All Forum Posts by: Pete Barrow

You bought it at the top of the market, and now we are (maybe) back near the top of the market. This is your chance to get out of this house, which isn't earning you any money, is probably not going to appreciate much, and is sooner or later going to need a roof, HVAC, or something unpleasant like that. Sell for what you can get and invest closer to home. 

Depends on the circumstances. I might have told this story on here before, but...

A few years ago we fixed up a tidy little bungalow and were looking at tenants. One guy...let's call him Marvin, because that was not his name...had done time for manslaughter, and had been out for about nine years since. 

Before that, and after, he was spotless: credit, work history, references, everything. Plus, we liked him, and he had an explanation: the guy needed killing. Marvin was by far the best applicant, and we were going to give him the place, but he turned us down and went elsewhere. 

The funny part is, the next two tenants we rented to, destroyed the house, and were by far the worst tenants we've ever experienced in any of our properties. Not sure how they slipped through the screening process, but they did. We've looked back many times, and wished we could have gotten Murdering Marvin.  

In short, I'd say that there might be situations where the guy with the felony is your very best applicant, and you should rent to him.

If you're going to max out your borrowing on your first house, just to put 20k or so down on another, does that mean you don't have any other savings? If so, that is not a healthy situation for a guy who owns rentals. Debt is fine, but not having a pot of money to cover contingencies is not. That is how people get caught in a crunch and go broke. 

Sorry, which of us are you asking this question? 

Won't work. They keep an eye on what is said about them on BP. They'll see your name on here and give you the VIP treatment. 

 >In addition, if you are making a bet on the market you can buy more this way and the appreciation will more than makeup for any issues and many buyers will want to fix all the units to higher standards anyway. So any money spent fixing it before was a waste. 

Some people have made a lot of money in this town doing just that. I wouldn't be comfortable with it either. To each his own I guess. 

Actually ol' Ted was in law school and passing as respectable. But yeah, that makes him an outlier. 

We were all ready to rent to a guy with a manslaughter conviction, but an otherwise perfect record. He turned us down. 

Oh so do I. I mean, look at that Parrot artwork below. 

The theft / vandalism is the big thing. People will break in and gut a furnace to steal $20 worth of copper. They will rip copper pipes and wires out of walls. Tenants will shoot holes in walls and doors, start kitchen fires and not mention it, let their pit bulls eat the basement stairs and their cats soak the floors in pee, take the appliances when they move out, deal drugs and run a whorehouse from your property.

The people I know who own places like this make their margin by being absolute slumlords, spending no money on upkeep. You don't look mean enough for that sort of business. 

Freedom Number  =  -730,000