All Forum Posts by: Mark Forest

Any other comments are welcome.

Well her rent comes out to $28 a day and since you can't rent a motel for that amount we kicked in an additional $40 a day. So she gets $68 a day to use anyway she wants. I did not know renters insurance pays for that. 

One of my houses has a cracked sewer pipe so the tenant can't use drains. Obviously I am not charging rent for this time, but what amount is fair for motel accomodations? Why wife is good at finding bookings using Priceline and found a decent motel, but tenant said other guests were smoking there, so she checked out. 

That is what I was thinking too. As our lease states we do not do month to month but for non renewal purposes can I make the final date 12-1 or 30 days from when he refused to sign a new lease which would be 11-22?

My yearly lease with a tenant ended 8-1-17. We were crazy busy in August so I did not call tenant to sign a new lease. By Sep. we started to text and voice message him about signing the new  lease, but he did not reply. He continued to pay Aug. and Sep rents a few days late. By the middle of Oct he had not paid so we sent him a friendly reminder and again reiterated we needed  a new lease signed. He paid, but sent us an angry bizzare letter saying that the lease is now month to month and he refuses to now sign a year lease. Our lease states we don't do month to month. From his letter I can see he has issues I don't want to deal with.

So do I evict him for violating the lease for not agreeing to sign a one year lease or go along with his logic and say if we are now month to month you have 30 days to leave as I am not renewing?

@Austin Fruechting  How did you finance your first big multi family?  It seems to me a bank or other financial institution won't look at anyone who does not already have some buildings, but you can't get buildings before you get the money.

@Austin Fruechting  I am certainly interested in hearing from anyone that successfully runs 156 units!  When you go after deals what are you doing?  Are you working with a broker and analyzing the financials?    When you get to your point (which I want to do) it would be impossible to work on that many leaky sinks etc.  So how did you do it? At what point did you hand off the work and only go after deals?  I would like to see what you do on a typical day.  Thanks for any pointers.

@Patrick M.  "And let's get something straight- no one will run our properties as well as us. "

That is SO true. There have been so many times where I was working on one project I discovered a deeper and bigger problem.  A contractor who I hired to do his specialty would probably never tell me about the other problem because he just wants his money for that job. I care about the big picture. 

Thanks for all the great comments above, but I am surprised no one disagrees with us.  I DO want to make big money, but I think the idea of the hotshot landlord spending all his time "doing deals" may be a myth.  

I have 10 SFH all within one hour drive so my weekends are spent driving to the houses and, of coarse, to Home Depot. I really want to get into multi family, so when I do I wonder if I will keep up with my current methods. I think I will probably always be doing the bookkeeping/ accounting.

I guess this is mostly a philosophical question, but it's also objective. I notice many landlords of SFH do things like hire property managers, contractors to do even basic work, and when they renovate they put in top of the line granite countertops etc. Do those of you who do these kind of things actually make a profit?

I do most of my renovations and repairs myself.  I buy my appliances and other building materials at Habitat for Humanity. I have rent checks sent to a PO box and I follow up with deadbeat tenants on my own. I personally do all my accounting on QuickBooks. I do my own evictions. I show all my vacant properties myself. I interview all my prospective tenants personally.

Most of my SFH are in blue collar neighborhoods with one that is on the higher end. The high end house does have comprable high end things. Even the used stuff I buy is nice, but not perfect.

I have been critisize here for my methods, but I save money and all my houses cashflow positvly. One main thing I hear is that landlords spend their time "doing deals". Are you all really that busy getting new houses or is that just a cliche? If you are, great I'll admit I have been doing it wrong and hire out more work. But are those of you who spend all your time doing deals instead of working on your houses really making money?  Thanks, just opening up a discussion.