All Forum Posts by: Joseph Walsh

As to your question on what to do. Sounds like you need to finish the reno, and get it on the market. Or, do a cash out refi, pay off your HML, and try to recover some of the overages as a short term rental for a year or two, THEN sell it. DFW is a tech and defense hub, so 3-6 month executive leases might be the way to go.

Good luck, and sorry your repair estimates really let you down here.

 Bigger question:  If they just stop paying you, what do you do then?  Eviction.  In most places, when you evict, you don't end up with a judgement for the remainder of the lease, just what you are out, plus the deposit (and honestly, it can end up being costly), and to actually collect?.  And if you really are a jerk, they can be a jerk with the eviction process, costing you even more.  If they are willing to pay an additional month after they give notice, I'd take it, and treat the deposit as you normally would.  If they move out spotless, they get it back. 

I like this question.  I would be financially free on $6k a month (until all my kids are through college, then I'd only need about $4k), but I would be willing to quit working at $10k a month.  Then again, 10 years from now I'd like to not have any properties, and just be living off of more "passive" investments, so that extra $4k a month would go toward those investments and health insurance.

How am I gonna get there?  Looking at student rentals now, and some select cash flowing SF properties in higher appreciation areas to "long flip" 5-6 years down the road.  Plan B is to be a burden on my children :D

I have found disputing the appraisal to be useless and a waste of your time, but YMMV. In this case, the rents look really good though, so why not refi, pay off the HML, and payback your heloc with the cashflow. Basically you have 24k in a deal that should cashflow 1k+ a month assuming your rent estimates hold true, which is amazing. you can use the income to pay down the heloc faster, and use the heloc as the reserve, then build up the reserve after the heloc is paid off, instead of building it up first. You might just have to push out the final "R" a bit is all. Plus if a sell opportunity comes along you could then just sell it and go to the next one.

Also, being a recent grad, consistently paying the loans will help build that credit score, which can help significantly down the road.  Some of the interest is a tax deduction as well.  That said, I would still hatch a plan to pay it off in the 5-7 year time frame, and not have it linger for 15 years because ultimately that cash flow can be put to good use for investing.  But as noted here, I'd go for "both" if I could go back in time.  House-hack my way to several MF properties, and ideally roll them into small apartments by now.

Since they are so understanding, and if there is indeed equity in the property, even after the missed payments/fees, maybe they would be willing to refinance the property and debt, possibly forgiving some of the fees.  That way, they actually get their money, and potentially more.  Just a thought.  "Hey, I really appreciate what you did with my mother, had we realized we would of taken over payments...now that the estate is cleared, maybe we can refinance the property with a new loan in my name, ...." type of conversation.  It sounds like a pretty awesome bank that you might want to do business with anyway!

That is quite a leap from people not wanting every tenant to know where you live to "not do squat" and "....and I would not even try to deal fairly with him from that point on. He would be crap under my shoes as far as I was concerned."  And from the tone, it sounds like, if you found that out, even if he was a model land lord, you'd suddenly feel slighted and instantly become a tenant where one wonders what you were taught about operating in a "man's world"  My point, don't assume.  Ever have a tenant show up at your house, on a Sunday night, as you sat down for dinner, to try and "negotiate" a partial rent payment (already 10 days late) with the balance spread out over the next 3 months?  I have.  Then again, I now use PM exclusively.

And despite my posting, I must say, I learned a lot and exactly what I wanted out of a PM by self managing first.  However, self managing first did hold us back several years, since I had to "sell" the wife, and the initial experience wasn't good. 

Fair enough, That was just stated to point out there is a distinction. What was quoted however is the HUD guidelines relative to the fair housing act. Thanks for pointing it out though, as I did not and therefore was potentially unclear.