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All Forum Posts by: Mark B.

Mark B. has started 11 posts and replied 103 times.

Post: Houston rental market slow?

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

Where in Houston is it? I know a lot of the oil companies have been having cuts which could be hurting your rentals (like @Scott Mclaren mentioned).  When I was in Midtown though the rentals all seemed decently full

Post: Screening process when renting to college students

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

Not sure how to help from the Investor side, but when I was in school I always had to have my parents Co-Sign.  I'm not sure if the landlords were running any screening on them though.  We also always had to put up a full month rent for the security deposit (which in Philly was usually close to 2000-2800 for the full unit). 

Also subscribed to see what other ideas people have because I would like to look into student housing in the near future

Post: FHA and a car loan

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

Right now im sitting pretty debt free and my car is fully paid off.  It will have a very minimal effect to my debt to income I'm pretty sure.  But that is good advice. I may just hold off until later this summer after i close.

Thank you!

Also thanks for the advice on the CRV. I'm looking all over to see what options are out there still

Post: FHA and a car loan

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

Good morning all!

I'm looking to get started in the next few months with purchasing my first property. Chances are, I'll be using an FHA loan to get myself into a 3/4 plex (house hack). I'm also looking to get rid of my car and get a used sedan or suv that will be more practical and reliable, especially since I'll be looking to manage and do minor repair work myself (my car can barely fit just me in it let alone supplies) . I'm looking at cars with 200$ a month or less and I'm wondering what the effects of getting a car loan would have on my future mortgage.

If i got that car payment started in June, would i have a hard time getting an FHA loan in July/Aug?

Thank you!

Post: Starting out w/ Turnkey Properties before doing Apartments

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

I'm actually very curious to know how many turnkey rentals it would take to generate 10k a month in net income.  Even with 2-4,  4 unit apt complexes, I'd imagine the income would maybe be 2000 at the most. But probably closer to what @Cailyn Aune said with the 800-1200.

I've been learning that using conservative numbers, 100$ a door seems to be the sweet spot unless these are full cash deals. But maybe I'm wrong?

Post: BP helped us acquire our first home in 2 months!

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

Congratulations!!! This is great to hear, especially from someone in the under 30 crowd!

I'm also wondering why not many people are suggesting a reduced price.  I don't really have any idea about how commercial properties work but I'd imagine doing an analysis with a much lower asking price would be interesting to see (and only take a few seconds).

Also - as someone who recently graduated from a university in Philly, I think 2 miles is a VERY long way from a college but it depends what college.  2 miles from any of the center city schools is not really student housing anymore (UPenn, Drexel, Temple). But schools like Villa Nova, Widener, Eastern, I've had friends at those schools who all have cars and drive to class every day. But they generally had full houses, not apt buildings.  I didn't see many of them living in apt complexes and driving to class.

Either way - subbed to see what happens!

Post: Future Investor from the Lehigh Valley

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

Thank you all for the warm welcome! Looking forward to getting started!

Also, I'm currently in Houston for a little so I will be attempting to meet people this summer when I get back!

Post: Visible vs Non Visible Tattoos on Tenant Applicants

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64

So I think its fair to say that tattoo's should not be brought into the equation.

Thank you all for the comments !

Thread ready to be closed

Post: Visible vs Non Visible Tattoos on Tenant Applicants

Mark B.Posted
  • Engineer
  • Allentown, PA
  • Posts 105
  • Votes 64
Originally posted by @Adam P:
Originally posted by @Mark B.:
Originally posted by @Adam P:

 I always take the first qualified tenant who applies, so thus far I haven't run into this situation.

I think this is the answer I'm looking for then.  But then the follow up would be, what do you tell the other qualified people? "The apt has already been rented, but thank you very much for applying and I'll keep you in mind if I have another vacancy?" Do you need to give a reason why they didn't get the apt?

 Interestingly, I have been a landlord for 5 years, and have never had 2 qualified tenants apply at exactly the same time.  I provide applications at showing, and let people fax or email the application to me with their details.  I typically process applicants within hours, so see if they qualify.  I sometimes wonder if people that are getting flooded with applicants are pricing their rentals a little low for the market.

If you were to get 2 identical applicants at the same time, and chose 1.  I would be honest in my response.  Tell the declined applicant you received 2 highly qualified applicants at the same time, and the other applicant received the apartment.  Do not ever do this if 1 applicant clearly applied first, and the other seems like an upgrade.  Either an applicant meets my criteria, or they don't.  Due to never getting 2 applications at exactly the same time, I have never had to reject an applicant that met my criteria.

Okay perfect! Thank you very much! That is definitely what I needed to know then