All Forum Posts by: Oscar Macal

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. Definitely helps me make some better decisions, and of course leads me to a few more questions.

Cozy.co is looking very convenient to me for doing my tenant applications/screening/background checks and rental payments. My plan, as some have suggested, is to advertise soon to have a good pool of interested applicants that I can phone screen before showing the property to. Since I live in Dallas currently, and the property is located in Houston, I'm thinking to do sort of an "open house" showing, where I only let the prospective tenants I've already phone screened attend on a Saturday morning/afternoon. Figure this could save time instead of having to go back and forth to the property all weekend while I'd be in Houston. Thoughts?

Also, for those that have used Cozy.co or similar screening sites, do they offer the ability to send the "Adverse Action notice" if I decline the applicant for something found on their screening through that site or would I still need to send it out myself to them via mail, email, etc?

Thanks again for all your help. I'm excited/nervous about doing this all myself this time around.

Oscar

@Ryan Dossey Thanks for your advice Ryan. I appreciate it. 

It's not the issue of running the second account, but rather the cost of setting up an LLC and all that. This is my first and so far, only investment property, so not sure if the cost of setting up the LLC right now is worth it, but I do want to start advertising my brand as soon as possible.

@Mike McCarthy Thank you for your input. I'm definitely looking to grow, which is why I want to start advertising my brand asap, but don't know if the cost of LLC is worth it right now with only one home?

@Thomas S. Good advice. Thank you.

@Anna M. Thanks for your response Anna. How do you add yourself to the utility accounts? I'm assuming you have to agree to this with tenant? 

Any recommendations on online payment tools? It looks like you use Cozy.com? I would definitely be interested in setting that up as well. Although I never had any issues with this tenant and her rent getting to me, I'm sure the whole "It must have got lost in the mail" excuse will eventually come along in my landlording future.

The reason I was asking about advertising my brand name, but still having the checks coming to my personal name, is because since I only have this one house and don't have an LLC or any business set up yet, I did not think the cost would be worth it at this point to get the LLC set up and all, but I do want to start advertising my brand name asap. What are your thoughts? Should I go ahead and get the LLC now? Also, would I need to transfer the property into the LLC or keep the title/mortgage in my personal name and just run the payments and rent collection through the new business account and LLC? New to all this, so I appreciate any help.

@Steven J. Thank you Steven. I appreciate your advice. Same question as Anna, to get the asset protection you're mentioning, I would need to transfer the property into the LLC company name? Is that correct?

Thanks again everyone.

Hi everyone,

I was just recently notified by my current tenant of my first BRRRR property that she will not be renewing her lease at the end of February as she is moving back to Chicago. She has been in my home for two years and honestly, I am very sad to lose her, as she has truly been an excellent tenant. Home has always been clean, never once been late on rent, only contacts me the few times she's had an issue, etc. But regardless, she is leaving at the end of February, which brings me to my questions.

The first time I rented the home out, I had my realtor do it. He did the showings, background checks, etc. and I looked over all the applicants and chose this one. I want to tackle all that myself this time and need all your help.

So therefore, what company/companies do you recommend for doing credit/background/eviction checks?

I plan to advertise the home via Zillow on their Rental Property Manager page as well as Craigslist. Any thoughts or other ideas on that?

Dumb question, but I plan to start advertising the property at the beginning of February with the hopes of being able to find a new tenant to move right in March 1 to have no "rentless" time in between renters. But worst case, if that doesn't happen, I'm assuming I need to move all the utilities into my name to keep lights on, even if it is only for a few days before I find a renter?

Lastly, I don't have a LLC or anything set up. Current tenant just paid to my name and I deposited into a separate account just for this home. I want to look a little more professional this time and advertise the property with "my" company name that will be my business name eventually. Is it ok to advertise as a company name, for example Macal Rental Homes, but still have checks written out to just my name, Oscar Macal, for rent and deposit into the bank account that is in my name?

