All Forum Posts by: Mark Waldrip

I don't mind paying hourly for day labor, but prefer to get bids for jobs. Half down and half on completion on a specified date. Also be careful when the bid is "plus material costs" as those are hard to control unless you're doing the shopping!

We have a company here called Labor Ready that provides laborers, kind of like a temp agency. I think you might pay a little more per hour but I believe they would work for the service and not you. 

My son is in commercial construction and they use this service a lot. If a guy shows up that isn't working out they call the service and tell them to send someone else.

I had to clean out a house last weekend to prepare for renovation. I paid two guys $12/hr to help move furniture & junk out and pulling up carpet & trash. I think I worked them both under the table, and I'm older than the two of them combined (old man strength)! Haha

I have a relative who is very successful in commercial real estate. He gave me some good advice when starting REI. He said, "You pay for your education". You will make mistakes, pay extra costs, and learn from them. The next time a similar situation comes up, you'll handle it differently because of the education you "paid for" the last time around. This advice sounds simple (and it is), but proven to be true many times over for us. Now, you hope not to pay too much for that education, so use every resource available. But realize you're doing something new, and mistakes will be made, and lessons will be learned, and with them come experience!

UPDATE...OK, 30 days later and no movement by previous owner to move stuff out. So filed Forcible Entry & Detainer (again) and served summons. The court date was yesterday, and nobody showed up, so the judge awarded possession!

Received a Writ of Possession and turned over to the Sheriff to post (hopefully today). This gives 48 hours notice of lockout. On Thursday morning, meet the Sheriff to change locks and start cleanup and repairs. Will need to store anything remaining (of value) for 30 days; but they will have to pay moving & storage costs to get them back.

Will update after possession and assessment of needed repairs. The electric & water has been off a few years, so not sure what to expect when turned back on! Better have a mop & fire extinguisher on standby!

Bought two houses that sit side-by-side, one empty and the other with a tenant. The empty one needed work so we took the opportunity to replace roof, update the bathroom tile, paint, appliances, etc. New tenant moved in and was very happy and proud of her "new" home. 

A couple of months later, when paying their rent, the tenants in the other house said they had a list of "improvements" they would like to have done to their house too, and asked when I could get started! I told them, "as soon as your lease expires, and as part of your new lease and increased rent! I don't make improvements mid-lease. If it was good enough when you signed the lease it's good enough now." 

UPDATE: 

Well, the previous owner had agreed to move his possessions out by the end of June, but the day came and nothing was done. So I talked to an attorney, who said to serve a 5 day notice to vacate then file for possession via 'Forcible Entry & Detainer' eviction request in County Court. 

I delivered the notice and waited the 5 days. In the meantime, I got a call from the owner's son, who  happens to be an attorney (lucky me). He said he's going to pursue a lawsuit against the County to undo the sale and pay delinquent taxes. Also going to request an injunction preventing his Dad from having to move stuff out until the lawsuit was resolved. I told him I guess he should do what he thought best, but currently I am the owner and will proceed as such.

After the 5 days I filed & served the summons for eviction, with today being the court date. The son appeared for his Dad (who didn't show) and told the judge his intentions and requested a 7 day delay on the eviction. The judge asked if I agreed, and I said I did not. So judge THEN told me I should have served a 30 day notice instead of 5 and denied my eviction request! After he ruled he said, "you should have agreed to the 7 day delay and I would've allowed it." WHAT???

So, guess I'll be posting a 30-day notice today, and we'll do all this over again next month! To say I'm disappointed & frustrated is an understatement!

Thanks for your input Allen! I have only had 3 contacts with the previous owner, two by phone and  the 5 Day Notice to Vacate. I thought about drafting a release for him to sign, acknowledging the sale and that he's taken everything he wants from the house. Not sure he'd sign it or if I can even catch him there. I guess I could tape it to his door with a stamped envelope? 

Worth a shot to document the process!

Hello BP,

I searched about 30 pages for this topic before posting to make sure it hasn't been discussed!

Need advice on securing a house I purchased 2 weeks ago at a county tax resale auction. I was the winning bidder and received a tax resale deed. The county website shows me as owner as well. 

The property appeared to be abandoned, and according to water/electric co. no utilities have been on for over 5 years. When I received the deed I went to inspect/secure the property. Front door locked but the back door unlocked, so I went in and found it full of furniture and old personal items. It was a mess and very nasty!

Neighbor says previous owner comes & goes from there and collects mail, so I left a note on the door introducing myself and asking him to call about getting his things. He called me and he acted a little surprised about the auction and wanted to see if he could get the house back. I said he could do what he likes, and would give him to end of month to get anything out of house he wanted to keep. He agreed, saying he doesn't live there but keeps his things there; said if he can't get house back he'll make arrangements for his stuff. Last week I taped a 5 Day Notice to Vacate on his door, which will also end on the last day of the month. I called him and told him this was to formalize the terms we had already agreed to. 

My question is, can I begin securing the property on the 1st as planned, or does this situation qualify as a tenant requiring eviction proceedings? In OK, it's illegal to occupy a house without utilities, so no case could be made that he's living there. Most everything in there is junk, but am I under obligation to store what's left? My plan (in 3 days) is to proceed with changing locks and cleaning out the house and throw away the junk as I would any vacant property. 

But I would appreciate any opinions or experience anyone might have. 

Thanks for any input!

Mark

 Ditto...ordered labels with our box address printed and put them on a year's supply of envelopes for each tenant. That way no issues with address mistakes or bad handwriting! They do have to provide their own stamps though!

My wife and I began following Dave about 15 years ago, and was able to get completely out of debt and pay off our mortgage over the following 5 years.

We kept putting our snowball into savings which allowed us to accumulate a lot over the following 10 years. We used this savings to begin our REI business, paying cash for our first 7 SFR properties and partner in several large commercial properties. So Dave gets kudos for that!

But we're adjusting our outlook on debt. Dave focuses on consumer debt more than business debt, because that is the problem most of his followers are facing and I couldn't agree more with. That credit card & car loan debt isn't going to make you any money. But for a smart, disciplined person who can manage the proper amount of business debt, it can allow you to do more with what you have. We are in the process of pulling out most of the funds we spent on our properties, to be able to buy more. But it does make me nervous after not having debt for so many years. 

I was gonna check out what Grant writes, but after watching some videos of him praising L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, I think I'll pass.