All Forum Posts by: Jimmy Chin

You're running your numbers correctly and the results don't lie - this isn't really a deal at all. As newbies, we tend to get analysis paralysis but this is not it. Remember also that if any of your numbers are even slightly off (arv, repairs, etc), you'll be in the red. 

You don't need to land a perfect deal on your first but you don't want to be in the red every month either because that's gonna lead you to quitting this business altogether. Houston is a really tough market right now which makes buying right difficult. Just keep trying and don't despair!

Hello fellow BP members,

I have a situation with a tenant in Texas and was hoping someone could provide me with some insight on how to handle it. On the leasing agreement, the tenant is the sole party responsible for the lease and his wife was added as an adult that also resides in the property. 

I recently was made aware that the tenant is going through a messy divorce and custody battle and the tenant has not lived in the property for half a year while his wife remained and paid the rent this whole time. Of course, i didn't know this until the tenant sent his 60 day notice to vacate.

The lease ends soon and his wife has chosen to sign a new lease agreement to remain at the property. The tenant has left everything behind in the property - furniture, tvs, pots and pans, etc. He is now asking for his full security deposit back because his wife is planning on staying there and is accepting the condition as is. I refused because I am treating his wife's lease as a completely new one and processing it as a standard tenant move out/move in (ie. restoring property to previous move in condition) Am i doing the right thing?

Another question - could i consider this an abandonment of the property (since i wasn't notified beforehand) and prevent the tenant from returning to the property before his lease ends? And yes, it's because I'm rather concerned what he might do to the property.

Thanks!

Miranda, I would be interested as well!

@Ray Lai I know this post is old but I'm just looking into getting into direct mail and I have to say... that's a fantastic list of questions you posted. Greatly appreciated!

Please send more details if the property is still available to [email protected]

Thanks!

@John Kim This is exactly my issue with Sherman Bridge lending. I was promised that they will do everything in their power to move things forward and whenever I called the representative working on my file, he ignored me until I started going off on a rant to NWA (the company I bought my property from). Here are some examples of some issues I ran into for this one refinance:

1) I called to check on my refinance and was told that they were still waiting for some signatures from me. My question is if they were waiting for my signature and didn't get it, why did they have to let almost a week pass for me to call them before informing me that they were waiting for me?

2) I signed and sent the same documents referenced in my previous bullet point over to Sherman Bridge. Days passed with no response so I asked about the progress and they told me they never received the signed documents. I sent the document to my NWA representative and he sent to SBL so they started processing.

3) Just as they were about to do underwriting, I was informed that my refinance would be delayed because they didn't receive updated pay stubs and bank statements from me. Why would SBL not make sure BEFORE underwriting to get updated copies of these? Call me crazy but I believe it's SBL's job to guide me through the process to make sure everything goes through smoothly.

These are just some of the examples (and that's not even all of them) of the kind of service I got from SBL. If this doesn't paint a picture of the level of professionalism and service from SBL, then I don't know what would.

Where is the apology from SBL for all of this? I asked multiple times for @Bobbe Erlinger to assist with the refinance and to call me and discuss. I got repeated promises that he would contact me yet he never did in email or voice form. Now he's posting on this board saying he'll be "happy to discuss" with me verbally AFTER the damage is done and I go off on a rant??

SBL makes me feel like I have no reason to be upset and this is the standard way of processing a HML refinance. If this is "standard" from SBL's standpoint, then I am right to run the other direction. SBL can feel free to spin it any way they like - bottom line is there is no customer service and concern for the investor and I lost time and rent and I couldn't even get a verbal apology from them.

@John Kim I had the exact same experience as @Emmanuel Sasu as recently as last month. They are (to put it lightly) mismanaged, dysfunctional, and unprofessional - the absolute worst lender I have EVER had the misfortune of dealing with.

Sherman Bridge will come up with every excuse in the book to drag your HML as far as possible. Good luck trying to get a supervisor to address your concerns - not only will you never get a hold of him but they will simply ignore you. No courtesy call, email, or follow up. They have this attitude of, "hey, here are the rules and you knew about them when you signed up." There is no concern for the investor and very little effort is made to get things done in a reasonable time.

After being dragged for almost 3 months to get my refinancing completed, I paid an absurd amount of HML fees and they refunded a laughable fraction of my expenses to make up for the inconvenience. When I started chasing around and shouting at people to get things moving, I was deemed to be "unprofessional."

If anyone wants more details about my experience, I will gladly share it here on BP so that you can draw your own conclusion. I'm just trying to send out a warning to anyone out there even thinking of dealing with this sorry excuse for a lender.

Hi Allison, could you please send me more details on this? My email is [email protected].

 Hey Russell, I do have a signed contract. I don't plan to hire an attorney as this will be handled in small claims court and, given that I most likely won't recover any money, might not be worth it. I will start requiring progressive payments going forward and if a contractor won't agree to that, then I will just find another one.  I've seen some GCs have an errors and omissions insurance policy as well as general liability insurance policies - is it standard practice to ask for these?

Hey Nghi, I ended up assuming GC duties for the rest of the project and required my subcontractors to finish the work completely and to my satisfaction before paying a dime. In the case that they needed materials ahead of time (like fixtures, outlets, etc), I ended up purchasing the materials myself and asking the subcontractors to install them. If the subcontractor had to pay for materials out of their pocket, then I asked for receipts. Whenever issues came up or I wasn't satisfied with their work, they would come back out in a timely manner because they wanted to get paid. I'm not sure what liabilities I could run into but I feel like this is the best way to protect myself as an investor.