All Forum Posts by: Ross Bernard

So, you are nothing but a nuisance to 99/100 people you call, and you are doing this only for personal gain. How is that not incredibly selfish? I don't care if it works or not, it's not a respectable way of doing business.  I'd say you are a only about a half step better than robo-callers who are outright scamming people.

For someone who has never inherited tenants, the logistics involves keeping the tenant despite the initial warning flags, then a state of limbo where you weigh the pros and cons of evicting them, then a final straw incident occurs and you evict them way later than you should have.

I should have clarified, our housing authority requires that the tenant pay the extra amount if a rent increase is requested. That is why it is nearly impossible to raise rent on section 8 here without kicking out the current tenant.

My first rental property had an existing section 8 tenant when I bought it. I was naïve and attracted to the 'guaranteed' rent. I'd rate the tenant a 2/5, as she didn't completely destroy the property and paid rent eventually. I finally got fed up with her after about three years and evicted her over nonpayment of rent. The crappiness of the tenant aside, this is why I would not do section 8 again:

The tenant doesn't have enough money to cover the rent on their own, which means they will not be spending a single dollar on keeping up the property. She let a small roach problem become hundreds if not thousands of roaches, and did not let me know about it. You will have no leverage over the tenant if (when) things go bad, as they really have nothing to lose. Even an eviction will not necessarily hamper the tenant's ability to receive housing assistance. While working on the water heater, I noticed a letter from the section 8 housing authority showing that she owed the previous landlord over $11,000 and had stolen the fridge from the property. The tenant simply changed her first name after this and was able to receive section 8 again.

Dealing with our housing authority is a PITA. They never answer the phone, any time of day. They often take over a week to respond to emails. They will ding you on annual inspections for safety issues, which I think is reasonable. However, they will also ding you on petty things like not having screens in every window (who does?). If you do not fix everything to their liking, you will receive no money from them until you do (and the missed payments will be lost).

Want to increase your rent at the end of the lease? It's not nearly so simple as writing a new lease. You have to apply to the housing authority, listing multiple reasons why your rent increase is justified. But that's not the worst of it. You must get the TENANT (who has no money) to agree to the increase in rent. Good luck.

Basically, if  you deal with section 8 where I'm from, you forfeit much of the control you have over your own property.

I know there are people out there who make good profits in section 8, but I just can't imagine why they would put up with the hassle and risk if they didn't have to. I hope my experience has been valuable to someone.

The tenant has stayed after the expiration and has been paying rent monthly. If I need to give the tenant notice to vacate, do I need to give notice for month to month (7 days I believe) or year to year (30 days I believe)?

In North Carolina, what happens after a one year lease expires if there is nothing mentioned in the lease? I cannot seem to find a reliable answer. Some people say that if there is no language in the lease about what happens at expiration, that it automatically renews for the same term (one year in this case). Others say that the lease automatically becomes a month to month lease. So which is it?

No, the sold prices are not necessarily exact, but they are very close in my experience. I recently purchased two homes for $162250 and $94500 and Zillow has them as sold for $162500 and $96000. Also, keep in mind that not all the sales you see on Zillow are arms-length transactions. For instance, in my cookie cutter neighborhood homes sell at about $200000. A recent sale of $170000 might have been a short sale, foreclosure, or sold to a family member for instance. This sale would not really be comparable to the majority of sales around $200000, and would likely not be used as a comparable sale during an appraisal.

This happened to me. Out of college I was making about $50K. My parents gifted me $100K. I was renting at the time, so the first thing I did with the money was buy a 3/2.5 for $160K for my primary residence. I rented two of the bedrooms for just over the price of the mortgage. I then bought a rental for $95K and the rest of the original $100K is sitting in cash, soon to become the third purchase. Very happy with the returns so far!

How does one find these brokers who charge per transaction fees? Can't seem to find anything with google searches.

Thanks for the responses. I'm thinking it probably won't be worth the time spent/money saved to use the license at this time. I have inactive provisional broker status in NC. MLS/Realtor dues are about $100 a month. I'd have to take at least one education course, I believe, since I got my license over a year ago which from what I remember are around $200. I'd have to pay the brokerage either in a chunk of commission or flat rate. The properties I'd be purchasing would only be in the 100-130K range so the commission would only be about 3-4K. I'm working full time also, not in a real estate related job. Sounds like it would be easier just to let someone else do it. Now when I plan to buy/sell more expensive property like primary residences, I could see it paying off more.