All Forum Posts by: Nick Ferguson

@Christopher Hughes . I have one SFR and one Duplex. In any kind of multi-family, you'll have to do the lawn in my opinion. I would always expect an SFR to mow the lawn themselves unless it's some kind of special circumstance. As it happens, my SFR is a college house with 6 kids in it. I have the lawn mowed for a few reasons. 1) I don't trust college kids to do it, 2) I charge them a lot more in rent so I can justify the expense, 3) It gives me a reason to have someone I trust around the property making sure it isn't being trashed.

Good luck @Scott Hamilton

Are you looking at a traditional bank or a private/portfolio type of lender?  

I can tell you that in my personal opinion if you are new (not an insult, I'm also new and only have a couple properties) and an appraisal comes back very low, especially only 75% of the contract price, I would run from that deal if I could.  

Appraisers can always error but generally speaking, that person makes a living by knowing what a house is worth.  It may just be that it is not actually a deal.  I think the goal would be for the contract price to be 75% of the appraisal, not the other way around. 

Unless you KNOW that it's a deal from a cash flow, location, AND property value perspective, I'd back out.

Hey everyone, 

I was just wondering what you guys pay in the Cleveland area for lawn care generally?  I have someone, a small one-man company, who will do mowing, weeding, all other basic edging, etc. for $60 per month.  How does that compare to others?  

It's a small yard of a duplex on a city lot.  

@Gabe G. @Ray Harrell  Thanks for the input.  

I feel the same way in regards to fees etc.  It was definitely her mistake.  The only reason, I wanted to help at all was because this was an inherited tenant in a newly purchased property.  Her old landlord physically collected a check or cash each month which I did not want to do so I made her switch to Cozy and this was the first month.  She had difficulty setting up her account and I finally talked her through it so I felt bad that the first time she tried, this happened. 

What ended up happening for those wondering was this.  I told her there was nothing I could do on my end until it went through and that I could not stop the payment on my end.  I recommended that she call her bank to stop the payment.  They were able to stop the payment on their end so it will not clear.  She was charged a $35 dollar stop payment fee. 

I use Cozy to process rent payments.  My tenant, who I had to help register for Cozy, just called me because of her payment that she says she scheduled early to process on August 5th, came out today.  I'm sure that in reality, she must have just missed the date selection and scheduled it for immediate instead of int he future.  She states that it is causing her to overdraw her account but that it will still clear because her bank allows her to overdraft.  I am fine returning the money to her once it hits my account but it will not do so for 3 days because that's how long it takes Cozy to process.  I don't want to give her $650 and then in 3 days, the payment is returned and she now owes me $1300 instead of the regular $650.  

How would you help the tenant without putting yourself at risk?

I know simlar discussion have been had but I have some specific asset protection questions. 

Here is the back story, I have two investment properties (plus my personal residence), one SFR and one duplex. I have a first mortgage on both and a HELOC on the first which was used as a down payment on the second. The first one, I still have a decent amount of equity in despite the HELOC but I could in no way cover either of them with cash if I ever had a loan called due.

As an asset protection, I'd like to put both properties into a holding entity. I have an LLC that I use for rent collection and operating expenses but it doesn't own anything except for some cash.

I know the odds of triggering the due on sale clause are always reportedly low but...  

IF I moved a property into an LLC and the due on sale clause was triggered, could I simply move it back into my name and be fine or once it's triggered is it done with?

I have heard that if you move the property into a trust, it cannot trigger the due on sale clause. Is this true?

Secondarily, the property with the existing HELOC is building equity rapidly and will be fully paid off in about 8 years. Probably in another 2 years or so, I'd like to re-do my HELOC for a higher amount and purchase another property. How hard will that be if I've got the house in an entity?

So I had a group of tenants who were college students.  Five of them in total.  They all moved out and went separate ways.  They are NOT getting any deposit returned and, in fact, owe a little over $1,000 in damages that exceeded the deposit amount.  I'm not really counting on ever seeing any of that but I did have my attorney draft up a letter saying "pay this or else" and sent them the explanation of the security deposit via certified mail as required.  

One of the five tenants has not responded to my numerous inquiries regarding a forwarding address so his was actually never sent but I have documented numerous attempts to contact him via phone and text.

The real question is this.  Two of the letters were just returned to me as undeliverable because the tenants were not there to accept the letter and did not respond to the post office notice and the letter was returned after 3 failed delivery attempts.  

What am I legally obligated to do?  Have I already done my part since I tried to send?  Do I need to reach back out, etc.? 

Beyond what I'm legally obligated to do, what CAN I do to attempt to persuade them to pay the amount owed.  I'm not going to go through the hassle of small claims court for such a small amount but I assume I can send them an email or text message threatening small claims court even though I have no intention of following through. 

Any advice is appreciated. 

I'd offer them a couple hundred bucks to be out by the end of the week if it were me.  Obviously, start any legal stuff like notices in case they don't bite but it would be much less time, money, and headache if you can just give them $200 and get them, and their crap, out of your unit. 

@Ken Mackey I'd be more than happy to meet up for breakfast/lunch/post-work beer.  I live and invest in Cleveland but work in Akron.  I set my own schedule mostly so I can meet whenever it's convenient.  Inbox me if you're interested.  Love to network with like-minded individuals.