All Forum Posts by: Raman Saka

Just as others have suggested, reading your current mortgage and talking to your lender is the first step. If that's done, then the rest of the process is not hard. I did it for multiple properties. In WA state you need to fill in a form and pay excise tax. The form is tricky, has bunch of codes to show that its not a sale but just an identity change. The officials in Snohomish county WA were very helpful, they made sure I wrote down the description of the property exactly as it shows on deed and few other finer details. Good thing is there are no delays, the new warranty deed gets recorded the same day. 

Hi, 

I inherited a Tarrant Housing Authority Section 8 tenant when I bought this property around 2 years ago in Fort Worth TX. For the last 8-10 months I have been telling my property manager to talk to Tarrant Housing Authority people and raise the rent for this property. The current rent is around $ 200- $300 below the market rent. First response from Housing Authority was that they have a max allowed % increase and based on that they can only raise rent by $150 per month. I did not agree and asked my Property Manager to resubmit with the increment of $250.  Then 3-4 months passed, and we never heard back anything even after repeated pings. Finally in Dec 2022, I got tired of waiting and I grudgingly agreed to $150 rent increase. But now it's been 4 months and still I keep getting the same rent. My property manager keeps saying that the Tarrant County Housing Authority people are NOT responding to her voice messages and even when she gets them on phone, they are not very forthcoming with the next steps to approve this rent increase. 

Has anybody dealt with a similar situation? As a landlord can I call or chat with somebody OR its best to communicate thru the property manager ONLY? I am tempted to give the renter a Notice to vacate and then find another tenant. BUT the current renter is OK and if possible, I want to save myself the expense of yet another make-ready on this unit. Given the vacancy and make-ready expense, I am assuming it will take me at least year to breakeven with the increased rent.  Your expert tips and suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

Cheers!! 

@Bill B.Brandt: Thanks for your insights. 
@Caleb Brown Let me DM you, I built up a small team within the last 6 months in KCMO and we just closed on our first rental in Dec. But let's chat. 

Hi, I am in the early stages of doing my first 1031 exchange. We are yet to list the property I am replacing, but curious about the 45-d replacement property identified condition. Does that IRS condition mean that I need to have my offers accepted on the replacement properties? OR I can be in the process of doing walk throughs, making offers/counter offers and everything is OK as long as I close in 180 days?

Also has anybody tried to pick up Bank owned properties as replacement properties for 1031 exchange OR the best advice is to keep it simple and straight forward on properties where you can confidently close within the allotted timeframe?

Cheers !!

Hi Dustin, thanks for your insights. Can you pl provide more information on Rent by room strategy? Will it work for regular SFH? I am assuming you still do the lease, how different is the room lease vs regular rental lease ?

Thanks

To do #1 and #2 people need to start their own mailing lists, networks and  create their own funnel for off market deals . Is that what you are saying? 

Its interesting you mentioned partner, I have 2 brokers I work with. They provide multi-family deals where they try and syndicate to buy properties. But I have so far been very hesitant because in that arrangement, it feels like I will be putting on most of the money but will get paid last. Its feels way too risky than buying a SFH or a duplex with title on your name. IMO, there are much less risky and more diversified platforms for syndication like Fundrise.

Is it really possible to make money on rentals in Dallas and Tarrant County anymore ?

I am finding that the prices and rents have increased very disproportionately so that it's hard to hit the 50% number. I mean with lowest down payment of 20-30% and commercial loans (@ 5-7%) the rents will rarely be double of the mortgage payment. The market is flooded with wholesalers and its hard to tell how deep is the chain of wholesalers in a particular deal. On duplexes I run the numbers and make offers which leaves $100 /door profit, I know that’s like walking on ice. One missed rent payment or an eviction wipes out 6 months profit. Even then I am getting out bid by other investors. 1 % rent on price is also very hard to get.

Do you see something similar to what I am seeing and what options do you see for out of state investors in this situation?

Flip is a value add, the original seller could have more equity if he put in the hr+$$. Original Seller made a choice to sell property as-is and use his hours +$$ somewhere more worth while for them. So as per me, flip is not unethical and stealing equity.

Wow , Great conversation. Let me add my prospective as a real cash out of state investor to show how addition of wholesalers complicates things and drags investors back to analysis paralysis mode. That is BAD for everybody but the wholesalers.

I have an OK buyer’s agent and we did 3-4 deals with him in 2019. With each deal I learnt about the gaps in my on-the-ground due diligence which just can not be done on internet. I knew how much my buyer’s agent was making on each deal and I generally felt that he deserved that money for his time spent and the insights he was providing.

Then late last year I got introduced to 2 whole sellers. Right at the onset they mentioned that all retail deals on redfin and zillow were suckers deals – meant mostly to trick out-of-state investors. Then one started finding faults with the other wholesaler and vice versa, both kept telling me that there are consequences of sharing their precious deals with anybody else. With both of them I knew what they are doing, they are buying properties at unknown amount and just leaving enough discount to make this deal better than a corresponding retail deal. But unlike the retail deals there is no time to check and you are buying unknown risks at a slightly lesser price. As a cash buyer I am thinking that I should be the one taking the biggest profit since I have most skin on the game and I am taking most risk. And yes the house equity does belong to the seller. But the reality may be that the middle men are making the most profit – even if not the most profit, the issue is that its an undisclosed amount of money ( hence smells like dishonest/ double dealing behavior). For the last few months I have been trying to learn their game and find ways so I can not be tricked. That’s not what I want to do, I want to buy houses at the best honest price with transparency about the all parties and their profits involved. Now the situation is that I am cross examining their deals and I am hesitant to make offers on retail deals thinking that may be one of these days I actually get a deal with manageable risk to actually proceed. It used to be easier and simpler earlier 😊

@Nicholas Sheridan, Jr. you should see if Commercial loan will work for you. May be chat with @Fred Shatzoff and see if he can come up with a creative plan to fund your first purchase. 

Best of Luck !!