All Forum Posts by: Matt Nico

@Kyle Fairbanks

You would be crazy to put 20% down on your first deal. Put 3.5% or 5% and get an owner occupied house. Rent the rooms out and save up that 5% back up and THEN go the 20% down route. Or wait a year and do another 5% loan. I did this 4 consecutive times. 5% each time.

Also for your first ever purchase, keep the rehab small. Start with paint, carpet/flooring, and maybe other cosmetic things. Then ramp up on each additional house. A full gut rehab is tough. Its even tougher when you have never done it before.

Good luck!!!!

-Matt

@Janice Orcutt

Hi Janice,

Do you offer HELOC's as well or just lending on a property for purchase/refi. I have heard a lot of local lenders are more equipped in that area than others.

Please let me know,

Matt

Amir,

If I were you, I would do a little research on the forums here with real life people.... Choose a half a dozen markets or so and then go into those specific local real estate forums. Look at the people in those local forums that post the most and see what they are talking about. And if anybody in the local forums catches your attention, message them personally to ask them about that market. 

When you post on the forums "I have a lot of cash and no deal", I'm sure you will get flooded with messages of "Please give me your money", but if you sneak around a bit you can send the messages. If you were to take my market specifically (Orlando Fl), you can tell who the good investors are in my area by doing a little digging.

Hope this helps,

Matt

@Brian Ploszay

Its already paid for. If the fumigator said they have been there for weeks and my new tenant has been there for 5 days, then i would have grounds to blame the old tenant. My question is whether to keep the deposit.

@Charles Giovanniello

What everyone else has said in here is what I agree with.

Ill add 1 more thing: As a relatively new investor with only 2 deals, you need to hold yourself accountable for the people you hire, fire, and manage.

Everything in your business is your fault. If the PM failed you, then you need to either establish with them expectations you gave, or find another PM like everyone else says.

Sorry to kind of give you a punch in the face like that!!! Its just something i have had to learn first hand by experience. Be accountable.

Happy housing,

Matt

Hey Marc,

Thanks for the advice. I actually ended up doing exactly what you said here. The exterminator told me a similar thing about them traveling to other rooms. He bombed the entire house. Even the garage.

Shoutout to Northern Philly btw. I was raised in Bucks County. 

Theresa, my thought was that the new tenant brought them in as well. But when the exterminator came to bug bomb the house, I asked him this specifically and he said they were most likely there a few weeks. There was a colony of them in the physical mattress with eggs. He mentioned that for the new tenant to be there only 5 days and then have them there already would be unrealistic.

Hi Everybody!

So I rent my house out by the room in Florida. On the 1st of the month, 1 of the roommates left, and was replaced by another. Yesterday (the 5th of the month) I got a call from the new tenant who says the room has bed bugs. She even captured one in a zip lock bag. I called an exterminator who came by the same day and is telling me the bed bugs have not been there long. Probably a few weeks to a month. 

How should I approach keeping the old tenant's security deposit? Should I trust an exterminators word and assume the old tenant has bed bugs, or it could be possible that the new tenant brought them with her.

Thanks in advance,

Matt

@Conner Daniel

Does the duplex work well in terms of cash flow if you buy it at their price? If so, dont worry about what you pay for it if its the best deal on the table. Just get started on something.

Also how has this house appreciated if its been listed at the same price for 4 years??

@Rolando Pi

Okay. If you are not really sure of what the property needs based on pictures, then i would say to either pay a contractor for a couple hours for a walkthrough now, or do it once you already own the property.

I doubt there are any good contractors around right now that would do a free walkthrough for you on a house that you dont even have under contract yet. It would be a waste of their time when they could be working on other projects.

-Matt