All Forum Posts by: Katie Ritter

Viktor please let me know if you have a list of investors you email deals to, I am would be interested in being added to it. I am local to Scranton and am just starting out.

@Marc Winter Any chance we could revive this even if we did a meet up virtual and hopefully can move to in person? I would love to connect with others in NEPA.

Congrats on purchasing your duplex! My husband and I are in a very similar position, we purchased a duplex with a tenant on a month to month lease in April.  We dropped off a letter the day we closed introducing ourselves and going over a few items, clarification on their rent, the utilities they cover, making sure we are included on their rent insurance as an interested party, as well as the items in the apartment they own.  Ours was a little tricky because the tenant was friends of the seller so there was no lease, no security deposit and they own the fridge and dishwasher.   We have kept the tenant on a month to month to see how they were, luckily despite horror stories you hear about inherited tenants he has been great!  My husband lived in the vacant unit and we have been trying to fix it up to rent.  As we get closer to getting the unit fixed up that my husband stayed in, we are going to increase the rent in the inherited tenants unit and also put a yearly lease with all the official documents together.  

Do you have Brandon and Heather Turner's book on Managing Rental Properties?  It is a fantastic read and offers an entire zip file of real estate documents.

@Ravi P.  We think originally our realtor told us it was being rented at $650, I have tried to go back through my emails to see if I have it in writing from them.  We entered the rent numbers in the BP calculators so I know we got it from somewhere.  Unfortunately finding it easily in our record keeping is proving difficult and certainly something we will do differently on the next deal. Interestingly when we got the appraisal on the property they confirmed with the realtor that the rent was $650 for the occupied unit.  

On another note, I am curious do you get your estoppel's notarized? We didn't get ours notarized 1) because I didn't realize it was necessary 2)it is difficult to get things notarized during this environment.   I only made a good judgement call because of Brandon and Heather Turner's book on Managing Rental Properties, it has been instrumental in doing our first deal!

@Mindy Jensen Definitely will work on getting that security deposit and putting them on our lease once we close.  The walk-through is actually a bit of a sticking point since in PA the seller's realtor is not allowing us to enter the occupied unit because of COVID-19, so we are trying to work out a FaceTime call. Do you have any advice on doing a virtual walk through?

@Evan Polaski thanks for the input and the recommendation on receiving a "credit".  Our realtor is looking into the discrepancy and I hope like you mentioned it was unintentional.  

All- I appreciate all of your input.  To answer a couple of questions to better clarify; the unit should probably be around $675 per month based on 2-3 bedrooms.  We believe our realtor had mentioned that the tenant was paying but we aren't sure if they assumed based on the listing that indicated the vacant property could be rented at $650  and if we all assumed that is what the current tenant is paying.  We have since received information from the appraiser that had spoken with the listing agent confirming the tenant was paying $650 per month.   We will see if we are able to fix this, with either a credit for the lost rent or we can change the rent the first month back to $650 since while it is an 8% increase as indicated by the above comment it is what they have been paying.  I also like the suggestion that we collect a credit as a credit for their security deposit.  We have definitely learned a lot about what needs to be done before negotiations are complete.  

We are set to close on our first investment property in mid-April.  The unit it is a duplex with one of the units rented by a tenant for about 6 years. We were under the impression that the tenant was paying $650 per month.  When we finally got the estoppel agreement signed, he is paying $600 per month and no security deposit.  The tenant is close friends with the sellers and the tenant is currently on a month to month agreement.  Should we push the issue of the extra $50 per month before we close or do we create a new contract with the increase of $50 per month or should we not push the issue since it would be tough to get a new tenant in during this pandemic?  

Hi Mitchell, Congrats on your purchase!  I found your question while I am searching for the same answer. I am in the process of buying an up/down duplex with one tenant  in the second floor.  I am wondering what to do about the lease and the water and electrical bills as well.  Also wondering what to do about deposits?  Would love to see hear much you have learned in 10 months. 

There is an investment property that is over 3,000 sq ft filled with at one point high end items.  I wouldn't consider it hoarding but the amount of clothing this husband and wife had blows my mind.  Some items are still in their packaging and most clothing has been purchased from stores such as Neiman Marcus.  The house has not been lived in for 10 years, that is why I would say the items have at one point been high end.  What do you recommend in emptying the contents of this home?  I think it is important to note that this home is in rural PA so options like Goodwill picking up might be unlikely.  I have considered selling some of the items but the woman was so petite like shoe size 4, I don't see a huge market for it.  Has anyone else experienced something similar?