All Forum Posts by: Mike Lee

Just curious: do you change your screening criteria every year? My requirements are the same as they've been for ten years: make approximately 3x the rent, no eviction in the past five years, clean criminal, credit of 650, solid Landlord reference for at least one year. There are many other variables and just because someone has a negative in one of those areas doesn't mean we deny them. Our screening determines a level of risk and I'll rent to just about anyone if I can find a way to mitigate the risk.

@Joseph Schweizer

I will never do out of state rentals again. I have hired various property managers and too many things can go wrong. You need to be on the ground and involved in my opinion. I used to be a believer of not self managing, but this is your business. You cannot be hands off. I may have only done this for a few years, but I’ve had a lot of insane things happen!!!

so Mike  do you think it helps   hurts  or makes no difference..  ??  I gave coffee cards when I had my rentals in Mississippi

but they came in the mail..  and this year I did not give one to my Vegas folks. Frankly just forgot but maybe a new years card then.

Those who say there is nothing on MLS, here you go..

I log on to Zillow after dinner (I am currently in India). I see a 30 min old listing that was in our target area in Atlanta (hot market!!) . 

It was listed for 240K. Fair price was more like 230K. I call up my brother right away and he speaks to the seller. He was an out of state FSBO and was fairly motivated. We were able to negotiate it down to 215K - all cash and no contingencies.

House is in good shape and tenants are paying $1100/month. 

We are looking at couple of exit strategies : 

1- Sell as is at 230-235K 

2- Build a pipeline for our next flip. Keep the rent coming in until we are ready. (We were able to bump up the rent from 1100 to 1200 as well in the new lease since the market rate is about 1300)

So deals are there, you just have to look for it. And when it comes, it gets picked up fast, so keep looking.