All Forum Posts by: Lynn McGeein

@Balaji Varadharajan. If walls are damaged enough to add extra cost to paint job, you can have contractor itemize that part as additional charge and deduct from security. If disposal is jammed by foreign object that shouldn’t be in a disposal like money, beer caps, kids toys, have it stated on invoice and charge security deposit. Include copies of invoices in your itemized list showing deductions. I do the same for cleaners, if it’s extra cleaning charge for greasy kitchen or dirty tubs etc., then have it itemized and charge those amounts that are over and above normal.

@Matthew Paul my first broker required all new agents to be in the office cold calling FSBO, expired listings, and preferred farm area for several hours x times a week. It was awful. I didn't last there long and I've never cold-called since. But it's standard practice for many. Must work for them or they wouldn't keep doing it.

@Reagan Clo sounds very suspect, especially as it's usually very easy to check ownership through online public records, unless you own them in a LLC or trust where your name is not in the title, which you usually do for privacy, not to then hand out copies to strangers. And he can't get an fha loan unless he's an occupant.

@Samuel Guan are you saying that your tenant is refusing access to the property? I’d make sure management got that in writing from the tenant as they must allow access with proper notice so they’re likely violating lease. I don’t think notice is even required if they are the ones giving you notice of problem that needs to be addressed, and if they’re really concerned about mold, you’d think they’d want evaluation asap. I’m not a lawyer, no legal advice, but if a tenant complained of mold, I’d schedule a mold inspection, giving proper notice to tenant for entry, and if the results show it, get estimates for remediation. You’d likely need to do that before you market it again, anyway, so why not start now? Id be there to ask the inspector questions, see it for myself. Then talk to a lawyer about next steps. Could they sue even if you let them leave, even though you knew nothing about mold? If no mold found, are they breaking the lease? Can lawyer provide you with an early termination agreement where they release you from liability? I wouldn’t discuss with tenant until I knew best options available to me. I think most insurance companies won’t cover long-term damage like conditions that promote mold, so read your policy thoroughly before contacting them.

@Nathan Gesner 1) if you’re investing with a spouse make sure both are on board for self management or it will harm the relationship. 2) it’s a business, not a charity, so if you’re susceptible to hard luck stories from applicants/tenants, don’t self manage. 3) water heaters, heat and a/c, plumbing only seems to break down when you’re finally on vacation, so have good contractors in place who will go on your call and let you pay them from out of town.

@Scott Trench I have family members who believe we’re failing, I guess it’s called “preppers”, they’ll call very concerned to let us know to take cash out for a bank run or stock up as food will be scarce next month or the last one was the eclipse was going to cause an earthquake taking out the Midwest. I think there has just always been a portion of the population throughout history that has a fascination with this stuff. I take it positively that they care enough to worry about us, but it must be sad living with that much anxiety. I like that line from Mother Teresa, “what you spend years creating, others can destroy overnight. Create anyway” We cant live life waiting for the next disaster, natural, economic, political, etc. We just try to build a safe happy life knowing it could be gone in an instant. But we’ll have fun until then.

Most owners title policies we've seen state they don't cover anything that could have been found in a recent survey, so we feel it's important to budget for and purchase both survey and owners' title together. Personally, a developer bought land next to us and tried to clear a portion of our land along with his, said the line was unclear and he'd dispute it so best to let him proceed, but he backed off once he knew we had our survey and owners title and would make a claim. He even paid for his own survey (I saw the surveyor working shortly after our discussion), and then he left a natural buffer area between us and his new homes. One of my clients had an issue that took months in court, expert witnesses, full title examination because the neighbor's mortgage company disputed it even though the neighbor agreed. My clients' owners title insurance paid for it all as the problem was not disclosed on the survey they had gotten at closing. You may never need it, but it's totally worth it when you do, so for us, worth including in our initial expenses. We didn't get a survey on an REO purchase in an HOA once, years ago, thinking that of course the boundary lines are good there, existing fences that had to have HOA approval before allowed. Nope, a few years later, the neighbors were selling and their buyers' survey said our fence was 2" over their line. Because they had a closing deadline, they agreed to an easement where we keep the fence in place as long as we maintain it.

@Sam Nichols this happened to us in Raleigh. It was a single licensed manager with support staff, and turned out she had a family emergency and just stopped working. Her staff wasn’t allowed to handle money, so we didn’t receive rents for months. We found new professional management that had several licensed managers on staff. They were great, helped us get our security deposits transferred and all of our back rent. No matter how great a 1-person manager is, even with staff, you’re one personal issue away from major problems.

@Mike K. I agree that investment property is difficult to make work right now at these prices, but I think it’s more risky to open a small business. I think 70% fail within 10 years, about 30% in first two years. So unless you have solid finances to get you through, it sounds more risky than investment property. My daughter and son-in-law opened their own business 3 years ago and so far have done well, but he built a good reputation in his field before starting their own, she kept her good corporate job for benefits, and they are now looking to invest in property with the profits, hoping for more passive income in the future as they’ve realized how much extra work a small business is with compliance, licenses, workers comp, etc.

@John Underwood. ozone air cleaners are dangerous, should not be used especially when people are in the home. Just search dangers of ozone air cleaners and you’ll see lots of federal and state information against using them.