All Forum Posts by: Kevin Harrison

I think an over looked solution here would be reverse the stairs so that they exit into the dining room instead of the 1st floor bedroom. This will keep you from having to completely remodel to home to relocate the stairs. Relocate the bedroom #1 closet to underneath the new stairs and remove the current closet to make the room feel bigger. Then I would market it as a 2 bedroom with a spacious bonus area or office. This would cause the least amount of work to make the layout more functional. Also if you could remove the wall between the kitchen and living room to go with the more desirable "open Concept" I think you could have a winner here. It really all depends on what you pay for the house and what FMV for a 2 bedroom is in that area.

Just my 2 cents.

Yeah that definitely sounds fishy to me, Someone who is in this line of business needs to be efficient at getting documents to people and communicating. Also I don't ever want to be "surprised" about what is going on with my investment. I would demand she give you the signed lease and full accounting of the money ASAP. I would even go so far as to threaten legal action if she doesn't by some deadline (24-48 hours). Then I would most likely change PM's because this is just not acceptable.

While the home is nice and you can tell its recently updated, the kitchen and the main living are by the fire place both have kind of a strange lay out. Also your home is priced significantly higher than the median home price which is really going to shrink your market of prospective buyers, I would be willing to venture many of the walkthroughs during open houses were just tire kickers.

Just to echo what everyone else said. Definitely rekey. The first thing I do at any house I live in is give a copy of the key to my parents, a good friend, or a neighbor, just incase I ever accidently lock myself out. So there is definitely more copies of the keys out there than you think.  

This is an awkward question for people who are not investors because most don't realize that its public knowledge anyway. While he may have said he was "flipping the home" it is probably just some jargon he learned from TV and he is not really an "investor" per say. Investors are all about the numbers and as @Alex Yost said we expect it. People just hear those words on tv and use them because they think it makes them sound cool.  

I don't think you meant to be rude and for the future just be sure that people are really investors before you go asking the question. When im not sure I usually say something like "Do you mind if I ask how much it was?" and this way it makes you seem like you understand that this can be a touchy area for some people.

I wouldn't sweat it too much though. Just don't bring the subject back up and it should pass in a couple of days.

My thoughts exactly @Sean Gover, Make sure to sell the house to her for full price of FMV. Not that it is likely to go bad but if it does you will be upside down and she will own the home. You can just explain it to her as yall are taking out as much money as possible for reinvestment and you are doing it for both of you. Which is true but you will also be CYA.

I am the opposite of @Account Closed, I still say you need to raise the rent, but I would couch it in a different manner. I would sent them a nice letter telling them how much you have enjoyed having them as tenants and that you would love them to stay but as market prices have gone up so have your potential expenses on durables (appliances, roof, ac, Etc). Then I would let them know that the current FMV for the unit is $2500 a month, but since they have been such good tenants you are only going to raise their rent $100.

This makes you a little more money and you can raise rent again next year, but shouldn't scare them out of the home once they look around and see that you are not lying to them. The letter will also help them to understand that you are not raising the rent just to be greedy but because your cost of ownership has gone up (or at least your liability has) and should soften the blow of the rent increase.

You do need to raise the rent however or you are basically giving money away every month. Don't raise it too much at once though because 2 months of vacancy will cost you 1 year or more of the increased profit from the higher rent.

It really depends on the property, things will come up and as long as they are legitimate you fix them. Typically 2-3 things a year with usually a small list of things that can wait and all be done at once.  

I would do it. But as others have said I would get first and last months rent plus a security deposit, then I would make very clear to outline what happens if they break the lease. It might not hurt to just ask them if they are panning to buy a house once they are settled. At least if you know up front you can plan for it and advise them on how things will work when they are ready to leave if they don't finish out the lease term. Turnover sucks but if you can work with them this can be beneficial for both of you.

@Brandon Turner, I do mean something like that. The only issue is that even as a long time user I had no idea that existed. Not to nit pick because I do appreciate the site and business you are running, but it would be really helpful if the submission process could be streamlined, the link for that was easier to find (possibly posted somewhere in your face on the welcome to BP/newbies page), and if it was made into a searchable format because once the number of defined words grows it will take forever to search anything. I know all the changes that I just suggested cost money and take man hours but I think that it would be a huge benefit for the new people on here.

Thank you for responding so promptly.