All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

 Whoa whoa whoa. Hold it. Stop. Who is proposing this? I can't be the only person to see how bad of an idea this is.

 Not to be rude / get off the main topic - But I love the point that most renters do not move on a whim for cost reasons. I think there is also a factor of hassle. This is why I go month to month without worry, and wonder why landlords value long term leases, which to my view only benefit the tenant (of course some areas require LTL). Jay points out later he thinks this is more of a regional/cultural issue and maybe that's the fact - I dunno - but it still seems to me most people do not want to up and leave on a monthly basis and will most always stay at least a year. Of course these are not normal times. Anywhos...back to the original programming.

I'm sorry, but I find this story humorous in times like these - first signs of the hustle - lol. I think others have said enough about what you could/should do, I'll add it's good for a laugh.

And, you won't have to spend money pruning and cutting it down later! Some people see trees as value-adds, I see them as expenses, even in my own yard. Which reminds me, I have a couple trees that need to go in my rentals.

Also, you live in (western) WA - lol - I live in WI - we both know there is no real need for more vegetation!!! You'll have a jungle in a year if you just let it go.

Hard to say. My guess is yes, the rental market will decline. Of course if we magically return to where we were then we will be where we were, but I don't see that happening.

Owning still makes a ton of sense. Rates will likely never go back to a place where renting is the better option, so this will continue to hold the rental market down. Prices could fall if rates go up, but again I don't see that happening to a degree where it causes people not to buy, just to pay less. I think the days of earning from a savings account are over and we have traded them for lower mortgage rates. I think new starts will likely fall as more stock becomes available, due to reasons explained next.

I think the higher earners are not as safe as they think, and that will probably help the rental market.

However the lower earners are all screwed so any gains from the higher peeps stepping down is going to be lost here and then some.

I think we are likely looking at a lot of doubling up in housing / moving in with relatives / roommates / etc - so that will hurt the rentals. Though the folks that rent per bedroom might do great. This is what will cause stock for owner-occupied to increase and therefore hurt new starts.

Unless we see hyperinflation where prices increase and wages do too, we will probably see rents flatten or even decrease as demand goes down.

No money means no demand - don't need to be a Pulitzer winner or possess a crystal ball to see that coming.

So the answer will be the hustle. Those with better marketing and better units will win, while those with junk units and no marketing will fail. I think this hurts a bigger operator more than it might a small guy who knows how to hustle.

For me I plan to make things worse (and better) on myself by requiring first/last/damage up front in all cases. This will decrease my renter pool significantly but that's actually the goal, believe it or not. It's how I plan to survive long-term in the hood. But I can do that, because I'm small and don't have 100/1000 units to fill. My strategy is long-term, financially stable, property preserving tenants - they are out there and I intend to go get them. I intend to offer emergency credit with respect to the last months rent I hold, so a renter can access that money if they hit a bump. I expect that service to offset the pain of paying last months up front. A bit of a hard sell, but frankly I hope it catches on. The damage deposit insurance companies that are coming around might be game changers too.

 Uhm yea, little details like your parents approaching you to help them and not the other way around is important to the discussion - lol.

Thread title "Tapping into my parents home equity???"

Maybe a better title would have been, "My parents are considering tapping into their home equity"

 So uhm...are you being discourteous to make a point or do you not realize you're doing it right back??? Just curious. LOL.

I was just having this very conversation with my sister - heated arguments that get ugly fast - lol. I mean, passion is fantastic and it's great we all get riled up over the issues that are important to us. Yet, nobody has all the answers and everyone is not always going to agree. I know it's easier said than done and I aint no saint when it comes to the matter either.

I really think that as a society, we pretty much try to avoid these sorts of conversations. The old rule of never talk politics, religion or money - lol. And obviously that's because it gets out of hand pretty easy. But, I truly believe it's really important that we have these conversations too and I think the fact we never have them leaves us with low skills to navigate them respectfully. So, hopefully, we can work through all that and learn to communicate and debate a bit better. For all the flaws of our government leaders, they are often pretty good at that (not always - lol).

 Not what I said there my friend. I said I don't like it, would give me reason for pause, and suggested the OP do a month to month. I do month to month always, but not everyone else does, and not everyone else can, sometimes because their area doesn't allow it. I think the difference of opinion here is mostly that some would go full steam ahead without a second thought and some would think it's a red flag. To me it's a red flag. If I only rented to people without red flags I would never rent to anyone.

I happen to think discussing rights and the economy and the virus relate to real estate. I also think with the thousands of discussions and threads here on BP, that anyone who thinks this discussion is not relevant to them or their real estate endeavors could easily go find another BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR thread and dive in.

For me the most pressing issue to my real estate endeavors is the virus. Will my tenants have enough food is my concern. What will they do when they run out like one of them already has. What will happen when more of them run out very soon? Will there be rioting? Will my properties burn? Should I be looking into my insurance coverage? Their ability to move freely and go out and earn is all that is stopping them, and me - I have a mortgage on my own house too, and my financial survival affects my ability to invest. So, the right to move about freely relates to my real estate business as far as I'm concerned. I respect that others may not have the same opinion about that.

As far as this or any discussion teetering around the particular issue, I have no problem with that. It's my belief and also something I find valuable, to work through these issues together with discussion. Reading the opinions of others helps me do that. It helps me see things I might not have considered relevant or even thought of, and even allows others to show me that my thinking might be off - I'm open to that. And like all forums on the internet, I find I must sift through the nonsense to obtain the nuggets of value. I see that as an acceptable trade-off, and do not expect my answers to be handed to me in a nice little package. When a nice little package is what I desire, I read a book.

 This post bothered me. 7 votes bothered me too. So I kept reading it, wondering how anyone would post such a thing and how anyone else could vote for it.

But I suppose maybe I read too far into what you wrote. I too would like to hear the contractor story. And yes, I think sometimes clients portray themselves as angels when they have behaved badly.

That said, I wonder if you believe there is ever an instance when this sort of thing would be the appropriate response to a deal gone bad?

Straight-up nuts. I hope the best outcome for your efforts to recoup your losses and hold this person responsible. A tall and delicate order to be sure.

As far as some of the responses here that imply somehow there is another side of this story - wow - I'm not sure if I'm more shocked with the contractor or some of the responses here.