All Forum Posts by: Justin Nienhaus

Hi @Courtney Tostrud and welcome to BP.  I'm a new investor and have found this site and the people to be fantastic.  There are plenty of RE investors willing to lend a helping hand.  And once you get your company up and running, I'm sure that many of those same folks would be more than happy to let you help us with our title and closing needs.

@Marc Jolicoeur

Thanks!  This book was exactly what I was looking for.  It should serve as a useful tool in the future, that's for sure.  I've seen you posting in a lot of questions in the forums for Minnesota investors, Thanks for helping everyone out.

@David Krulac

You're certainly right, everything comes back to the lease.  I just have it ground into my head that I need certain notice if there is no intention to renew.  I like the idea of stating it more clearly in the lease, as you have, there is no automatic renewal.  Thanks again!

Thanks!  I appreciate the help from everyone.

@John Woodrich 

I believe you are correct with the one tenant and they did actually give me a signed letter with their intent to vacate the premises at the end of the lease.  I told them, just to be on the safe side, I may have to include him in my mailing but would be more than willing to give him a good reference to another location if he needed.  

@David Krulac 

You may be right, or maybe that is just Pennsylvania.  Minnesota is pretty favorable to the tenant.  Or maybe it's my years in property/casualty insurance that made me assume proper, early notice was always needed.  

Thanks again to everyone for your advice!

I have a single family home that is coming up on the end of the term.  I got word from one tenant that they would not being staying and the other does not have the ability to pay.  It's gets pretty sticky from there, but it is not important to my question.

How much notice do you have to give in Minnesota (St. Paul specifically) if you do not intend to renew a lease?

I want to be clear.  I'm not evicting them on the spot, I just do not wish to renew the lease for anyone currently in the property.  

@Travis Sperr That's a great point! And one that I can't wait to take advantage of as I grow my portfolio.  Eventually, you have money coming in for maintenance/repairs/capx/vacancy on a number of units but the likelihood of a perfect storm is pretty low (take advantage of the law of large numbers).  You can essentially have a percentage your properties insuring the rest and use the full funds from the other chunk grow exponentially.

And before anyone jumps on me for being too optimistic, should you have a roof and furnace go out, you take a break from deal hunting and funnel everything back into your reserve for a few months until comfortable again.  If you are doing regular maintenance and checkups, you should have some idea of when your major expenses are going to come and you can plan for them by bumping up your reserve amount for a known expense.  

@Gino Barbaro

It's funny you mention the "throwaway nation."  That is one of my biggest reasons for not just purchasing new.  The unity is in St. Paul and often it does require a trip fee just to take a look though and I hate spending the money on them coming out and telling me it isn't worth fixing.  

No warranty plan on the house for appliances.  In the long run you don't make money on those (those companies have to pay their employees and make a profit somehow).

I like your thoughts on expense/depreciation.  I hadn't thought of comparing it solely on those parameters.  

Yep.  I agree.  I already debated this in my head for hours with good points on both sides.  Hence why I'm here.  Mostly, I was curious what people use as a rule of thumb on appliance.  Your 2 repairs makes sense, but as you said, 2 repairs on a dryer 6 years apart...?  The thing runs and has for years.  Thanks for the input!

I just had a dryer quit on me in a single family dwelling.  This one is actually the house I used to live, so I have a bit more background on the unit.  I know the dryer is over 6 years old (was there when I moved in).  It had an issue when I moved in and I spent aproximately $180 repairing it about 6 years ago.  This is a different issue this time.  It runs, but it doesn't heat up.  

I'd like to see what people think on a few questions...

Would you repair or buy?

If you would buy, would you buy new or try to find something on craigslist (or similar)?