All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Hicks

In my experience with multi-tenant leases for a single unit, one thing we have verified is that each individual tenant could carry the lease themselves if need be financially. So you could sign a single lease where all tenants are responsible for the lease payments, and let them divvy up the share of the burdens of the lease agreement. 

By ensuring that each tenant member is capable of covering the lease by them selves, you are at less chance of risk of non-payment, should things go sideways. 

As always in any situation with a tenant, it is best to build rapport with them and have an open door so if financial troubles were to appear, you are on the short list of notification of such events, and work with them towards a situation that makes everyone as whole as possible.

Hi Cynthia! Welcome to Bigger Pockets! I am a real estate broker in Tulsa that deals specifically with investors. I'd love to help out. Message me.

It looks like you have some really good advice from the others, but I do want to answer some of your other questions about who to rely on for deals and the kind of vacancy you will see.

Most of the clients I work with rely heavily on the wholesalers in the Tulsa market, not just the real estate agents they know. This will help finding the deal before it hits the market. That being said, those wholesalers have a long list of investors they will call when they have a deal so the best way to "get in good with them" is to have your financing in line ready to go when they call you. 

As for vacancies here is what I am seeing: duplexes and triplexes will have slightly longer vacancy times than single family but not always. Usually a 2-3 week vacancy time is normal for these types of rentals. This goes for B class areas. This doesn't really change much in the A class areas sadly. C class areas can see up to 5 weeks but that can be drastically improved if you play your cards right. Hope this helps!

repairs (not cosmetic changes) 

Home Warranty

survey of the property lines

pay for inspections such as EMP, environmental, lead based paint, well, structure, roof, etc

But as Jason DiClemente said, the sky is the limit really if your lender allows and the seller agrees. 

Just some of it may not be able to be on the contract itself and instead on a supplement or a bill of sale. (I am not a lawyer, just a real estate broker that has written a lot of supplements with seller requests on them)

Some additional ways some of the investors that I work with have made the offer more appealing: Offer to close at the same title company (cuts down on closing costs), offering a moving truck, reducing the amount of days to do inspections, offering flexible closing date to let them decide how long they need to take to move out, larger earnest money (as mentioned above), and lastly, what I agreed to with one of my clients on a HUD property to be sure she got the bid, lowered my commission by $500 so the net looked higher on the offer.

Oklahoma, specifically  Tulsa is a great market for rentals. Even with the large increase of multifamily new construction in the past 24 months, SF is still highly preferred and showing good returns. I have many investors with small, medium, and large portfolios of rentals. I have permission to share numbers from a few of them to prove high returns if interested. 

I agree with both John and Carol. Keep it by the book, don't mention the barking, and stick with the non-payment. One reason is enough to evict. Service animals are a touchy subject now days so good question. :-)

Looks like you got your question answered about the HELOC...

I have investors that get equity taken out of the house a few months after the close on the house and after repairs are finished. This is what I have them do: save up, get all of the repairs finished at once, reappraise, and get the HELOC. This all depends on the repairs you are doing. If it really is as you say "minor things" and its a light fixture here and a room painted there, those items wouldn't seem to move the appraised value much. However, if it needs a decent amount of fixing such as new siding and paint, new carpet/flooring, paint, bathroom or kitchen redone, etc. You will want to reappraise most likely. Also, the advise to go and get a 203K loan is not a bad idea either. There are more products like the 203K loan that are open to investors as well. Like Cynthia said, shop around and find the right fit.

This is all coming from my experience in Tulsa, OK while working with investors to get homes ready for renting and for the investor to get cash out of the house after repairs that where needed are finished. 

Congrats! It is a good thing that you learned about your not so great contractors on your first house. It is a lesson everyone learns at some point and can get expensive if you don't find out quickly. The house looks great and it looks like you spend the money in the right areas. I hope your tenant works out just as well!

Hi @Charity Hanif

I am a Broker in Tulsa, OK. I help investors build and keep, sell, maintain, and offer full service for their portfolios of cash flow properties. I would be happy to answer any questions you have about the Tulsa market, what kind of returns my investors are seeing in their rentals, and maybe even help you acquire some for yourself. 

On a side note, I have a couple of friends from the Eugene area of Oregon. They miss the beauty but really like how affordable everything is here.