All Forum Posts by: Randall Brown

"5% interest, 25 year amortization on my loans right now"

I did not see anyone write it, maybe switch to 30yr amortization?

Could also be that your competitors have access to cheaper money.. given that it is 1-4 units, they could be buying to owner-occupy one of the units and get much better terms.

maybe we stay with them a bit longer. Today their repair guy was there and put a sticker on the washer that it cannot be repaired and will be replaced. That way the tenants see progress, and possibly before Christmas, they see a (newer??) washer as well. I wonder how many 1980 washers they have to rotate around :-|

It seems hard to make a case to buy the units. Commercial grade washers cost used about $1400+.. dryers are less.. we're looking at $2500 to buy the equipment and then 1 repair a year will cost another $300?

Over 10 years that's $2500+$3000 (repairs) = $5500 total cost.

Renting for 10 years (assuming no hikes) = 10*12*$50 = $6000.

that's a great idea. About the cancellation, I would need to give them a 30 day notice. Not a problem.

Thanks for the response.

The following is based on my experience in California.

This is unrelated to section-8. Each tenant should fill out a "Tenant Estoppel Certificate" which specifies the terms of their rental agreements. It specifies among other things:

- monthly rent amount

- amount security deposit posted, pet deposit posted

- who owns the appliances

- who pays which utilities

If you don't have this information in writing, then the tenants could claim that there's a $500k security deposit and rent has been prepaid for 50 years and all appliances are owned by the tenant.

The escrow company reviews these estoppels and totals the security deposits and credits it to your purchase price.

We own a multi-family property where we inherited a laundry room with a washer and dryer that is rented from WASH, located in Southern California. Their machines have been in place for a while. I'm guessing the machines are from 1985. The building was constructed in 1980, so maybe the equipment is from that year even.

Over 4 years of dealing with them, things have been smooth. We had maybe 4 service calls in those 4 years and the repair person would come out within 1-2 days and take care of it.

Something changed with them. The washer was out 16 days in October and right now 15 days out in November.

They say it will be repaired as soon as possible but nothing happens. Also, the wait times when calling them are longer now. It seems as if they cut their staff big time.

I finally figured it is a ploy to make me upgrade to newer equipment (for a higher monthly rent). So I called and offered to pay more if they would deliver something that works. They said I would get a call from their sales person "next week Wednesday". Even that call never came through.

It looks like they're doing their best to go out of business!

So, what are the alternatives?

I looked at commercial washers from Home Depot. Horrible reviews. Virtually no warranty. Probably the only product from Home Depot where you cannot buy an extended warranty. For a reason.

https://lowlaundry.com/ "Laundry Owners Warehouse", located in Florida. Does anyone have experience with them? To buy equipment. Do they stand behind their warranty?

Or can someone recommend another rental business, where I pay to have the equipment installed and kept in running condition?

Thanks in advance!

What exactly happened then? 

They stopped paying and moved out? Or got a 3 day notice? Or got an unlawful detainer? How long did they stay there without paying? Did the LL get a judgment?

Simple question for the landlord: how much money do they owe you? 

don't most rental contracts have a paragraph that says "if the unit is not habitable, then this contract is void"?

Of course, if it is not habitable because of landlord negligence, that's a different story.

If a unit floods because the sewer main collapsed unexpectedly, the landlord most likely bears no responsibility and -- according to contract -- is not responsible for motel room bills.

I have seen a landlord being forced by the city to put tenants in hotel rooms -- 1 week for adults and 2 weeks for adults with kids, because the city red-tagged several buildings.

Now, what you are legally obligated to do, and what you may end up doing for good-will reasons, that's not the same.

No legal advice given.

Spreadsheet in the cloud. Can be accessed anywhere.

Not all banks handle it this way. 

Some banks will move the funds from the customer's account into a intermediary payment account and write the check from there, so that the payee doesn't see the payer's account information. Those banks will indeed charge the payer's account upfront.

Some banks will actually print a check with the payer's  routing and account number, and the account will not get charged until the check is deposited.

On the original issue. I had that happen. Rent was supposed to be deposited in one of our accounts. I don't see the deposit. Tenant swears that the check has hit his account. Our tenant had been on vacation and given the check to a friend who was supposed to deposit it in our account on the 1st. The friend took a fat sharpie and wrote his name over my name, and was able to deposit it into his account. I suspect he deposited it at an ATM. 

Imagine this, our tenant had written the entire check with signature using a ball pen. Then the payee name is written with Sharpie. Our tenant found it out when reviewing the cashed check image on his bank's web site.

The following all pertains to California. It may be similar in your state.

We bought and flipped 30-40 properties at foreclosure auction in California between 2008 and 2012. Most owners moved out easily, some received a little cash for keys ($500 - $2000, peanuts if you consider that these properties were worth $300k-$1000k during those years)

Out of those 30-40, we ran 3 times into an owner who "knew too much". The worst was the guy who had an active RE license. He rented the house for 1/3 of market rent to family members and the rental contract specified that the tenants could bill the landlord $30/hr for maintenance work performed (without an upper limit).

He also filed a mechanic's lien.

We actually had the meachic's lien twice.

The scammer filed the lien ~6 months before the auction. There were some problems with this:

1) the guy had no license and an unlicensed person cannot defend a mechanic's lien in court. Anyone can file the lien, but it's nearly meaningless.

2) 90 days after filing, the contractor would have to take the debtor (owner) to court. Of course he did not take himself to court. The auction was 6 months after the lien. He *could* then get a judgment. (Of course, being unlicensed, he would NOT succeed.)

3) (I cannot remember #3 right now!)

The other property had a mechanic's lien that was 12 years old,  Indeed, the judgment was 11.5 years old. Had never been collected on.

And.. judgments are only good for 10 years.

The rest of his stuff is just baloney. A trustee sale does not need a contract with the debtor.

The BK filing in the morning is a common scheme. Many times I had bought something at noon and got a call at 2pm that "the trustee was just informed about the BK.. I will get my money back in 10 days."

You got the deed recorded, hopefully within the proper time (in California, you should record within 15 days) and he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

You might want to offer him cash to move out without damage to the property.

I know someone who paid as much as $20k if the occupants move out. That was a 6 year old house that looked still like new, had been bought for $850k and he sold it for $1650k.. sweet deal.. I guess he could afford to give away $20k to the deadbeats.