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All Forum Posts by: Kevin Phu

Kevin Phu has started 61 posts and replied 472 times.

Post: House Hack Homeowners or renters insurance?

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170
Originally posted by @Tyler Brenneman:

I'm also very curious what you all ended up finding/doing


I carry my own rental property insurance and require each tenant to carry their own renter's insurance to cover their personal belongings. 

Post: Should I IRRRL Refi my VA loan?

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170
Originally posted by @Aaron Breitbarth:

@Kevin Phu Are you still locked in at that rate?

Currently at 3.0% on that property. Will be looking to refinance again soon due to the lower rates right now. 

Post: Price Reductions: What does this mean?

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170

Awesome insight! Thanks! It makes perfect sense. How would you use these price reductions to determine a fair price? What if the listing keeps going down and down and down? Possible that there are major issues that they are hiding?

Post: Price Reductions: What does this mean?

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170

I'm just starting my research about the Huntsville and surrounding areas. I've just been looking through the active listings on Realtor.com and I've noticed that a lot of the listings that have price reductions are reducing their prices by ~10% after 1-2 weeks on market. To me, that seems fairly quick to drop your price. What would you say this indicates? Are sellers getting nervous that properties aren't being valued at what they think it should anymore and quickly dropping to get a sale? Are the amount of strong offers shortly after listing decreasing? Are sellers getting desperate for a sale due to COVID? What's your take on how to interpret this "trend"?

Post: CA-Tenant Terminated Lease Before COVID Restrictions

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170
Originally posted by @Nathan Gesner:

Extending him sounds right but why did you forgive his rent?

I made a judgement call based on the fact that I knew he would not be at the house due to his employer's mandate. 

The rental and job is in the same city. His agency threatened to terminate him if he violated a government employee movement restriction by leaving the local area (50 mile radius) of his primary residence on record which had left as his parent's house which is 90 miles away. So he can't (technically) go to his rental and move his stuff out into his new apartment. Rock and a hard place. 

If he is still unable to move out by the end of this month, I will start charging him again and also to provide documentation from his employer stating that he cannot leave his "primary" residence.

I'm in a tough spot too though. I can't get up to my property (3.5 hour drive) to get it cleaned and rent ready so I can get a new tenant in there. So that room will be vacant for the near term unfortunately. I don't have a property manager. Multiple ones I've talked to don't want to take on a individual bedroom property :(

Post: CA-Tenant Terminated Lease Before COVID Restrictions

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170

Hoping to bump this up to get some thoughts and advice on my situation...

Post: Mortgage Forbearance Question

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170
Originally posted by @Drake Johnson:

Aaron Chapman is a top 20 ranked loan originator. He pushes out some very good content. Watch this if you haven't made your decision already.

https://marketingsnmc.wistia.com/medias/yqe9ybveyt

Great video! Shared it on my FB hoping it prevents at least one of my fellow investors from making a play that will severely impact their wealth building.

Post: BiggerPockets now has an OFFICIAL Facebook Group!

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170

Joined!!! Yayyy!!!

Post: Proposed: Landlord Relief Fund

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, introduced a bill in the U.S. House calling for a nationwide cancellation of rent and mortgage payments until the coronavirus pandemic has ended which also would include the creation of a Landlord Relief Fund that would cover the rental income lost. For a landlord to receive those funds, they would be required to follow federal guidelines for fair lending and renting practices for five years. The guidelines, which can also be found in the text here, are:

i
. a rent freeze;
ii
. just-cause evictions;
iii
. mandatory documentation with any just-cause eviction;
iv
. no source of income discrimination;
v
. coordination with local housing authorities to make new vacancies eligible
to voucher holders;
vi
. provision of 10 percent equity to tenants; and,
vii
. no admissions restrictions on the basis of:
1. sexual identity or orientation,
2. gender identity or expression,
3. conviction or arrest record,
4. credit history, or
5. immigration status.
viii
. Additionally, landlords cannot attempt to collect any back-rent when the
moratorium is lifted,
ix
. they cannot retaliate in any way against residents and
x
. they cannot report residents to debt collectors or debt services to harm
their credit.

Now, chances are that it would never get past the Senate and be signed into law but this is ridiculous. How do you guys interpret require VI "provision of 10 percent equity to tenants"? Is that saying the tenant's would have a right to 10% of the properties equity? I don't quite understand. 

Post: Property owners in CA forced to reduce rents by 25%

Kevin PhuPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Diego, CA
  • Posts 507
  • Votes 170
Originally posted by @Dana Weick:

Denise,

I object to the assertions in the original post that it "would force every rental property owner in California to reduce rents by 25%".   It does not.
Follow the links and you get an offer to join CAA, $193.25/yr was the fee quoted to me


Then to the bullet points:

  • Forcing landlords to reduce rents by 25% even if a tenant cannot demonstrate a hardship or need.

As your post shows, tenants do have to show "hardship or need"

  • Allowing judges and the court system to set rents and change the rental agreements already in place.

True

  • Assuming every tenant is facing a hardship related to COVID-19 and must be compensated for this hardship.

Not true, there is no assumption as your reply show

  • Protecting nuisance tenants as it does not require tenants to answer an unlawful detainer complaint

Not true, tenants are required to answer an unlawful detainer as your reply shows

    • Mandating that rental property owners demonstrate an economic hardship to collect the contracted rent.

    True

    Finally, all this is only active while a state of emergency for the COVID19 virus is active plus 15 days  and completely expires Jan 1, 2021.  I think it sets a bad precedent and do not consider it a reasonable law but the assertions in the original post are substantially false and inflammatory as can be seen by the subsequent comments

     Straight from the text, 

    "In the absence of evidence to the contrary, if the increased costs for household necessities or decreased earnings took place at any point between March 4, 2020, and March 4, 2021, then the court shall presume that the increased household costs or decreased household earnings was due to the COVID-19 virus."

    If I understand that correctly, if the tenant cannot provide evidence that increased costs or decreased income was to CV-19, it shall be assumed that it was. So pretty much any tenant can claim hardship without actually having one.