All Forum Posts by: Patrick Smith

Just wanting to see if anybody has had any luck with using Bent Recovery Service. I've been thinking about it.

Great response guys. I need to dust off my contract and read it again. After that I'll talk to the PM owner and make sure we are on the same page. It just gets frustrating to put so much into making a house look nice just to have somebody destroy it. Not to mention the money I'm having to fork out.

I've got a question that I haven't been able to find on the forum. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. How often do you feel a property management company should inspect your rentals? I've been using a company now for 11 years. They have been good with everything except inspecting my houses. The only time they get inspected is when I request it. Should I have to request an inspection or should it be something they should be doing without me having to ask? Three times in the past 11 years I've had tenets move out and the place was trashed. I feel that as long as these tents have been there, somebody from the PM company would have caught some of the destruction before it got that bad. Also, how often do you inspect?

Good advice. I'm just on the opposite way of looking at it. I use a management company and wouldn't do it any other way. They do the credit checks and criminal background checks, they tell me what the houses are renting for in a neighborhood before I buy so I can run the numbers, they handle the evictions, etc. They know the laws better than me. It frees up my time and to me time is an asset. Now that doesn't mean I sit back and wash my hands of it. You have to check behind them and the job they do. One guy on this forum said it best. Nobody is going to love my houses more than me.

There's nothing wrong with land lording yourself. There's pros and cons with both.

Arlen Chou can you think of anything negative about getting a HELOC? I'm pretty responsible with money so I don't see myself buying a corvette with it. My credit score runs between 780 and 800. Thanks Pat

I had the same problem. My management company handled the legal stuff. I got a scrap metal company to pick it up and I made $200 for selling the metal. I don't remember the legal details but they we're evicted and given so many days to remove personnel belongings.

Thanks Chris. Love Topsail area. I grew up in Jacksonville, live in Greensboro, and plan on retiring in Wilmington. Thanks again. Pat

Thanks for responding Chris. I guess I should've gave more details, so Here it goes.

I have three Rentals that I had bought in 2007 before the crash. I refied them in 2013 with a lower interest rate of 4.25% on all three with a 30 yr fix. For the passed 10 years I have been paying the mortgages and having a positive cash flow on all of them. I'm wanting to find a way to pay them off more quickly so I can use the equity to purchase more houses. I'm looking to retire from the Fire Dept in about 6 years. I was thinking of using my 457K to payoff all three houses so I could buy more real estate. By doing that I will take a 25% hit in taxes by withdrawing that money(Ouch).

Doing some research I've discovered HELOC's. With my research there are some things I don't like about HELOC's. Some people would say to use it like a checking account and deposit your paycheck in it to pay bills. I'm not sure I like that idea. I keep my business(rentals) in a separate checking account from my personnel checking. That is how I like things. Once I payoff a mortgage with the HELOC, can't I just use the HELOC like a credit card to payoff it off out of my business account? I've talked to my accountant and she would rather I do it that way instead.

I hope this gives you guys a better understanding. Any input on HELOC's would be helpful. Pat

I'm thinking about getting a HELOC to pay my mortgage off. I hear it can cut down on the time it would take to pay it down. Can anybody give me the pros and cons of doing this. I'm not sure about doing this and would any in put from you guys. That's Pat