All Forum Posts by: John Barrett

@John McNeill This is an unfortunate situation both you and your tenant.  From your post, it does seem like you have been trying to work with him to resolve the situation.  However, if your tenant has been unable to find employment during the tightest job market in years I think there is a larger problem here.

As others have stated, you need to turn this over to an eviction attorney.  The non-profit organization paying his back rent will help him to get current, it will not address his ability to pay future rent without a job.  Some organizations like VoA will generally only provide rental assistance to tenants once.  From what I have seen the ERPP mediation step seems to be the current bottleneck in most eviction cases at the moment.  The sooner you start the process, the sooner you will reach the other side of this issue.

John

@Jenna Lee I am sorry that you are dealing with this situation. Loosing rent is never a good outcome, but so long as you are able to make changes (either PM or tenant screening) something positive could come from this.

As others have suggested, I would ask your PM to explain why back rent is not collectable.  Depending on where the units are located, it could be the result of COVID restrictions that are still in place.  If that is the case, there may not be any options available to you to collect.

John

@Andrew Lingle You should look up @Nghi Le with Certain Lending.  They have a bunch of different products and one of them could be right for you.  I have met the team a few times at conferences and have always come away impressed.

Best of luck.

John 

@Alex Omo depending on the location, you should have some options, but will likely need to look at the greater MSA.  Another alternative might be to consider getting a condo to start with the plan to sell it in a few years and trade up to a house.  While this plan takes longer and roommates in a condo would be tighter, it does allow you to get started now. 

Best of luck,

John

@Brandon Kessler Unfortunately, the answer to this question is really personal, so it depends on your goals, desires and level of risk tolerance. In general (standard financing, nothing creative) for a loan on an investment property you'll need 25% down for investment properties and lenders will consider your debt to income (DTI) ratio to qualify you. The higher debt your are carrying both mortgages, HELOC & personal debt will impact what funds you can qualify to borrow.

You want to manage both your credit score and your DTI to get the best financing. DTI is less a factor if you have low outstanding balances or a really high income.

There are lots of lenders here on BP that can walk you through the what financing options are available to you and once you know that you can map out what investment strategy will make the most sense for you (based on your goals and sensitivity to risk).

John

@Michael Wallimann There haven't been that many in person meetups in the Everett area / north end following the pandemic.  There used to be a number of events, my wife and I attended a meetup at Bob's Burgers in Marysville but that hasn't happened for over 2 years.

Feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat about real estate investing.

John

@Sven T. We have used both WLA & RHAWA leases and both are good organizations.  I would suggest to you that the value of the RHAWA or WLA memberships are worth more than just getting the latest legally compliant leases.  Though avoiding an issue with the lease can save you a lot of money. Both organizations provide a lot of other benefits / value / resources. 

We started with the WLA membership and moved to the RHAWA.  The RHAWA training classes have been really informative.

John

@Alexa Intong I think this is a cool idea. Once a week might be tough to commit to but I would certainly be willing to participate.

John 

@Tyrone Lucas I understand the desire to payoff your mortgages and be completely debt free.  Based on your post it seems like you are looking to remove a large source of risk / uncertainty in your life.  My opinion is to keep the debt (fixed rater 30 year term) and have the cash flow pay down the debt overtime.

My view is that inflation will erode the value of the fixed debt and you will capture more of the gains and avoid some of the harmful impacts of inflation.  One way to feel more secure about this option would be to hold a sizeable (whatever amount allows you to sleep at night) of cash reserves.  While the return on the cash will be very low, it will be the buffer / insurance policy to mitigate any uncertainty you may experience in the future.  Having cash on hand to float you during a rough patch is the difference between a problem and a crisis.

John

@Kevin Reynolds feel free to reach out and I am happy to chat with you about our investing journey and the investments we are currently doing.

John