All Forum Posts by: Karl B.

Tenants park in a large parking lot than can get icy. In my lease I have "Tenants are responsible for snow and ice removal. Walking on the driveway is done at one's own risk and (LLC name) will not be held responsible for any injuries that could result to both tenant(s) and guest(s). By signing this lease you are accepting that (LLC name) is not liable for any falls or injuries on the driveway or anywhere else on the property and that you, the tenant(s), are responsible for the safety of your guest(s) both financially and legally."

Most of my deals consist of the listing agent being the dual agent or buying a property with no agents involved. 

Now that I think of it, only the properties I've lived in (one is a duplex I still have and is fully-occupied) have had a buyer and seller agent involved. 

Anything I've bought strictly as a rental was either a dual agent scenario or I worked directly with the seller to buy the property with no agents involved (I literally did this for my first multi-family deal back in 2016).

And don't feel too bad about the shady selling agent and seller as it happens. I had this happen as well (they accepted my offer and my selling agent claimed as he was filling out the sales contract the selling agent contacted him and asked for me to give my best and final offer. My agent told the other agent he had no idea they were running an auction. 

The seller then accepted another offer - when the offer they accepted fell through and they came back to me I gave them a lower offer because at that point I didn't want the place. Had the selling agent and seller been decent they would have sold the property for a few thousand more than they ended up getting). 

FHA rules state for a 2-4 unit property you must move into one of the units within 60 days of closing the transaction.

I'm not sure where you're located but chances are your state requires the new owner of the property to honor terms of the existing leases. So you can't automatically kick a tenant out - you would have to look and see if any are on a month-to-month lease or if a lease happens to be ending soon.

I really don't track it. I simply make what I consider to be safe investments as well as buy more assets. The idea of accumulating assets is much more exciting to me VS knowing what I'm worth on paper. 

Hello. Flooring-wise I put tile in the bathroom and kitchen and LVT everywhere else. 

It's wild that CD rates have dropped almost a point while the Fed hasn't even had a chance to move rates. Noticing this, it appears everyone is confident rates will drop. 

Of course, inflation will remain higher than 2% so we'll see if the Fed is going to keep raising until they get to their 2% target or if they'll stand pat (my gut says the latter).

The economy isn't as good as they claim as savings is down and credit card debt is way up. 

The interest rate hikes have largely done what they were supposed to do - slow economic growth. 

I think the Fed will stand pat at the next meeting and perhaps the next after that but of course there are outside factors such as whether or not our clown government prints more money and injects it into the system, which would of course stoke inflation yet again. 

Hello. When a property is vacant I install a Simplisafe security system which costs around $30 a month. 

Once the property is rented and filled I can remove the system with ease and can cancel service. 

For my larger multi-family properties I have a professional surveillance camera system installed. 

I have a few Hikvision systems which I really like. The upfront cost isn't cheap but the nice thing is there's no monthly fee unless you want the footage uploaded to the cloud, which I don't need. I have a 2 TB NVR on most of them which works well and the video quality is very good. 

For smaller properties I let tenants install doorbell cams and one tenant even installed his own surveillance camera system (he's a handy guy and I was cool with him doing the install).

I'll tell you about my experience with them. In one of my C-class multi-family properties one of the apartments had a fridge with an ice maker. The plastic tube that brings water to the fridge to make ice cubes became brittle, broke and water leaked all over the kitchen floor. From that point on I made certain there would be no more ice makers. 

Also, ice makers tend to break before the legit, essential fridge parts go bad (compressor, control board, etc.). If a tenant moves in and there's no ice maker it's simply another thing that won't potentially damage your property or require a costly repair. 

In closing :-) I've never heard of a potential tenant not moving into a property because the fridge doesn't have an ice maker. 

Whenever a tenant asks if he/she can install a camera (whether a Ring or a complete surveillance system - which one of my SF renters asked to do) I gladly allow it as long as the install is done correctly. 

I only allow the doorbell cameras that are battery powered as they cause minimal drilling during install (they even have one line of camera that doesn't require drilling which is great). 

One of my SF tenants installed 6 cameras himself; he's very handy and I'm all for having cameras monitoring the property as:

A) It deters crime

B) If someone is dumb enough to commit a crime it's recorded

C) If someone gets hurt or falls on the property (or claims to have) it's recorded

D) Having exterior cameras makes most tenants feel safer

E) Some insurers offer a discount when a surveillance system is installed (the same goes for an alarm system)

I don't know why your one tenant is so against outdoor cameras but it's a benefit to everyone. I've had several tenants have their car hit on the street and the cameras were a great help. 

I would tell the tenant to leave your contractors alone and tell the contractors to use their cell phone to video record the tenant berating them so you can - if you choose to evict - have compelling evidence to show the judge.

I have been in your position and have dealt with pain in the (bleep) inherited tenants. One lady was so bad I literally hired a property manager to deal with her (this is literally the only time I ever hired a PM - just to deal with that one tenant - and it was worth every penny!) - and the tenant received a 30 day notice toward the end of her lease.