All Forum Posts by: James Townsend

The only way paying by personal check is going to affect its score is if you bounce the check. This will hurt your credit score. We offer the ability to pay by any type of check, cash, or by credit card. We are in the process of being able to make automatic payments online as well. When we do credit card payments, we do have to charge the person a fee for using the card, while online, we are hoping that we wont have to have that problem.

Either will work. The basic reason to pour those down the drain is to keep them from smelling, and to help keep them clean. Each will produce a light scent. You don't have to pour much down the drain, just enough to help clean it. You shouldn't have to dilute either, as they are both going to go into the drain system, and not the a/c system. You should do this roughly every 3 months or so, or more often if you smoke, have pets, or just have a high amount of dirt in your home. This will help keep the system smelling fresh.

It really depends. there are a lot of things to consider in an event like this. In all reality, you need to step back, and look at the entire picture. After any type of structure damage, the home just simply isn't going to be "perfect" any more, like it was before the accident. In this case, even if you do decide that restoring is the best bet, then building onto something that has been destroyed might not join 100% perfect. There might be holes and gaps, and other things like that. You also need to decide if restoring the home is worth it, or if simply just building fresh could be more advantageous. If it was a small fire, then yes, simply remodeling the kitchen could possibly fix the problem, and could possibly be cheaper than you think, especially if you go with all new energy efficient appliances (you can qualify for government tax incentives and breaks). If the fire went through the entire house, though, it might not be the best bet, and starting over might be better. These types of things really need to be looked at in a case by case basis, and take into account every detail that you can, before you make a decision, and even then, you need to recheck before sticking with the decision.

This is a tricky one. If they skipped out on say, a couple hundred dollars (less than $500), I would simply report it to the crediting agency as a delinquent and past due debt, and hurts the persons credit score. If its more than $1,000, I would at least talk to your agency's attorney and see what they recommend. I have had to go out and do collections before, it is never a fun thing. If possible, see if you can get an eviction on the person, as this will follow the person down the road the next time they attempt to rent another place. There are many ways you can go about doing this, but the best bet is to simply report the person, and let the system do its job.

As long as the home doesn't have lead based paint on the walls, you should be good. Yes, they may want the walls painted, but as long as they are not bad (and after 2 years, paint should be still fresh), there should be no need to repaint. Ask the tenant to provide colors, and show how they want the house painted, and if you like it, approve it for them to do, out of their pocket. You could lower the rent since they are improving the property at their expense, which would be similar to what Ryan M is saying, but again, since its not a required action, you don't have to. If there is lead based paint on the walls, and the paint is peeling, then you might have to have the home painted again, but check with the local area about laws about lead based paint and the land lords responsibility. They should have signed some sort of documents if there was lead based paint on the walls when they signed the lease. When I was in the military, they would allow us to paint the government housing, on our own funds, provided that we simply leave a gallon of (Specific brand name) paint that is (specific color) for each room that was painted when they vacated the home. This is another possible route that you could go or you could even require that they paint the home back to the original (or designated) color. Either way, recheck your lease agreement, and depending on what that says, that s what you can do. I personally don't think that if you just painted a house 2 years ago, that it needs fresh paint unless the tenant is abusing the property. Most paints on the market come with a 10 year warranty.

Those check your score free sites will let you check your score, for free, just like advertised, but usually require enrollment into some sort of program, where they will charge you a monthly fee. As for accuracy, I don't know simply because I haven't used them to check mine.

In general, i try to build a couple buyers lists each month, but only because we have a large amount of similar homes, and similar home buyers in out market. We deal a lot with tourists and tourism, and many people come here and buy second homes and investment and rental properties. I try to keep a current list that i can shoot to potential clients if they show interest in certain areas, but most defiantly mot of our sales comes strait form the MLS. If you know what your doing, and are able to target certain people or types of houses, then it is possible to do it, but it does take more work, and usually for every 100 you send out, you might get 20 bites, and out of those 20, you might get 2 or 3 actually serious, and out of those, you might get a sale.

As for our area, I try to keep a list of golfing homes, homes that are located on one of the many golf courses in the area (and i have a list for the high spenders and a list for the middle spenders), i have a list for investment rental properties in the area, and i have a list of beachfront homes that would make perfect second homes or vacation properties (and i keep a high spender list and a medium spender list for that as well). For me, where i live, it makes sense. But in other areas, it might not. It all depends on your market.

Choose the things that need repair or upgrades the worst, and start there. Some might not be extremely expensive, which could give you the best return on your dollar. Some of the more expensive items might take a little bit of time to recoup your initial expenses, but if your going to make more money in the long run, why not? If you go with energy efficient upgrades, you might even qualify for certain government tax credits and incentives.

As for the flooring, i would go with either tile through the entire apartment (they are easier to clean and keep clean, plus they wont stain like carpet, it wont mold like carpet, and it wont hold smells like carpet). Always put something other than carpet into areas such as bathrooms, laundry rooms, and the kitchen. Carpet is nice in bedrooms, as the padding underneath makes walking and living on it more comfortable. I would check with the big carpet stores, as they usually have leftovers and "defects" all the time come in that can be bought at huge savings. Most of the time, the defect is that the roll isn't cut to the standard length (12 feet long), but instead cut a little short. They also will have left overs from other jobs, that could be perfect for smaller areas, such as hallways, closets, and the such. Just look around, you might be able to find a lot of good deals, and all these will in return, maximize your investments return.

There are many advantages to owning all the rental locations on a given street, and there are disadvantages to it as well. No, legally speaking, there is no law against owning all the rental real estate on a given road (and many large apartment complexes are exactly that way), provided that there isn't a HOA in place that forbids it. Some of the advantages to owning multiple homes on the same street is ease of showing the properties, you can save when it comes to lawn care and upkeep, and you can help keep an eye on the neighborhood easier. Some of the disadvantages include buying all in one area. You should want to spread some of your homes throughout the entire area.

I try to get my business cards from a local vendor, and try to keep the money in my community. If you live in a larger city, they are easy to find. Most small printing company's can make quality business cards, and are usually at comparable prices (if not slightly cheaper).