All Forum Posts by: Peter Giardini

Two come to mind...

One is Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the habits is to put yourself in the other persons shoes.

The other book is The Secrets of Power Negotiating by Roger Dawson... this book was a game changer for me.

Good Luck!

Sean... welcome aboard.

Lots of good stuff on this site... jump in and participate and your 12 month goal should come to pass.

MIke... I could not agree more about being hands on landlord. With that being said, in urban areas like Detroit, Boston, Philly, NY, Baltimore.... you name... it is next to impossible to get a carry permit... though I wish it wasn't so hard... as there have been many times in Baltimore that the assurance cold hard steel would have been welcomed.

If works for you... and that is great. I just can't imagine a newbie landlord being able to pull this off like you have.

Hmmm... I'm surprised no one mentioned giving them cash for keys.

You offer them a certain amount of money in exchange for the tenants giving up all claims to the property.

You just figure that expense into the costs of getting the property ready for rental.

Mike has got more guts then I do. In a heavy urban area once the tenants know you are coming for the cash, you can expect that their friends will be lurking just around the corner to relieve you of and then split it with your tenants.

Aside from the above, the big problem I have with going to the property to collect rent is that you are training the tenants to rely on you to go get your rent. It comes down to who is training who?

I guess I like the old fashioned way... send it by mail, if I don't have it by COB on the fifth day its off to rent court on the 6th.

The comments from Mike and Justin certainly show they have lived through this experience.

While I have had great luck managing tenants through situations like this, I was only able to do because I had leverage like Mike and Justin suggested. Get this into rent court or whatever process is used in your area. Once you have the ability to evict you are now in total control of the situation.

One other approach I add to this mix and I believe it makes the difference... start as long as the tenant is behind start a routine inspection schedule for the property. You want to know how they are treating your investment and you want them to know that you will be in their nickers until they are caught up.

Charles,

There are banks that will do these types of loans. They are small local banks. You can recognize them by the Savings and Loan or Community Bank in their name.

You will want to speak to the commercial lending department.

Typically you would be expected to bring 25% - 30% to the table for the downpayment and then of course closing costs.

I just recently posted a blog post on how to create relationships with these lenders. This is a critical step to getting funding... particularly in this market.

Good Luck!

You will need to find local banks. Don't visit the big guys they won't know what to do with you.

Small local banks would all have Savings and Loan or Community Bank in their name.

You will want to talk to their commercial loan department as this is where you will find the most flexibility and won't have to worry about DOS's. Also you will be seeking a 'recapitalization" loan... where you are seeking to get the cash you put into a building out of it. A straight forward cashout refi will most likely be looked on in a negative light.

I posted a blog post about a week ago on the subject.

Good luck!

Rich,

I have to say it was the title that got my attention...

I was wondering what does this guy mean... finally got an offer accepted. Didn't you just close on a couple of killer deals?

Best of luck with the purchase.

William... if you are using a banks funds for the first and private funds for the second... and only one second you, should be in good shape.

It can become tricky and probably illegal when you are using private funds for both the first and second... particularly if these private lenders don't fully understand (and believe me if everything goes south they will become the most uninformed people on earth) what the risk postures are of being in a first vs. a second position situation