All Forum Posts by: Karissa Sampson

@Robert Shedden Just to dig a little deeper on your post..

In the eyes of the law, I'm not sure that this guy is even considered to be your Tenant and you his Landlord at this point, as that relationship has not really been established other than verbal words exchanged. Just a thought. Sounds like you're planning to give the money back which I commend you for.

Getting someone under contract on a lease and security deposit in hand....its not over until its over.

I think most commenters have given great advice already. I would agree, give back the security deposit. I don't see how you can legally keep it. Its just good human decency. It sucks because you turned others away and you may feel like you're in a bad spot, but you still hold the upper hand. If you had that much interest to begin with, you'll rent it out just fine. Contact the people you turned away and offer it to them. You don't need to tell them some long story or make concessions for them. If you are having a hard time getting them or others interested again, give a discount on the first month's rent if you need to in order to get someone under lease. In the future, consider having them sign a lease and provide deposit at time of lease signing. Write it in the lease that deposit is due within 24 hrs of signing the lease otherwise the lease becomes invalid. If they don't sign the lease within 24hrs, cancel the document (easy to do on docusign)

This is our practice:

-List the property for rent online

-Set up showings. If someone actually shows up to the showing, there aren't any immediate red flags from our perspective, and they are seriously interested, we send them the link to the application at the conclusion of the showing. This weeds out window-shoppers online and people who never show up for the showing and are a waste of our time to deal with. I let them know that applications are being sent to other interested parties and give a deadline for which to complete the application on which date we will review all applicants and choose. We make it clear that if they do not send a completed application, they will not be considered. This weeds out more people.

-We sit down with the completed applications and review them (in accordance to the fair housing act). We choose top 3 and contact #1 first. Offer them a lease, tell them the deadline to sign and provide security deposit is 24 hours. Most people sign and send security deposit right away. Occasionally, they don't and we cancel the document on docusign and contact #2..#3 etc. with the same approach.

-We try to notify people if they were not selected to offer a lease. We are very very careful to follow the law set out in the fair housing act.

Good luck!

-I usually let people know that other Our practice is to continue to list and show the property until we have a lease signed and security deposit in hand. I let the interested party know, in a cordial way, that we are continuing to show the property to other people. That puts some motivation out there for them to sign the lease and send their deposit as soon as possible.

@Atha Winston Thank you for your response. I'll let you know if I go and what my experience was.

@John Underwood In Colorado, there was a public outrage about tax liens and transfer of deeds so they've added on restrictions over time. We have a 3 yr redemption period. Any premium paid over the original tax lien amount at the sale is not required to be paid back by the property owner. There are minimum requirements for  the number and timing of notifications you must send to the property owner (certified letter or similar I believe). I also believe once you apply for the deed at the end of the 3 yrs, they give one last notice to the owner and they have one last chance to redeem (a month or a few months, cant remember) before the deed is transferred. *If I'm incorrect on any of this, please chime in. I'm not an expert on tax lien sales in Colorado. Im just starting to look into them*

Seems like in Colorado, the laws are such that its nearly impossible to actually get a property deed out of a tax lien sale. I also have heard that many of the liens are going for large premiums and hardly any reasonable interest. Kinda seems to make tax lien sales a moot point. But, I'll see for myself at the tax lien sale.

Check out Decatur. I lived there while attending grad school at Emory. Its close enough to Emory (University and Medical Center) to be attractive to students, professors, and hospital employees alike but far enough away that prices drop. Its just ITP (inside the perimeter) but as the above poster stated, if you drive 10 minutes away to the east the neighborhoods are not as nice. This can be to your advantage, allowing you to purchase near that border as Decatur inevitably sprawls outwards. Just my 2 cents from living there for a few years.

I have recently been interested in tax lien sales as well. In my county, the list and property details are publicly posted at least 2 months ahead of time. I ran the list and connected the dots, and found some interesting properties. I have no idea what to make of them and why they're on the tax lien sale list for later this week?! Maybe someone here could make sense of it for me and explain why these properties would even have outstanding taxes due.

Property 1. Small 2 building apartment complex with about 40 units in a class B/high C part of town. Early 1980's build. I just watched an exterior remodel and upgrade to the utilities go on this summer. They repainted the buildings to modern colors, re-roofed them, did a lot of work with the utility meters and moved them into these bump-outs attached to the buildings (rather than stuck to the side like an eyesore) and patched up/repainted the parking lot. It didnt look like they did any significant remodel of the interior. The complex is right down the street from me. County records show it sold about 1.5 yrs ago for about $19 million.(I live in an expensive area, but I would not expect this high of a price. An 8-plex here goes for 1 to 1.5 million) Now it has $15,000 in outstanding unpaid taxes on it and going to lien sale in 6 days. What gives? Surely whomever can afford that purchase price and renovations has 15k for taxes? Right?