Obviously I'm not asking all my questions, but I think I have researched the forums and gotten most of my answers, but these are a few that I am still unsure about. Any and all advise is welcome.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

It's been awhile. Everything has been going well with my first Fix & Flip turned Fix & Rent, but now I am looking for my next flip. I'm meeting a wholesaler tomorrow who has a property near me that I am very interested in and wanted to ask for recommendations for hard money or private lenders.
Is there any company or individual(s) that you guys have used that you would recommend? I'd appreciate any feedback.

Thanks.
Oscar

Houston, TX

Hi everyone,

I have a quick question about hard money lenders and hope you can help. I've only used one recently for my rental property that I bought, but now I want to try something different.

I am currently in the market for my own house and I have been looking at pre-foreclosure lists and have found a few homes that I'd be interested in living personally. Obviously, they need some work and since with pre-foreclosures, time is of the essence, I wonder if I could get a Hard money loan to close on the property quickly (before it goes to auction) and use the hard money funds to rehab it, then refi out of it and into a conventional loan as soon as possible (like I did with the rental property) and then move in myself.

I don't see a huge problem with this strategy, so the reason I ask is because I remember when I did this last Hard Money loan, one of the forms I had to sign was an "Acknowledgement form" that said I was not going to use the property to live in personally, or something along those lines. 

Any advice with this?

Thanks.

Oscar

 Thank you David. Really appreciate it.

Biggest mistake was definitely not looking at the numbers carefully and getting to excited about getting into the business. I bought the house too high and took the wholesalers word for the repair costs that he got quoted from the contractor that ended up doing the work. I found out from the contractor that when he was asked to give a quote, they told him to give them the lowest bid possible for a rental home, a fact which was not disclosed to me even though they knew I had the intent of selling and not renting it out. My ignorance of this is what caused my expenses to almost double on repair costs.

Lessons learned.

Hi everyone,

I realized that I never updated everyone on the property and wanted to give a quick update on my first flip/rental.

I took everyones advice and did go with the 30 year mortgage for the refi. I closed on the refi at the beginning of April and so far everything has been going well with the renter. She paid May's rent in the middle of April and just gave me June's rent yesterday morning when I went over for a small leak she was having in the kitchen (Easy $5 fix. Her fridge line was worn and leaking at the valve connection. New compression ring and nut was all it took.)

As I said a while back, renting it wasn't the initial plan, but having a backup plan and everyone here's advice certainly turned this situation around. I opened a separate checking for all the rent deposits and mortgage payments and a savings for the deposit money and not touching any of that money at all. I plan to let it build up and use for any "unexpected" expenses and eventually to help fund the down payment on another home.

Thanks again for everyones help and input. I'm currently saving for the next one and hope to be able to try this again in a couple months.

Oscar

Hi everyone. 

Once again, thank you for all your encouragement and advice.

A little update on my property. I decided to hang on to it, cash out refi it and rent it out. I am currently working on the refi, but in order to get a cash out refi, I do have to wait until I own the property 6 months, which puts my closing at the end of March. 

I put the home for rent last week Monday and had several interested renters apply. On Thursday of last week, I decided on a renter and they are set to move in on March 1st. We signed all the contracts over the weekend. 

I decided to do a 15 year loan @ 3.75% and with taxes and insurance, it will put my payment right at $900 and the home will be rented out for $1,200.  $300 potential cash flow. Hopefully everything works out well.

Thanks again everyone for your advice. We'll talk soon.

Oscar

Thank you everyone.

@Jonathan Ortiz I actually had considered this strategy and I believe that is what I am now going to do. At this stage, this is the only way to not loose my investment in the property. I appreciate you input.

@Andy Luick I have realized now that it was not a good buy. I got over zealous and wanted to get started, that I did not do my proper homework on the home. The repairs went almost twice as much as originally intended. But that is in the past. I definitely did learn a lot in this experience and will do much better next time.

Thanks again everyone. I'll keep you all posted.

Oscar