All Forum Posts by: Ralph R.

Jordan Thompson what a horrible thing to go through!! You have my sympathy. I think you handled the situation very well and did as much as could be done. No body could ask for more. On a side note I doubt having a gun or posting warning signs would accomplish much. I live in Alaska where EVERYBODY has multiple guns. ( myself included). We even have open carry. (There is no need to post signs as everybody knows this). While I believe it does detour most crime we still have breaking and entering crimes. Shooting somebody in your home would have only complicated your situation for what? A set of keys? Seems kinda like using a sledge hammer to drive a thumb tack. RR

thanks @Kevin Prentice  I'm not beating myself up to much. After all it's more than $500 dollars to fill my boat up. I'm more interested in conveying the idea that it takes more than the right numbers or right property or location to stay ahead in realestate or any other worth while business venture. While the rewards are great in realestate the pit falls are numerous. I used this example because I didn't want to admit  to some of the things I screwed up when I started out.   RR

Thanks @Gino Barbaromany newbies get cought up in this rule or that rule. Flipping vs buy and hold. What kind of property to buy or where to buy it. The hard cold truth is there is no one secret or magic formula. You have to change your entire way of thinking.   RR

@Elizabeth Colegrove  here in Bethel most every house has delivered water not piped in as the ground is frozen year around. That means each house has several hundred gallons of water stored inside the house somewhere. When they freeze up the tank splits.  Nothing happens till you warm it up and the tank thaws. Then there is water everywhere. I'd hate to be out of state for that mess. We even had the city over fill our tank and flood the utility room. Even the local landlords pull their hair out. A 2&1 750 square ft house sells for 190 k. Rents for $1700 a month. It's crazy. RR

Thanks @Elizabeth Colegrove

@Elizabeth ColegroveThat's a great idea.  Maybe we can put some language in our contract assessing a fee for back billing utilities.

 Thanks also for recognizing that I wasn't whining about how to avoid or fix my goof up, but trying to stress the importance of maintaining a close watch on everything going on with your business.  You have to pay attention to many things, and when you think you know all the tricks somebody manages to come up with a new one. 

 The most blatant one was the tenant that traded her old non working refrigerator for the new one I had just put in her unit.  she disappeared in the night after I had to evict her for non payment and so did my refrigerator.  She left and old one in its place so it had to be hauled off. Nothing I could do about it as she was long gone.

RR      

@David Faulkner  not only implied, but I stated the very same thing in the original post.  That was the intention of the original post, to point out that you cant let your guard down at any time.  I said something like this 

"IMO the lesson here is pretty big. You first and foremost must manage and oversee your investments. Its no different than owning your own business, in fact it is your business. Just the same as a restaurant, or car wash. You have to be aware of, and watch everything about every door you have. It is as important to be on top of your rental after you have bought it, as it is to knowing a bunch of rules, good locations, or how to correctly analyze a property before you buy it."

RR

@Jeff Gates  maybe but these rentals are out of state. I use a PM because she can find and vet tennants for me as well as Handel repairs/ maintainance. They also track all expenses and issue me a statement every month as well as a year ending statement. It's all part of the fee. So is their bill paying service. All I do is send the year ending statement and mortgage 1098 form to my CPA to do my taxes. And cash my check each month. They are switching to an online version that will auto deposit my checks and allow me to watch each property closer. RR

I agree with @Ellis San Jose No question about it.  if you want to earn double digit interest pay off the card.  Step 2 is  either don't use the card (but keep the account open  Don't close it as part of your credit rating is based on your credit longevity) or if you do use the card pay it off every month.  I've found the best, and fastest way to save money is to live below your means.  The more you live below your means the more you are able to save.  you can save pretty fast if you have no consumer debt.  The book Rich Dad Poor Dad will show you how your cash should flow in order to gain wealth. you don't gain wealth by saving, but by making your money work for you.  Therefore I believe money sitting in the bank while you are paying high interest cards off is not working for you, but hindering your progress.   

RR

@Andrey Y.

 I live in Bethel Alaska.  I researched the market in Fairbanks a couple years ago.  Most Landlords in Bush Alaska (Fairbanks is not really "Bush Alaska") keep the oil delivery in their name.  The reason is due to the extreme cold. if a tenant doesn't fill the tank the water/sewer lines will freeze.  You have NO IDEA how hard it is to thaw a frozen house at -40 YES I said 40 degrees below zero.  Fairbanks is a very cold place.  If you have propane it wont come out of the tank very well at -40 degrees.  Heating oil will also jell at very cold temps.  That being said Fairbanks sports a Lower housing price than anchorage, and a lower overall cost of living than Anchorage.

As to the economics Most Alaskans are predicting an economic slump due to low oil prices.  For more info search "weathering the storm in Alaska or any place else" right here on BP.  There is a thread on the coming sag in Alaska's economy. 

There is a military base 50 or so miles away in delta junction.  don't know if that affects the rental market in Fairbanks or not.  If I were going to buy rentals in Fair banks I would wait 6-8 months and see what the market is going to do. (after all the time to make money is when the blood is running in the streets right?)  I can tell you I am glad my rentals are out of state.  I work for the state of Alaska and they had so much trouble passing a budget last January they laid EVERY non essential employee off.  They finally passed a budget and didn't need to lay anybody off.  Originally the proposed budget was 2.5 BILLION short.  Things aren't much better here this year.  This is pretty critical to the states economy because the state owns and maintains all the airports, highways, and maintains ships and crews for the Alaskan marine highway.  The trickle down effect on the economy will be huge. 

In summary I would look long and hard at my ability to manage an investment long distance in an artic climate.  My second step would be to wait until prices fall before I bought anything.

RR    

@Bob H.

Yes of course that's in our lease. problem is enforcing the lease cost even more money. If I say pay up or I will evict you he's left with 2 choices. If he can he will probably pay. if he can't pay then I have the added expense of an eviction, money spent to get rent ready again, and vacancy expenses. This all compounds my already $500 dollar loss.

What I think I'm going to do is bill him for the utilities, and keep the original utility receipts. If he pays great. Problem solved. If he doesn't pay I'll say no more. Then when he does move out, I can deduct the back utilities from his damage deposit. That avoids the vacancy in March, and expense of eviction thereby cutting my losses. This is the course of action we are checking out now.

It would have been a lot easier if I would have been watching the monthly P&L statements. This could have been stopped a long time ago.

RR