All Forum Posts by: Mike Doubek

Thanks, everyone.  I appreciate all the feedback!

@Bjorn Ahlblad, I appreciate the feedback.  To make sure I'm understanding your last comment correctly, are you saying I have to go through the process of getting my unit section 8 qualified whether I had intention to or not?

Hi everyone, I am currently in the process of getting ready to rent out my condo but have been a bit overwhelmed with the screening process.  As it stands, I have a couple who are interested and have filled out the application and completed background/credit/eviction checks but there are a number of things that have triggered red flags for me, whether it's out of ignorance of intuition.  The credit scores for both meet my criteria, background and eviction checks are clean and income appears to check out.  Where I am concerned is that both are self employed, have only provided a 1099, one employer and one residence contact each (one of which is a friend letting them live there) so no actual landlords as of yet.  They are supposed newly weds (don't share the same last name which isn't uncommon nowadays but is suspect coupled with everything else) and one has only been in the US for a few years.  Another thing to note is the transunion fraud indicator stated "SSN may be invalid - it was either very recently or never issued by the SocialSecurity Administration" for one applicant and "Current address mismatch - input does not match file" for the other.  I have not received the business/personal bank account statements for the last 3 months nor additional employer/landlord references though one did provide last years tax returns which differ significantly from what the 1099 misc income reported.  Is that normal? 

Needless to say, I don't have a good gut feeling and have been a bit overwhelmed by this all as this will be my first experience as a landlord.  Has anyone experienced this before?  What grounds would I have to deny their application and should I?

Lastly, for the various section 8 inquires I've received, do I have to get my unit qualified for that or can I use some of the previous BP responses stated that it simply is not qualified for section 8 since I have not taken the action to get it approved?  I did my best to scour BP before posting this but some of this was fairly specific and I'm looking for any help I can get on this to make this first endeavor a good one.  Thanks!

"If you would have told me what I would be doing now I would have laughed in your face. A year ago we had eight units, now we have 48. A year ago quitting my job was not an option, now I could never imagine working a corporate job. Almost none of this was planned, it just happened because I had to the passion and drive to make it happen. It has been the craziest eight months of my life and I am excited to see where the rest of this year brings!"

@Brie Schmidt This quote alone inspires me and is the fantasy that I've had in my head for some time now.  That task sounds like an absolute gargantuan one right now for a guy who hasn't even bought his first property but the hope comes in the form of the momentum that you seemed to develop as time went on.  Not saying I'll have that same momentum, not saying I won't, but definitely feel anything is possible with yet another real life example of someone doing the very things every in my sphere of influence seems to believe is impossible.  Luckily, BP is slowly becoming my new positive sphere of influence and articles like this keep my spirits and motivation up .  Thanks for sharing and looking forward to the next meetup.

Hey Kevin,

Welcome to the forums.  Lots of good people and information here so dive in!

Looking forward to meeting everyone next week.

@Christopher Davis  

Hey Christopher, welcome to the forums.  I just recently joined myself and the amount of help I've received from everyone here has been huge.  If you have a general idea of where you want to start I would encourage you to begin reading through all the blogs pertaining to that area and also search the forums for more specific information.  This has been working for me and anything I don't know I ask about.  Good luck!

Hey Shane, welcome to the forums.  

@Brie Schmidt Thanks and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone!

@Wendell De Guzman I've heard of that strategy and like it, I just need to raise the capital up first.  I actually already follow your thread and have got a lot out of it.  I will continue to read up to learn more.

@Arthur Banks You're absolutely right.  I need and want to make a move soon and while I feel like I need to know a little bit more before I jump, I have asked myself the question "how much more information do you need?".  I appreciate the reminder.  I have spent the bulk of my time learning about wholesaling so that is probably the best route for me to go for now.