All Forum Posts by: Mak K.

Hi All,

I'm totally new to this so bear with me (acronyms!). We own 2 homes - we live in one and rent the other. We plan to sell the rental home which is valued at $1.8m - $2m. We plan to sell our current house and net $500,000 in proceeds which will help payoff the mortgage on that rental. We figure we will have roughly $2m to make a 1031 exchange so we can sort of live off of it because we are nearing retirement. We don't mind living in a nice apartment!

Is it possible to invest our nest egg (no other income source other than social security and a little bit of 401K) in a safe manner so as to fetch between $10,000 to $20,000 a month. Just throwing numbers out there! A friend of mine suggested investing in a warehouse but that didn't work out.

Any info or ideas are appreciated. We plan to move to LA to be closer to family.

Hello I just rented out a duplex and in the lease I have this clause : 

Appliances: The appliances have been supplied in complete working order. Appliances included are a refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and microwave. The use of these appliances is not included in the rent. If Tenants wish to use these appliances, they agree to assume all responsibility for care and maintenance. Tenants agree to return the appliances in the condition supplied less any normal and reasonable

The tenant emailed me about two days after moving in and said the refrigerator was not supplied in complete working condition and is demanding I replace it ASAP. They say that the temp only goes to 60 degrees and that it needs to go to 40 degrees. 

I was under the impression that this clause says  that the appliances are there but they are not included in lease so Im not responsable for them and that it is their choice to use them or not. She is under the impression that the lease says they are supplied in complete working order and that I need to replace them. 

What do you guys think? I will most likely just buy a new fridge for the place anyways as Im getting very good cash flow on it and don't want to start off on a bad note with the tenants. Curious what everyones opinion is on the matter? 

@Allen Moore -Hi - I'm surprised no one has responded.  People usually have very strong opinions about Section 8.

I only take Section 8 and have a portfolio of 27 doors.  I obviously really love the program.  I love it for the guaranteed rent, tenant stability, additional accountability with the housing authority and large demand for Section 8 housing without enough supply.

With strong screening, I'm able to find great tenants and Im not owed any rent.

Cons you will often hear is that the tenants are harder on your properties (doesnt have to be the case in my experience if you screen really well), the Housing Authority is a pain to deal with (this depends on a couple things - how well run your local PHA is and how good you are at handling process & details) and the extra inspections/red tape make the niche unprofitable (see what I said above about Housing Authorities).

Done right, I believe Section 8 is one of the most stable & profitable.  I especially think this is true if you're in C areas (and maybe D areas but I'm not in the those areas). But it's not for everyone.  

If you're thinking of going that route, there is a learning curve.  I answer a lot of uestions here on BP about Section 8 so check out my Forum responses if you want.  I suspect there will be a lot of answeres to questions you didn't know to ask yet!

Good luck.

@Mauricio Quintana -  Split payments are super common.  You'll have a contract with the government with a generic lease.  You should also have them fill out YOUR lease.

Assuming you screened well and got yourself a good tenant, the two headaches are

1.) Property inspections

2.) Manually accounting for the split payments

You can also get screwed pretty hard if they do something to lose their housing.  Those normally always end in evictions if you screened poorly.