All Forum Posts by: Keric Allen

Congrats Eddie. Would you care sharing the numbers with us?

Financing? APR? Projected rental income if not rented out? Cash flow? What is your goal for this property? Long term hold? What part of Mobile is it in?

Prichard, AL has an extremely high crime rate, poor school districts and a ton of other problems. You most likely will be able to pick up properties super cheap (30k)  there, but will be renting them out for 400-500$. Not many property managers want to manage those properties so if you do manage to find a property Mgmt co willing to manage that property they are probably not the property Mgmt you want to be doing business with because any smart reputable property mgr would already know the headache of dealing with these kinds of properties is not worth it.

Look to West Mobile  or Semmes or across Mobile Bay in the Fairhope area.

@Robert Stack This comment is meant to protect you and help you before you find yourself in a worse situation, which you probably will from what you posted.

You should turn this over to professional management now!

You clearly know or have an idea of what you should be doing, or so you claim with the “I researched tenant/landlord relations extensively” comment but have failed to implement even the most basic processes.

Such as do I want to be in a month to month with this tenant or speak with her about signing an annual lease prior to and the day you take possession of the property?

Why didn’t you see/review the month to month lease for this tenant?

Why did you not do anything for 2 months? You probably wouldn’t have done anything if this issue had not come up.

You keep saying you know this, you should have done that, that you’re a pushover, and on and on.

Take appropriate action, set ground rules, wait... before that actually figure out what your ground rules are, then get your tenant to sign some kind of lease that was vetted by any competent person (lawyer/investor/broker/agent) and start implementing all the great advice you have supposedly learned/read.

If you can’t do that , then hire a property Mgmt co. and be done with it.

@Mary Woodman unfortunately this may become a $3,000 lesson in the importance of signing a contract that has been reviewed by a lawyer and you completely understand the risks involved, thoroughly vetting a wholesaler, and not letting anyone (wholesaler, agent, lender, inspector, etc.) pressure you into moving forward with anything until you have done your due diligence.

Even if that means you lose the deal.

If you lose the deal because it was quickly snatched up by another buyer then great, you are validated and it was probably a deal. If it’s still there after you do your own due diligence and you determine it’s a great deal, even better!

@Bruce Park completely agree with @Wayne Brooks. With 1-2 children, and unless you have a shed, one side of the two car garage typically becomes a big storage area. Bikes, cleaning supplies for vehicles, tools, pesticides, fertilizer, larger outside toys, etc. Just leave it as is.

Speaking for a 4 person family having storage is always nice to have and parking one car in the driveway is normal where I live (Louisiana) and have lived (TX, VA, UT, AL).

Thank you everyone for the input. I believe no lock boxes is the way to go to give the property, owner, and tenant the attention each deserves.

@James Wilcox agreed James. Pre-screening on the phone is key to not wasting time.

@Jack V. Ospina thanks Jack. I really like the idea of the mini open house for the rental. Even if there are only two parties there, it should build some urgency/demand for the property and get tenants moving toward signing a lease agreement.

@Patricia Steiner thank you! Great advice and suggestions.

Do you use a lockbox to allow prospective tenants quick/anytime access to the property?

Or!

Do you meet every tenant at the property?

Why?

I’ve read many replies about not using lock boxes because of the risk someone trashing the property, stealing items, putting the home up for rent after knowing the code, losing the keys, not putting keys back in the box, you want to see/get a “feel” for the type of person they are, etc.

People also recommended ways to prevent this by requiring photo identification of anyone viewing the property and only giving them the code once they have arrived at the property.

It seems that if you had more than 3-5 properties that you are managing or listing it would be an enormous waste of time and maybe impossible depending on the location of the properties to meet every screened/prospective tenant at each house.

With technology and people’s busy schedules why would you not want a screened prospective tenant to be able to view the property at 7pm because they just got off work? Why would you want them to wait until the next day or possibly a few days later to view your property when they are probably looking at other properties.