All Forum Posts by: Ben Skove

Hi DL,

I live about a 10 minute walk from that property. It is a desirable area (and will continue to be so if they can manage to put a grocery store back in), and the price on that 4-plex seems to reflect it. I am interested if they're actually getting that $700/unit - without knowing the details of the building, it seems a bit high for me, even for being on a good street.

To the point, though, property taxes are high, whether apartments or SFRs. There's a modest reduction for O/Os. A handy tool for quickly seeing what the tax would be on any revaluation is through the auditor's website. Pull up the property, click on "taxes paid", and enter a different valuation in the "calculate" box.

Thanks, y'all. I understand the risks as an investor (going through all the back posts and reading Mark Ferguson's guide.) From what I understand of the new bid opening changes, Friday through Sunday bids are opened Monday morning. OO status ended Sunday morning - today's the first day of investor access. Does that mean that OO bids are dealt with first on Monday, then bids from the next period? My hope is that there'll either be no OO bids, or if there is one, it'll fall through and go to me as the next backup bid.

@Account Closed That's my feeling as well. My guess is my agent's not particularly hungry right now. It also seems that some people have other things to do on Mother's Day than RE. ;)

Hi everyone,

There's a property that I'm interested in that's listed on hudhomestore, but not on the MLS. It's just gone to extended status today. While I understand that this sometimes happens with houses in the exclusive status, I'd assumed it would be listed once the status changed. My realtor wants to wait until it hits the MLS, though I'm not entirely sure why. I want to put an offer on it today, even if I can't have a look inside. While I realize that there may be an O/O bid pending, is there any reason why a bid can't be submitted?

For the paint issue in a flip, you need to make certain that all work is done to EPA RRP standards. Since only O/O are exempted, this means that you'll need to be RRP certified as well if you plan to do any of the work. Learn to love plastic sheeting.

EPA lead rules

In general, you just need to build the cost of compliance into your margin. As Colleen said, anything that age is going to have lead.

While it appears as if renting would benefit greatly from the trend, there's also the possibility that household formation is also dipping - people aren't moving out of mom and dad's house period, whether into a rental or their own home.

Though it's generally based on gross income, I would still be leery of this. What kind of debt are they carrying? Do they have other sources of income (stated or unstated)?

Another thing to keep in mind: SSI isn't garnishable if you have to pursue them for unpaid rent or damages.

@Rodney Kuhl At my rental level, it's often a hard copy. Some mail, some will arrange to drop it off. I'd love to move everything into the digital age; unfortunately, I have to meet my applicants at their level of tech savvy.

The tipping point for me would be whether they try to push it into the next month. Given that they know you're holding the line with the late fee - and hopefully with other lease matters - they're less likely to do so.

Is it an issue of when they're paid? I've moved due dates to coincide with pay days to solve consistent late pays.

I found SmartMove to be useful in that: a) I can meet FCRA requirements without having a site visit, etc and b) the fee is transparent and paid by the applicant. I don't have to justify an application fee, and it sorts out those who don't want to jump over this extremely low hurdle.

However, you're right in that you have to vet the rest of their information personally.

Thanks for the advice. If, after reviewing the docs, it turns out to be worth (and possible to do) Sub-2, it seems that the worst that could happen would be that I'd pay cash a few days longer down the road than would otherwise be the case. :)