All Forum Posts by: Joni Chin

@Roderick Baker Jr

@Ian Kearns

This just happened to me a a couple months ago.

Tenant shut the power off (!!) to his unit, and left to visit family in another state. Tenant had renters insurance, but renters insurance did not cover it! My insurance did not cover this type of incident either, many/most won’t. Luckily it was discovered fairly early, yet floors& walls were damaged, I had a $300 plus plumbing bill to repair the pipes and there is damage to the floors and walls, which will cost over $1000 in repairs. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything in the lease to address this but I will from now on.

The tenant knows that he will be responsible for the repair cost, which will be billed to him soon. Since there wasn’t anything specified in the lease, and he’s been an otherwise great tenant I’m probably just going to split the cost with him.

@Steven Picker

@Steven Picker

@Noah M. I’ve gone the cheaper route and the more expensive route, and personally if it was to hold properties I own I would not go the cheaper route ever again! It cost me more time, errors on decisions about member VS manager managed LLC‘s, operating agreement wasnt specific /protective for properties, and even caused difficulty in opening bank accounts. In the end after trying to “save money” I went and got the unlimited entities (and many other benefits) that will save me money if I continue to get additional properties like I plan to over time. And I’m getting new properly written operating agreements drafted for my three ”generic” LLC’s at no extra cost. You have Airbnb properties—if it were me I’d definitely get those in LLC’s. I have liability Insurance too but these days its not enough.

I do for all my home appliances as well as some of my rentals as so far it’s been well worth it

@cassie Aloha Cassie, I’m another Hawaii resident investing OOS for the last few years. Careful with the plumbing, electrical, etc they can add up to big bucks—noticed that sellers are covering the cost which is good. Just wondering about age of home and whether you got sewer inspection, as that’s not usually covered under the standard home inspection. And sometimes that will result in an expensive surprise like I did a few years ago. (Old sewer pipes and invading tree roots don’t go well together!)

Waikiki condos are building by building you should only be comparing units in same building. In some cases if it’s significantly less in the same building it could also mean that the building is not all 100% fee simple and that the very low priced ones are sold leasehold. Some owners never chose to buy the fee interest. Just like the example the Hawaiian king condo unit you posted as an example is leasehold the leasehold rent is $311 month and renegotiates in a couple of years, (was it 2020 or 2021??) and expires in 2036(?) —wow thought by now all would have converted to fee simple—anyway-I wouldn’t buy something that the lease is renegotiating in just a couple of years. Put it this way, 30-40 yrs ago those lease rents were like $15-35 mo, shocking to see that they are $311!! What’s going to happen in two years what if it goes up to $600 or more? I’ve seen it happen with single family homes here. I would stick with fee simple only. I know a friend who’s family owned their house but on leasehold land when it came to “renegotiation” they couldn’t afford the lease rent increase (big increase) and they certainly couldn’t afford to buy the fee simple interest in the land—so they had to just walk away. Lost all their equity.

Well I closed on a property yesterday that I was going to flip. Going in I knew it was tenant occupied but on a month to month (but paying weekly) and it was a fast close and typically I deal with any inherited tenant situation while still in escrow and have some kind of contingency/agreement in place for that but I bought through a wholesaler this time and it was basically a no contingency deal. So after closing I was finally able to get the contact info for the seller and the tenant and she told me she has not given any notice to them except that she texted my info to them when I asked her to notify the tenants about the sale & if she gave them the 30 day notice.  And they were surprised and a little upset that the seller was not truthful to them when they asked if the property was for sale. (great)  Well according to landlord tenant laws they are still supposed to get a 30 day written notice so now that its mine I will have to give them written notice. And I know that legally an email or text notification which the tenant acknowledged isn't sufficient right? (This is Indianapolis) Which will add a few extra days before that 30 day countdown begins, since I will have to get someone there to deliver a notice. This is my first purchase in Indiana and I didn't buy this place to be a rental but a flip so the entity is not set up to handle dealing with rentals and tenants, which is a subject for whole other discussion topic! Depending on how quickly we are ready to start working on the project I'm just wondering if I should do a cash for keys kind of deal in exchange for encouraging him to move out a little early and avoid any holdovers. So just looking for advice from others who have been in this situation. 

Like the others have posted, I would definitely rent by the room—I do it on both of my rentals which are near colleges. I have no trouble renting have way more applicants than available rooms. You can get more rent that way too. And the other suggestion—rent out to college groups—team or band etc. And air Bnb too is worth a try. Like someone else mentioned, I will post openings on CL in the spring and also during summer, there are a quite a few students that procrastinate or their housing plans fall through, at least in my area!