Property 2 & 3. Two houses on separate lots. One large house/large lot and one small house/small lot. They are at the end of the street that butts up to open space in Boulder, Colorado in the Chatauqua neighborhood. The house has not been sold since it was built in the late 50's. Its held in a Trust in the name of the couple who built it and managed by an LLC consulting group out of NYC who manages trusts and investments "for high end clientele". The couple divorced many years ago, husband moved to NY and died a couple years ago. From the phonebook, the wife (in her 80s I believe) still lives in the big house. There are multiple 30 year old age group names assigned to the smaller house. There's $400 outstanding on the big house and $14,500 outstanding on the small house in taxes. What gives? Is the LLC not managing the properties in the trust correctly and aren't paying the taxes? Unless they fix the problem in 5 days, theres going to be a tax lien on the properties. Together, those properties are likely worth a conservative $5 million ranging from $5-8 million. Seems likely that someone related to those properties is going to pay the lien or be at the lien sale before the 3yrs wait period is up and it goes to deed. It would seem that the play here is to buy the liens, perhaps pay premium for them over the lien price, give your required notices to the property owner and then hope the lien goes under the radar for 3 years then file for deed. In Colorado, I believe once you apply for the deed, theres a minimum wait period of a couple months and they will notify the owner that someone has applied for the deed and it gives them once last chance to pay the lien (so it seems a lot of people finally pay at that point and its really rare that a deed actually changes hands due to a lien sale.) Maybe you buy the liens hoping for the return on your investment plus interest but I bet the interest rate gets bid down to almost nothing making that strategy ineffective. AGH! So mind boggling to me.

Hell...I can't make total sense of all of it. I might pay my $5 and go spectate this week and ask people about their experience and strategies. Also to see who buys these 3 liens, why, and for how much.

Keypads all the way. I have 5 "doors" now at 3 properties and they all have separate keys to keep track of, make copies of, and potentially have floating around out there in ex-tenant's possession. Changing locks isn't hard but its annoying and having a fistful of keys around my house aggravates me. I will be switching to keypad only doors from now on. I rent out two bedrooms separately at one unit (a townhome), but I don't feel that its necessary to keep keyed/keypad locks on the bedroom doors. They're just the usual bedroom doors with locks that lock from the inside when someone is in there. If the situation is such at your property that you want locked bedroom doors, I would still go with a keypad.

Thank you for your reply. It’s actually not the appraisal on the house under contract (that was done early on and I’m under contract for Less than appraised value) but rather a rent schedule for my current residence. 

The underwriter for the SFH that I'm under contract for won't provide final approval until he sees an appraiser perform a rent schedule on my current duplex that I live in half of. I've provided him with a signed lease for the half currently rented and proof of on time rent collections for the past 3 months as well as a signed lease with deposit and first months rent from the tenant who will move into my half once I vacate the property. Including bank statements to show the deposit in my account to back this all up. So now, I'm 6 days from closing and they won't approve the loan without verifying my rents against a rent schedule.
The seller has so far indicated he isn’t willing to move the loan determination and closing date potentially exposing me to losing my earnest money if the appraiser‘s opinion differs from what I AM ACTUALLY COLLECTING FOR RENT. 

Has anyone heard of such a thing?!

I usually never say never but....I will never put a seam in a laminate counter top next to the sink. (No matter how good you seal it, it will get water damaged.) I will never grant access to the garage in a house hack situation if there is nowhere else for me to store things. (I have a ton of outdoor gear and storage needs for house maintenance items. I don't need my tenant using the garage as a catch all for their crap that they cannot seem to part with. That being said, I'm putting a smaller 8x6 shed in the back yard for the tenant to use at the new property.)

Colin. I cannot corroborate on whether a lender will look at you moving to a less expensive property in a negative way. I will say that if you are still working remotely, its worth your time to look outside of Boulder proper for other investments. My strategy is buy and hold, a mix of appreciation with cash flow. I take a hit on cash flow in return for speculation on appreciation over time. It's an expensive market to play the investment game but I firmly believe there's a niche for all of us in this area. I'm curious what type of lender you're using? I've had the best rates and response from local credit unions. Can you open a HELOC or refinance your current mortgage? If you have student loans, are they on an income-based repayment plan? For those of us out there with high student loan debt burdens (so long as theyr'e Federal loans), changing to an IBR plan lowers your monthly obligation to that debt and really helps your debt to income ratio on paper. (You can still pay more than the minimum IBR payment without penalty)