All Forum Posts by: Mark F.

I'm appalled. There are tons of ethical wholesalers in your home state, who post in some sort of non specific NJ RE investor Facebook group, who definitely do not daisy chain their deals, inflate ARV's or just post crap that's literally on the MLS. I mean everyone has to start stealing deals from someone, I mean start somewhere right?

The kicker is if you tell the poster of any of these questions how asking the question shows how woefully unprepared they are, you get lambasted. As if not showing any general initiative on insanely general questions isn't a precursor for a lazy wannabe.

I'm not going to regurgitate the excellent info these guys provided as they're all very experienced, I just want to provide a slightly different perspective. I only rented for about 5 years over my life and the one major issue I had was bad communication coupled with the PM not knowing landlord/state laws. 

After coming home around midnight, my apartment deadbolt decided to crap the bed. Called the super with no answer which wasn't surprising. Eventually got a locksmith out around 2am after one ghosted me. He said the brand of deadbolts were junk and saw this all the time. The repair bill was about $225 which I forwarded to the management company and said I will deduct it off my rent. Let the song and dance begin. Weeks later, the PM said I didn't pay the full rent amount. I reply back with my original email, giving them notice of my repair. They reply "repair denied" as it wasn't authorized so I told them to look at the receipt for the timestamp. PM said they asked the owner who denied the repair credit due to not reaching out to them, to which I quoted NJ statute for tenants making emergency repairs and showed them my call log to the super. Happened to move out a few months later as I bought my first duplex. 

Don't be like that PM company. My realtor loves telling my tenants I'm one of his better landlords as that's just because I do my best to keep the places safe and in good condition. 

All the free rental software, like the one I use, hold the money for 4 to 5 days like you said. The only way I've found to get around it is one of two things.

First, switch to a more expensive "premium" rental property software or start accepting cash/zelle/etc. No thanks.

Second workaround I use is what someone said, push the mortgage payments to a later date. I do all mine on the 15th just in case and this works out pretty well. All of the loans I've had have the option to do this. Sucks on the delay but that's price we pay for free software.

You're not happy. Tenants in your building aren't happy. The nasty tenant isn't happy. How is this even a question? There's one single denominator at play and it's them, so get rid of them any way possible. You can even pull off The Office "win win win" scenario with 3 parties all coming out ahead. Anytime someone isn't happy in one of my units I let them leave asap; nothing good can come of forcing someone to stay.

Excellent question and very timely for me. I had a basic road map in my head but talking to my spouse things have changed. I have a W2 I'm not leaving until retirement at 55 but want to build my portfolio up enough so my spouse can leave her job if needed. So now our plans have changed yet again but for the better. As it stands, my goal is to get to $10k free cash flow from high quality properties/tenants like Jonathan said.

It is different for me as I do enjoy REI and a lot of aspects of it, along with having the security of a W2 and a healthy pension after. I feel as though once I get to a certain point we'll have "enough" and from there will just tweak and maintain our portfolio. No aspirations to continue to build and move in syndications, just plain old buy n holds in class B neighborhoods. By my rough calculations, our goals would put us at 15 units, but like Jonathan said not that it matters. What matters is places are cash flowing and we aren't spending all of our time in the rentals and haven't purchased another job. As of now I spend an hour or two a month on two of my properties.

I'm aware of those scams and I verify all employment by looking up the employer and calling or visiting them (last one would be for an extreme case, calling and internet sluething is good enough). I don't use the number provided. I also call the previous landlord by looking up the old address and trying to independently verify as much as possible before calling them. I do social media checks too. I self manage so realistically it only applies to us DIY landlords. No issues yet. But we also screen people in general, using the "good vibes" check.

Using familytreenow.com to verify idemtiies and past addresses is a good idea.

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

Quote from @Mark F.:

I stated online rent payments with Cozy.Co the day I closed on my first duplex, best decision ever. Now it's apartments.com and I'm up to 6 units on there, works perfectly fine and it's free. Auto late fees and reminders just make it super simple.

No issues with laundry yet as I've been lucky to set up every unit with their own.

Parking has been straightforward as my driveways have been set up to where each parks on one side. I imagine once I buy a place with a small lot, designated spots are the way to go like you said. Maybe little signs or spray paint numbers?

I completely agree with the exterior property maintenance. Whenever I'm at a property, I pick up little pieces of trash. My realtor is also having a sit down with a prospective tenant to address some concerns I heard when I called their previous landlord, mainly no smoking and holes in the walls. I've heard your philosophy on how it's our property but it's their home. If tenants are willing to treat it as such, maybe it's not a good fit. We'll see how their tenancy goes. First ones that have had a spotty past.

 Ah, yeah single lane parking would be tough. Haven't seen too many in Bergen but looks to be more common in Essex.

I've been trying to RSVP but of course work has kept me late the last few months. I'll pencil the first Wednesday in May as Teaneck is too close to miss!

Quote from @Scott Trench:

Quote from @Chris Seveney:

Quote from @Todd Goedeke:

@Carlos Ptriawan an additional question is why Bigger Pockets does not print more posts about how to analyze syndications and the red flags involved.

 honestly I do not think that is their responsibility on the forums. They are starting passive pockets which appears geared toward passive investments. Most of the posts are from members, which there are a lot of posts about there how to analyze them, the issue is most people IGNORE them. 

Now when you want to talk about BPCON or other events and books, podcasts etc. They are a business, and not knocking them, but what sells? Someone getting rich quick in real estate and sharing their story or the guy who builds a $25M portfolio over 10-20 years?  It is the former because people want it now.

 This comment is a shame, because the vast majority of our content discussed long term success in real estate grounded in fundamentals. But the stuff that gets the most attention is exactly what you describe - the 10% that is flashy and promises quick wealth. 

This. My story isn't sexy but I connect more with locals like Jonathan Greene and others who slowly build our portfolio. Thanks to BP, since 2020 I've acquired 7 units now worth $2.5m via the slow and steady method of house hacking combined with smart personal finance habits I've learned from BP and other within the sphere podcast like Choose FI, Afford Anything etc. I've been disciplined since then not only listening to podcast every week to educate myself, but putting those principals I've learned and sacrificing my housing situation for 5 years, living around tenants. This will cease by the end of the year as I think my wife and I have earned it.

I say all that not to brag but for you to know the ones who are slow and steady are often too busy to be loud and promoting ourself. Tried tagging you directly but kept sticking it at the top. For this, don't be too hard on yourself Scott, as myself and others are truly are "Set for Life" because of BPs original message.

@Stuart Udis I'd love for you to post another reply or new thread on how to continue operating the LLC the way it was intended such as setting up the operating agreement, continued proper use of the LLC, and on what occasion it would be time to put your next property in the same LLC as your last property or form a new one. Also someone asked the question I'm curious to know too, can we set up our own LLCs in our own states for a rental without issues? I know setting one up takes about 10 minutes via the states website.

I'm also curious and assuming you'd recommend a roboust umbrella policy (personal or is there one for businesses/LLCs?) and continued maintenance of your property as other good strategies? I have a personal umbrella policy but wasn't sure if they're also separate for LLCs. Thanks for your time.