All Forum Posts by: Paul S.

I would give some serious thought to selling.  I'm not saying you have to cash out of everything, but quality of life is very important.  I don't know when you bought your properties, but you're sitting on real estate that's giving you headaches during a time that's a "sellers market".  Take the proceeds and pay off some debt, or stick it in some other asset like a mutual fund that doesn't require this level of active management.

I don't know when it will happen, but at some point there will be another downturn in the real estate market and you'll be well positioned to add to your portfolio again.

My biggest piece of advice for avoiding this situation in the future is to purchase properties which are as close as possible to where you live.  Something like unclogging a toilet goes from an hour of driving back and forth to a 10 minute pop in and pop out.  Management is a TON easier when your not only a landlord but a neighbor.

Biggest piece of advice I would have given myself...  Be patient, be extremely patient.  Even "fast" deals take way more time than you think they will.

Holy moly!  That's almost hilarious.  That's the mold test?  Agar plates?  You can put those things in any non-sterile environment and they will be covered in all sorts of yucky stuff in a week.  A really good one is to wash your hair really well, then put a piece of hair on one of those things.  You will wanna shave your head bald.

Do some googling, most of those home test kits are a scam.  Every test kit comes back as positive and they get to market you remediation.

I would talk to your tenant and try to sus out their motivation.  Sometimes people are trying to get out of things, sometimes they are just plain irrational.  I had a tenant that wanted me to check the sewer line multiple times because someone was sneaking into her house through it.

Don't be afraid to come back with a shrug and a "ok...I guess I'll see you in court".  Everyone thinks they can sue for everything until an attorney tells them to give them a 5k retainer to just file the initial paperwork.  If you have made a reasonable effort to address anything that may cause mold you're fine.  If you have further questions, call your insurance company, they will be able to give you some insight into your liabilities since chances are they will be representing you for a mold claim.

Lastly, you can call a remediation company for a quote.  I have no idea what the cost would be for some sort of them spraying stuff all over the place, but it might be a small expense compared to losing a valuable tenant.

Unless someone calls License and Inspection on you for a complaint, no inspectors from the city will come to inspect anything.

Unpermitted work in Philadelphia is EXTREMELY common.  For example, if you take out your faucet and put it back in, you do not need a permit.  If you REPLACE your faucet, you are required to hire a plumber and have them pull a permit for the work.  As a home owner you can pull a building permit, but not a plumbing or electrical permit.  Any electrical work which for which you will be charged more than $100.00 by an electrician requires a permit.

As far as I know, no permit is required for replacing a roof.  Window and door replacement does not require a permit as long as the opening size is not changed.  Patching drywall does not require a permit, but if you replace a piece of drywall you are required to pull a building permit.  The permitting process is a maze of regulation, and even the inspectors will often disagree with each other on what's acceptable and what is not.

If you have questions about what your insurance will cover if the worst happens, I would call them.  I have found insurance agents are more than happy to explain things.  It is also very helpful to understand your coverage for water damage.  Water damage coverage much less straightforward than fire.

Lastly, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the city inspection?  You mean if you had some work done and and inspector came to inspect and close the permit?  It all depends on the inspector.  They may come and glance at the work and sign off, or they may sign off on the work and give you 15 other violations they see around the house.  I've had inspectors that would sign off on a texted cell phone pic.

With deals like this I like to just work out my "no brainer" price.  Assume the tenants aren't going to move out until some far flung date, and work backwards from there.  There is a price that makes it a "no brainer" deal that makes all the hassle worth it.

I would make that my offer.  Sounds ruthless, but this is the time when you beat up a seller because they have a property that is going to be difficult to sell.

I once had a seller that wouldn't let me look inside the house.  I said "...well then I have to offer my I can't look inside price..."  He took it on the spot, turns out him and his family had been hoarding since the 50's.  30 tons of trash later and it was still a good deal.

Sounds about right.  I had to deal with this once upon a time a long time ago, there is a department at L&I, I believe, that deals with all the contracts for demo for the city.  When I went there they were happy to pull the file and check everything out for me.
You can usually negotiate a lot of the liens if you head to various departments with checkbook in hand.  But sometimes, the liens just make the property upside down.  The only way to clear the liens is generally through a sheriff sale.
It's quite possible that the owners had no idea about the demo liens, the city doesn't send out any paperwork to the owners.  I had a shell that was on the demo list, the only way I found out was there was a crew doing one down the street  who told me it was on the list.  But that was back in the NTI days under the Street administration.

Sorry, didn't mean to be a troll.

So funny.  To be honest it doesn't matter what the hottest neighborhood is, unless you bought there before it was the "next big thing".

Everyone that does this ends up settling into a nitch.  When I was flipping, I did some high end and did some low end.  Ended up feeling comfortable with rehabbing for first time home buyers that bought somewhere in the middle. 

I've been investing for a long time, and following bigger pockets for a short time.  The overwhelming feeling I get is that everyone is looking for the "magic formula".  Buy in this neighborhood, spend this much per square foot, wash and repeat. 

Serious lack of creative thinking in my book.  I can name half a dozen ways to find and make deals just off the top of my currently beer in soaked brain.

1:  I don't see anyone asking for seller financing right now.  Interest rates are ridiculously low, everyone wants to be a real estate investor and banks are only lending to well qualified buyers.  If I was a seller, I might not need to cash out my house when I'm moving because I locked in a 30 year mortgage at 3%.  Getting someone paying a monthly payment for my old house at 7% sounds kinda cool though.

2:  No evictions in over a year.  Besides sending out a bazillion spam text messages, I don't see anyone going after distressed landlords offering to help out with tenant problems.  You may or may not be able to help, but you just dipped your toe in a pool of distressed home owners.

3:  Instead of buying houses, in a tight market,rehabbing them and then looking for a buyer.  There are a crap ton of buyers out there that are looking to rehab the new house they just bought.  If you have a portfolio of houses you rehabbed and a roofer, plumber, electritian, hvac guy ect in your back pocket you can call.  Go make a killing selling your services.  You can be like a tv show guy.

4:  While residential real estate is going gangbusters, commercial is taking a poop.  Not one word about anyone working commercial deals. 

5:  Just heard on the news again about Philly's problem with stolen deeds, which is a problem I've had to deal with over the years.  They are easy to find with some legwork.  Anyone reach out to those home owners?  Little know how, and a good pitch on returning properties to the rightful owners and you can get houses under contract for pennies on the dollar.

6:  The flyers and the spam emails and the never ending calls from "I'm Ted!  I work for a local real estate investor and we want to buy a property in your neighborhood!"  Back when I got started, it was almost ridiculously easy to walk a neighborhood and talk to some neighbors and find out.  Oh yeah, Ms. Betty just went to a nursing home, her son was just talking about selling her house.  People are freakin lazy anymore, can't be bothered to get off the couch.

I've been an investor for 20+ years and I understand the desire to get into RE investing.

I don't know who's selling a course or giving advice or selling a list that tells people to run around sending a million texts to property owners. 

I have to say this really has to stop!  I receive at least 50 text messages per day.  Do you honestly think I'm going to sell one of my houses to you because you sent me spam?  The thousands of post cards I receive every week are annoying enough.

If you are one of the people buying some sort of list, or paying some "mentor" to track down deals, you are getting completely ripped off.