 
• 1 tenant with a trampoline not responding to our request to remove it 
• A Section 8 property approved for a $50 a month increase at lease renewal 
• A Section 8 bi-annual inspection passed 
• A newly discovered foundation crack at a property I bought 2 years
• I'm a hardcore process & systems person, so we'll handle everything through our processes and keep moving forward.  But if you're just getting started and only seeing the wins & successes - do not be fooled! The key (for me at least) is to know it's all part of the deal and none of it is worth losing sleep over.
  
  Tell me - how was your REI week?
  

Not very but I'll send you a PM and see if I can help or provide insight.

@Charles H., I work with people across the country.  The main items are the same with Section 8 so it can be applied anywhere.  

There are some process differences from one Housing Authority to the next (for example- how to get approved as a Section 8 landlord, in what order new tenant processes happen, and on what timeline rent increases are allowed will vary) but we discuss those and how to determine/maximize in your local market/Housing Authority.

@Charles H., yes people kept telling me to listen to Joe's episode and when I did, I was pretty much yelling in excitement in my car because we agree on so much.  It was actually a huge relief to hear Joe because I thought maybe the other shoe just hadn't dropped yet on S8 for me.  

I invest in St. Louis in B and C neighborhoods.  Of my 31 doors, 23 are currently S8 and eventually 26 of them will be.  

I'm a Section 8 specialist in St. Louis.  Pros for me are - Guaranteed rents, higher than market rents in some places, additional accountability through the Housing Authority and the huge demand/lack of supply in Section8 housing means you can find great S8 tenants.

I have a meticulous screening process and reject probably 80% of my applicants.  My screening checklist is 5 pages long, I check background, credit, eviction history, prior landlords and I require some income from my S8 tenants.  The last step of my process is a home visit at their current residence to verify they take good care of their home. Doing it this way has been very successful - I don't have trouble collecting the tenant's rent portions or landlord billed utilities or repairs.  I've got 26 occupied properties and collected all but $150 of my rents last month (I do have 1 inherited Section 8 tenant who I have a hard time collecting her rent portion/sewer from).

Cons I usually hear - the processes of Section 8 can be a pain (especially at first when you're learning them), the Housing Authority can be tough to deal with (this varies widely because each Housing Authority is run independently across the country), the inspections can be a pain (also wide variance here) and some people have a hard time finding good S8 tenants.  On this last one - I believe your property attracts your tenants so I've found that by having one of the nicest properties on the block, I'm able to attract great tenants.

I was given great advice by an amazing landlord once - Tenant screening should be very black and white.  They either qualify or they don't.  If you find yourself waffling, you're bending your standards more than likely.  This person doesn't qualify.  Period, move on.

Also, regarding your lowering your income requirement due to the condition of the property - I would do this differently.  Lower the rent amount but keep your 3x monthly income req.  Think about it - it's HARD to pay all of your bills if your rent is half of what you bring home.

It's amazing what happens when you actually file for that eviction... they often find a way to come up with the money.  And if not, tenant loses voucher.  

There's so much money available for tenants right now, there's no reason for non payment.

Also, I would expect an eviction attorney should be less than $1000.  Here, we have a bunch of them that do it for a flat $400.  Charge that back to the tenant as well.