All Forum Posts by: John Kunick

@Ryan Brown, I've been doing rentals in Tulsa for many years.  I provide stove, dishwasher and microwave..  I do not provide refrigerator nor washer/dryer.  What I do is pretty typical as I have many friends who are landlords and we've compared notes.

I agree with @Bruce Woodruff, but would add the importance of doubling your efforts on verifying employment and especially checking with previous landlords about rental history.  Depending on how open the employers and landlords are, you might consider asking questions specific to how the prospective tenant performed during the last couple of years.

Originally posted by @Eric Bilderback:

@Rick Albert

That will inflate prices higher and put even more leverage into an already hyper financialized bubble.  If you want poor people to have housing get them better jobs, CA could stop letting tech companies import employees crack down on immigration so native Californians have a chance and employers can't pay next to nothing for wages.  

I love investors my self identity is a real estate investor,  but the last thing we all need is more perks from the government.  We are getting rich and other people who own assets are getting rich and everyone else is getting left behind.  

Eric, I totally agree with you..  More government programs to solve this issue will only make matters worse.  As some have pointed out on this thread, a lot of what got us in this mess is government programs.  When will we learn to quit relying on government or at least asking "how can government solve this issue"?  As Nathan and many others have wisely pointed out, there are opportunities for individuals to solve these issues and make a lot of money in the process.  It is going to be up to the individual, not government, to solve theses.  We just got to pray that government gets out of the way!

Hi everyone, enjoyed reading this thread.  But, the initial question is which markets are best for cash flow...  I know cash flow may not be the most important to all, but the question was specifically about that topic.  So, I would say the best cash flow markets tend to be in midwest/south markets where appreciation is not as "wealth-inducing"..  As someone else pointed out, this is a very specific strategy and can be extremely lucrative especially if you can scale # of properties fairly quickly..  Some very good examples of these markets are Tulsa (where I live), OKC, Indy, Wichita, KC, etc...  BTW, this specific strategy can also have some great tax advantages..

@Daniel Han, if you can find a good multi-family or self-storage syndication deal, you can easily get 5-9% COC w/ potential for upside.. I've done some where the COC ended up being closer to 10% and then the total ROI upon disposition was 20%+. Those deals are getting tougher given cap rates, but they are still out there.

I have also recently been doing some hard money lending getting 7-9% COC, but they don't offer upside..  You can get 7% while still keeping the funds relatively liquid.  The 9% assumes you are keeping the money tied up for 5 years.

@Nathan Gesner, thanks for your post..  I've posted much of your sentiment on many other threads.  In short, many of these tenants are taking advantage of a situation that government created.  Government has done similar things in the past that they say is "helping" one group of people or another when, in the long run, it hurts the very people they claim they will help.  IMO, it's basically liberal politicians creating dependency which creates dependable voters.  It's very sad for the whole country..  Bottom line: the people that have been taking advantage of these programs will be hurt the most as landlords will not rent to them in the future.

Full disclosure: during this whole eviction moratorium, we only had one person that we "evicted" due to non-payment.  This person said he was applying to various rental assistance programs which we helped him locate.  But, he was not willing to follow-through.  He then became non-communicative which ultimately led to us doing a "Pay or Quit" notice.  He left and we got a much better tenant in the property.  At same time, we had two other tenants where their jobs were impacted by COVID.  They communicated the situation and we worked with them and all parties stayed in close communication until they were able to get caught up.  Most landlords will work with tenants who are communicative and responsible.

I have investigated this one, but have yet to invest simply because my MFH syndications keep out-performing.  But, I am impressed with their performance
https://www.reliant-mgmt.com/

Originally posted by @Katie Jewell:

We have a tenant that is accepting the letter we sent outlining the extensive damages she did. We did it legally and sent an itemized invoice with receipts and she is willing to pay us back over a period of years. We want to write up a promissory note relating to this. Does anyone have anything they have used as a template for this type of situation that acknowledges the debt is due to damages and accepts responsibility and is legal in Ohio?

@Katie Jewell, wow, $10k of damages?  Not sure the nature of this, but do you really want this person to remain as a tenant?  Are you concerned with future damages or do you think this is a one-time situation?

I do have some experience with this and have had success albeit a much smaller amount ($3k).  Here were the keys:  1) Got tenant to agree the damage was due to his negligence and he signed a statement to that effect.  2) Got him to sign a Promissory Note (found it online for Oklahoma and simply copied/pasted) saying he would pay the full balance due by minimum of $200 payment per month due same date as normal rent.  All of this was detailed in Promissory Note.  3) Every time he makes a payment, I send him an updated balance which shows all payments and the decreasing balance as well as due dates on upcoming payments (easy Excel spreadsheet).

If he were not to pay the challenge then becomes trying to collect.  As you have pointed out, collection companies tend to not want to deal with small landlords/sums.  You can go the small claims route depending on laws in your area.  But, even if you get a judgment, many just will not pay and the enforcement is iffy.

Best of luck!

@Kelvin Yuchen, I totally agree with @Nathan Gesner..  In my experience over a couple of decades of doing rentals and helping others, the #1 failure mode is lack of capitalization.  Without knowing more about your personal situation, it would seem to me that you are putting yourself in a tight situation..  I am also assuming "GF" stands for girlfriend?  If so, is that a good situation to be partially counting on rent from her to help make ends meet on a personal investment?  I've seen these types of situations go south very quickly..  The way you've outlined the opportunity, I would run away from it.

@Mindy Jensen, I've evolved over the many years..  I've settled on either Venmo (probably 60% of tenants), Apple Pay (25%) and Direct Deposit (15%).  If DD, we require them to take a picture of their deposit receipt and text as proof of payment..  When we get a new tenant, we encourage Venmo, but will accept the other two..  Good luck with your project!