All Forum Posts by: Landon Lee

Thanks for all of the responses! Very helpful

Thank you for the replies!

@Scott Weaner Would you mind expanding on your response a little? Are you saying that tenant A is the obvious choice and that choosing tenant B would be a bad decision? If so, why?

Hey guys!

Long story short, I am preparing to list my first investment property for rent within the next month, and I have come upon a scenario that I cannot confidently find a solution too. Again, this is simply hypothetical and I may never come across this situation, but in the event that I do I would like some input from investors who either know how this should be handled or have experienced this before. 

**Hypothetical scenario begins**

The property is listed for rent on multiple platforms, and our advertisements list all of our minimum qualifying standards:

Credit score: 600

Monthly income: 3x the monthly rent

Felonies: None

Previous landlords: Two good references

Property will rent for $1,000

Fortune decides to smile upon me, and within a week I receive two potential tennants who would like to apply to rent the property after having scheduled individual showings of the house. Tennant A is a member of a protected class and Tennant B is a white guy in his 30s; their stats are as follows:

Tennant A; 700 credit score, monthly income of $4,000, no felonies or any other marks on the record, and two positive landlord references.

Tennant B; 650 credit score, monthly income of $3,500, no felonies or any other marks on the record, and two positive landlord references.

Subjective observations of each of the tennants are:

Tennant A; showed up 20 minutes late to our scheduled showing of the property, the vehicle is a pit and obviously not cared for properly, dressed in pajamas, and a review of his social media revealed multiple crude and explicit posts.

Tennant B; Showed up 10 minutes before he was scheduled to view the house, clean car, dressed professionally, and had minimal social media posts all of which were clean and polite. 

**Hypothetical Scenario ends**

Obviously Tennant A had the better tangible qualifications, but Tennant B inspired more confidence in the kind of tennant he would be. Do I have a legitimate legal defense if I choose Tennant B over Tennant A because of the "vibes" I got from each of the two if Tennant A decided to sue me for discriminatory tennant selection?

Thanks for the help!

Hey everyone, I am a new investor, and I would love some suggestions on real estate agents to use in the central Arkansas area. Please give me a shout if you have anyone you would suggest or are an agent yourself. Thanks!

Thanks Susan, I will definitely check that out!

Hey everyone, I have been trying to do research on the landlord/tenant laws in Arkansas, specifically central Arkansas. However, I have not been able to find an all encompassing comprehensive list/book/website with all landlord/tenant laws in one place. Do any of you guys have any suggestions on where to go? Thanks!

Mark, Hey man, great to hear things are beginning good for you. I am also in the beginning stages of real estate investing, with the hopes of having a rental property by early 2017. Auctions have been something I have been really interested in learning about, but haven't found many good sources. Would you suggest going to an auction strictly to learn, and are there any other good resources you would suggest? Thanks and good luck, Landon Lee

Thank you all so much! I have used the BP calculator a few times, and I developed my own in excel based on that. I am also familiar with the rules of thumb, I just wasn't sure how accurate they would be. I will try to run an analysis soon and post it in here. I appreciate the help! 

Thanks! 

Thanks Kenneth! I haven't thought about doing that. I'll give it a try! I appreciate the help! 

Hey everyone,

I have been listening to the Podcasts, reading forum posts, and using other educational resources and tools on Bigger Pockets for the past 3 months or so. I am from central Arkansas and feel like I am prepared to begin investing in rental properties. However, I am having trouble estimating monthly expenses for the rental houses every time I analyze a deal. I am able to find the tax information and mortgage information, but the expenses that aren't concrete are throwing me off. I tend to be a little over conservative in my analysis, so as to ensure that I am getting a decent deal, but I haven't analyzed a rental property yet that cash flows. I have even analyzed homes that are being auctioned, and have used very low purchase prices. I realize that not every deal is good, but I feel like I am drastically overstating these expenses, and am eliminating any possibility I have of finding a good deal. Is there anyway that I can get some assistance in determining appropriate expenses, or at least a point in the right direction for figuring that out?

Thanks!