All Forum Posts by: Stephen Leblanc

It may not be ideal, but short term pain, long term gain.

I find I can weed out 90% of the nut cases with one question....How are you? After that just shut your mouth and watch them go. Three days ago a man showed up to view a one bedroom apt I had. I introduced myself and he began to tell me everything about himself, his broken family, how his kids want nothing to do with him, and he summed it all up by telling me he's currently living with his sister because he was drunk, decided to deep fry something and burned down the 6 unit apartment building he was living in.

Please listen to the advice posted above. There is no upside for you in this deal. I only do month to month leases. A tenant will up and leave whenever they want and the chances of getting any money out of them for breaking the lease is near impossible. On the other hand if the start to become trouble, I have a much quicker turn around time to get rid of them. Think about the future rent loss as well. How much are you going to give them a break on the rent. 100.00? Lets say for arguments sake you pick 100 bucks. That's 3600 bucks your losing over the next 3 years...minimum. That doesn't include the loss of income from a potential rent increase in the next 3 years. Trust me, tenants like to think they are irreplaceable and that your should be thankful they're not tearing up your place. In most cases this is not true and if they gave you 30 days notice you could fill it no problem. At least that's how it is in my market. Even it its not this way in your market I would strongly advise you to reconsider a 3 yr lease. |Its a bad deal for you all the way around.

I would buy smarter early on. My first buy was perfect by today's' standards, but my second and third I overpaid for. I was young and listened to my real estate agent about what properties were a good buy. Looking back they were very amateurish buys, but that's just the expensive learning curve in this game. Each property after that was a better deal than the last. So, I guess it all boils down to not letting your excitement about wanting to buy a property cloud your judgement on what constitutes a good deal.

Did you give any thought on buying a duplex and living in one side and renting the other. That may be a good way for you to get your feet wet with the landlord gig and if you like it you can buy your own place and rent out both sides of your duplex.

I'm closing on a duplex today that I picked up for 35k. Rent is 700 per unit so it shoud do well. Both sides are currently rented but I don't think I'm keeping the tenants. This will be units 28 and 29. The last couple of years I've been busy at work and kind if put the rentals on auto pilot. Not growing just maintaining. I just hired a contractor to handle all my maintenance so I can focus on growth. Looking forward to te next couple of years and the potential growth of the business. Getting tired of my 9-5 but not quite ready to quit yet. Off to the next deal.

I make sure everyone of my units has a deadbolt and a non-keyed door knob. Its impossible to lock yourself out of your own home with a deadbolt. You would have to lose the key after you have left the home. In that case they can call a locksmith if I'm unavailable.

good points jon.

That's exactly how I feel, golden handcuffs. This would be a no-brainer if had a crappy job. I do have a wife and 3 kids. I could live off the rental now if I had too, but the opportunity I have in socking all that money away is also very hard to overcome. On the path I'm on now the future looks bright, maybe not fun, but bright. On the other hand, I could die tomorrow. You never know.

steve

Thanks for the responses so far. Mike, I'm up here in Canada and our economy hasn't taken the beating yours has. The fixing and flipping does sound like a reasonable middle ground for the time being. Any other advice would be appreciated.

steve