All Forum Posts by: Ben Hollingsworth

As our first buy & hold rental, I'm hoping to buy a 100-yr-old, 5 BR house that's just one block from a big college.  I know there's a family in it now (moving out this week), but this property sure sounds like a college kid rental to me.  In that type of scenario, which utilities are typically paid by the landlord and which by the tenants?

I kind of figured that in an SFR, the tenant would pay for all utilities, lawn care, snow removal, etc. Is that an unreasonable expectation, especially for 5 college kids sharing a house? Am I better off boosting the rent and covering the fixed utilities (like lawn care) myself?

We're trying to find our first BRRRR deal. I've used the BP BRRRR calculator to analyze a handful of prospects, but I'm a little confused on how best to enter our situation.

We have a fair bit of money available through lines of credit with good interest rates.  We expect to use these to pay "cash" up front for an entire property and its rehab, then refi out to a traditional mortgage after the rehab so that our cash is available for the next deal.  I suspect that this scenario is similar for those use a short term, hard money loan as well.

This means that we'll have two different loans with two different interest rates and two different durations, one right after the other. What's the best way to enter this into the online calculator in a way that gives sensible ROI and cap rates? I can't simply treat the up-front LoC payment as cash, since there's interest involved. Can I? I want to get an accurate picture of what our finances will look like, but I'm not sure how best to do that.

We've purchased both of our own homes through Lincoln Federal using Mike Isaacson.  We liked them enough that we intend to go back to Mike when it's time for a cash-out refi on our rehabs.  We didn't really shop around much, but Mike knows us, and that's worth a lot to me.  I don't know whether Mike's investor himself or not.  Ryan, if you think of your loan officer's name, please share.

No house should ever leak just because there's a lot of water.  If water's getting inside, it means there's a problem that should be dealt with before it gets worse.  You really want to figure out how the water got in and fix it the right way before we get a really big storm that causes a lot of damage.

Yeah, what Jody said.

As for future prevention, look outside to see if you can tell why the water's getting inside.Make sure your gutters & downspouts are all doing their job.  If the outside grade slopes toward the house, then building up the soil will certainly help.

If it's not obvious, I recommend calling the Leak Detective (http://www.TheLeakDetective.net).  He doesn't fix problems; he just figures out how to solve them, which means he's not going to try to sell you on an expensive solution that you don't need.

You should start by attending the local REI meeting this month. It's held on the second Monday every month (that's 14 Jan) from 7-9pm in the back room of the Grata Bar at 6891 A St (Clock Tower). There's no charge. Its starts with about 45 minutes of meet & greet, followed by about a 45 minute presentation, followed by more meet & greet. There's usually about 50 people there.

So, barring a "cash for keys" agreement, we have to wait until the lease expires before doing anything.  At that time, though, is it kosher to simply not renew the lease?  Or to double the rent & let them decide whether to leave?

We're about to start buying small multi-family rentals, preferably those that need some rehab to boost rents.  If the building we buy is already full, how do we get rid of the old renters so that we can rehab the units and then refinance to get our money back?  For example, assume the old renters are paying $300/mo, and we expect to get $600/mo after rehab.

Do we have to officially evict everyone?  Do we have to wait til their current leases expire & then not renew?  Can we raise the rents immediately after purchase, regardless of their old leases, and then wait til they move on their own?  What do the rest of you do?

Yes, come to the REIA gathering. You just missed this month's (it was last night). The next one is on 8 October. It's in the back room at Grata Bar & Lounge, 6891 A St. There's maybe 50 or so people there, including a handful of wholesalers. Starting at 7:00, there's about 45 minutes of meet & greet, then a 45-minute presentation, then more meet & greet.

@Mindy Jensen While your developers are at it, we should be able to display more than 6 documents per page when we're viewing a category (like "contracts").  If I could display the entire contents of that category at once, then I could use my browser's search function.