All Forum Posts by: Radley Estrada

Hey everyone, I'd like to get some advice and opinions on this situation.

I have husband/wife tenants that are good tenants and are currently on a month-to-month lease.  They follow rules, pay rent on time, and have had no troubles with me or any of their neighbors.

The father says that their 20 something year old son had run-ins with the law when he was a teenager and is currently "getting his life together".  His crimes were petty drug offenses.  No violent felonies.

He asked if its ok for the son to visit from time to time.  Never to stay long term, but, to visit on the weekends.  The father feels if he can look over his son, he can help get his life straightened out. 

I appreciate the father's honesty and have no problem for the son to visit being that his crimes were minor.  If they requested the son to be on the lease, I would subject him to a full background check before approval.  

How would you handle this situation if it was your tenant? 

We can't background check tenant's guests, but, what would you do if a tenant brought in guests with known felonies?

Do your leases have stipulations on the type of guest that can visit? Is it legal?

Do Both....and also require your tenants have individual renters insurance as well.  A renters policy with $100k in liability and $10k in assets protection can cost as little as $8-10/month.  

More layers the better!

Already a lot of good advice given by other BP members.

Robert Kiyosaki said something in a podcast that stuck with me.  He said, you are guaranteed to fail.  But, you must fail fast enough and a number of times to know what success is.  Learn from those failures. 

Every BP member that has invested in real estate has, at one point, felt like they failed. Whether it was evicting a problem tenant, investing in a bad deal, or losing out on a great one - there will be days in REI you will feel like you're losing. Always reverse that thinking. See it as a great learning experience, research and implement systems that will mitigate those problems in the future, rinse and repeat.

There are a lot of people who talk about going into REI that are all theory and no action. Congrats on taking action!

Inspirational knowing the deals can still be made in the Seattle market.  Its such a zoo, I ended up looking toward the suburbs of Tacoma, Federal Way, Kent, etc.

This definitely helps my mental roadblock that Seattle is near impossible to invest in.

If I were you, I'd become a member of your local or state landlord association.  For a very low yearly membership fee, you can get a wealth of information, make new local contacts, as well as have access to landlord forms/documents that pertain to your city/state.

A quick google search of "michigan landlord association", and I found these guys:

http://rpoamm.org/index.php/forms-docs

Not sure if this is in your area, but, you can see there is a lot of benefit joining your local landlord association.

I use cozy.co.  Its free for landlords and credit w/ background check costs the tenant $39.99.  The credit score comes back immediately, the background check takes 1-3 business days.  

Hey Andrew, welcome to BP!

I was in the same boat as you wanting to invest in Seattle, but, being pushed out by multiple offer competition, high prices, and deals that just would not cash flow.

But, there is money to be made in the neighboring areas of Tacoma, Federal Way, Kent, and Auburn.  I recently picked up a 4-plex in Tacoma that cash flows quite well.  It wasn't easy, but, there are properties out there.  

Do your due diligence and make those connections here on BP and locally.  

Good luck!

I'm gonna plug the website and recommend downloading the Bigger Pockets Book on Investing In Real Estate with Little or No Money Down.  Another good read is The Wall Street Journal's Book on Real Estate Investing by David Crook.  

Also, listen to the BP podcasts as you're driving, at the gym working out, or during your downtime.  There's quite a few podcast that discuss starting out, creative financing, etc.

Good luck!

As far as numbers are concerned, it sounds like a good deal.  Of course, I'm saying that all the way here from Seattle, WA. 

If you close this deal, my "non-numbers" advice is to make sure to focus on screening your tenants thoroughly.  My experience renting in C/D grade neighborhoods - you will deal with tenants that may not have perfect credit, have had evictions in the past, maybe on Section 8.  Not that any of these things are deal breakers - just plan accordingly and screen thoroughly.

Also, I'd recommend requiring each tenant $100,000 renters insurance policy.  Usually costs the renter $8-10/month paid to their insurance company.  Its great piece of mind for you and your tenants.

Good luck!  

I recommend speaking diplomatically with the neighbor landlord as well.

In my complex, we had a lot of late night loitering in a parking lot easement shared by neighbor properties.  Once I installed security cameras, the loitering became non-existent.  The security cameras also gave my tenants peace of mind about their safety, and justified my rents.  My neighbor landlords appreciated my efforts as well.

Maybe with big brother watching, the neighbor tenants will be less likely to "hang around" outside of the property.