All Forum Posts by: Joseph Lee

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

@John Woodrich, I definitely agree with everything you're saying. If it's medical marijuana prescribed by a doctor, I see where there would be an issue with our response. And on us not being upfront at the showing, we honestly didn't know how to handle it with this being our first rodeo. You hear about the stupid and crazy things that tenants say and do, but you never quite believe them until you experience it yourself. 

Am I right in saying that you're fine to tell them that they can't smoke, but if it's medical, they need to make you aware of that for it to be illegal discrimination if you reject them for using the drug? I don't want to get too far in the weeds, but it seems like a very real hypothetical. 

Lastly, is most of the battle with fair housing is avoiding the appearance of possible discrimination? Listening to Brandon Turner's landlording book, it seems as though he's most concerned with avoiding the appearance of discrimination, as he recommends things that are extremely, extremely conservative when it comes to not being discriminatory (at least from my newbie perspective). Don't get me wrong- I don't want to end up in a courtroom trying to state my case for discriminating illegally, but there seems to be a more common-sense approach that is worried more about avoiding real discrimination while running your business as it should be in terms of evaluating tenant risk than avoiding any and all situations where it could be perceived as discriminating.

Again, I really appreciate the feedback from everyone. 

Thanks for the replies! I should mention that these are going into a rental duplex, so the 25 year Ikea warranty is actually very attractive, granted I haven't read their warranty terms to determine how useful it actually is.

 @Julie Marquez, have you had experience with either of those?

@Suzanne Griffiths, are you referring to GEC Depot? I've noticed their...loud...advertising on CL as well and have thought about checking them out. Maybe I won't waste my time.

Does anyone have any recommendations for low-cost kitchen cabinets in the Minneapolis/St.Paul/Twin Cities area? Any good imported RTA options that you've had experience with? On the value proposition scale, we'd like to stay near the Ikea level or above. Comparable quality to Ikea, but lower cost. Higher quality than Ikea, but same cost. You get the idea...

Hey everyone, just looking for a little feedback on a situation that occurred a few weeks ago in case the situation ever comes up again.

While looking to sublease the rental that we're currently renting (bought a duplex to house hack), we had a showing where one of the two prospective sub-lease tenants was...very high. It was easy to smell, he had glazed over eyes, etc. I realize state laws are changing around the country, but marijuana is still illegal in MN, and to top it off, he was the one who drove the couple to the unit.

After they left the showing, we sent them an email saying that we noticed he was under the influence and we wouldn't feel comfortable approving them as tenants and our landlord would not either (he's a police officer). We did not send them an application.

Any issue with this? How would you have handled it? I'm looking for feedback from both a legal standpoint and a business standpoint. 

To lay it out plainly, here is my justification- My analogy is that I like to have a drink, but I'm not going to show up to a showing drunk. If I did, I wouldn't expect the landlord to do anything different than we did. We did not discriminate against them based on a protected class, but discriminated because he was under the influence (breaking the law by using the drug) and came to a showing as such, not exhibiting a pattern of responsibility.

Thoughts/concerns/comments? If we were way off base, I have no problem being called out on it- just please explain why.

@Amy Ranae, thanks for the recommendation on Cozy! Personal anecdotes are always nice. And we're very excited about the new Longfellow digs- everyone we run into tells us about more and more cool stuff in the area that we didn't know was there.

@Matthew Lindquist, congrats to you as well! Full disclosure- I had to look up Bancroft on the map (I'm still working on the Mpls neighborhood names).... haha. If you haven't been to Northbound Smokehouse and Brewery yet, especially for their Sunday brunch, I highly recommend it. Awesome little brewpub. Also, I'd definitely be interested in the documents if you'd be willing to share. I'll PM you!

Hey @Brock Leinberger- early welcome to the Twin Cities! My wife and I are closing on our first property on Friday, which is a duplex that we'll be owner-occupying in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. Not sure on your age, but if you're mid-twenties to late-twenties like we are (or feel like you're young at heart), let me know if you want any insight on neighborhoods from a perspective that may be similar to yours. Otherwise I'd be open to simply chatting and learning some things from each other. We just won't talk college hockey.... ;) (I went to the U of M).

Hey @David Barnett, the city is actually the only trash collector in Mpls, so the costs are cut and dry (for better or worse). This link will give you costs for trash and recycling and also give you costs of water/sewage, which, as you mentioned, will only help you estimate due to it being a usage cost, but it's better than nothing. 

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/solid-waste/customer/solid-waste_billing

Hey @Blake S.-

Thanks for the recommendation! Just took a second to look it up, and it looks like something we'd definitely be interested in.

The duplex we'll be purchasing was on the MLS. It has quite a bit of room for value-adds, as it hasn't been updated in 30-40 years, but is in really good condition at the same time. It also has the potential to go from a 2/1 on each side to a 3/2 relatively easily. We didn't get a "steal" on it in it's current state, but if we estimated things correctly, we should get some good cash flow after we make those changes and bring the rent up to market.

Have you found it relatively easy to fill your vacancies in that area? I know vacancy rates are low all over the metro, but we weren't particularly sure on what to specifically expect in Longfellow. 

Thanks, everyone!

@David Barnett, I just checked out your profile- I'd be really interested in why you chose Mpls/St. Paul as your non-local market.

@Brandon Hershey, thanks for the offer. We may reach out to see if you can help us out from an insurance perspective.

Hey everyone! My wife and I are new investors currently living in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. We're two newly-married young professionals who have only been interested in real estate for about 4 months, but are extremely intrigued by the ability to build sustainable wealth and have more control over our financial health.

We've been listening to BP podcasts and scouring the site and forums for all the information we can for a few months, but decided it was finally time to get engaged in the community, especially with the past week we've had. We just had an offer accepted on our first property- a duplex in the Longfellow neighborhood of South Minneapolis- on Tuesday and will be closing in mid-December!

We will house-hack (owner-occupy) this first property for some amount of time, but the long-term plan will be to rent out both units and move on. It needs some updates, so we're very excited to learn and try out some home improvement skills.

After we get this property to where we want it, our plan is to continue in the buy-and-hold space of small multi-families and SFHs, and are open to doing that both locally and in a non-local market.

We're excited to network with you all, learn, and hopefully even be a source of knowledge on the forums at some point in the future.

Also, if you have any tax adviser recommendations in the Twin Cities area, please send them our way!