All Forum Posts by: Robert Courtney

This year I've personally put new flooring in, electrical, new lighting, a new fence, new gutters, ran downspout extensions underground, fixed their central air conditioning and more. Im going to be finshing the basement on both sides as well. Knowing simple skills isn't my problem, it's time. After spending thousands on the concrete for them because they requested it I shouldn't have to get a trowel and patch it up the next day. 

Not to mention, after we found out it was the tenant's daughter we called the police and told them we were not pressing charges. I'm not sure what "kneelhauling" you're even referring to. As of right now we haven't asked for anything from them other than showing more respect for our property. 

After reading the criticisms here I feel the need to respond. Lori is my wife and I am the one who originally had asked her to post the question to see what other investors would do. We were actually looking for legitimate advice, not a ridiculous anti-business socialistic lecture. 

Keep in mind the daughter is 23 years old, not a young child. We only recently bought the duplex this past year and have made incredible improvements on the property for our tenants. They have been very appreciative of all of the work we have put into the property. An eventual increase in rent due to the added costs was already in the plans. It was this situation which prompted me to consider raising it sooner rather than later.

On top of this, I work 60 -80 hrs every week doing very difficult and labor intensive work. My wife runs a business and takes care of our son. Almost all of our time is spent working. The small amount of time we get together is very precious. 

When you invest money into a project, you are investing your time. When someone purposefully sabotages that project it represents wasted time and money. This represents more time and money I have to put in at a job to repair the issue and less time with my family. To say that I should just take it and be happy when an individual purposefully defaces my property is willfully ignorant.

To compare normal wear and tear such as a burnt light, damaged carpet and other expected issues to carving a pentagram into the new concrete is either purely ignorant or represents an individual who is considerably biased against investor's property rights in favor of the tenants.

I will say that every normal person I told the story to, our neighbors and the police all thought it was a big deal and that we should be reimbursed by some means. 

Also, we only called the police after our tenants denied doing so. We had suspected that it may have been the neighbor on the other side of us who has multiple felonies and has been hard for anyone on the block to get along with. The police would not have been called if we had realized it was our tenant's daughter. 

This is why we looked into our neighbor's video footage. There were also no mind games being played. The tenants called us and my wife did not tell the tenants outright that we knew it was their daughter because she had not spoken to me yet about how to proceed, since I was still working. We were never going to charge for a whole "new window" (i.e. new sidewalk). The reimbursement would have been for the patch job. I'm not sure where that comment originates.

There is no need for disrespect in this forum. It is my impression that people are here to learn from eachother, not point out (in this case invent) shortcomings.

I could go on but I need to get back to work building a brand new fence for my tenants. Thank you to all who gave legitimate advice. 

Thanks to all of you it really helps confirm my opinion to hear other investors say what I had been thinking myself. 

I'm going to be closing on a short sale duplex this week and inheriting tenants in each side who are on month to month leases. My loan conditions require me to reside in the property, so I will have to give a notice to one side. I'm having trouble deciding who to give notice to. I've met them all already while doing work on the house to satisfy the inspector's requirements. Both sides desperately want to stay and seem like great people. But they also both have some issues. I ran their names through CCAP and found lots of issues. 

Side 1 has a foreclosure on their record. They have 2 cats, 1 dog and the adult daughter living with them has lots of other pets kept in cages (pets like guinea pigs, snakes, rabbits, etc.) The place kind of smells like animals when you walk in. It does not smell like urine or anything of that nature, it just has an animal smell. I also found that the daughter has several felony convictions (damage to property and battery) and that the parents are having their wages garnished in the amount of $45,000. This has apparently never stopped them from making a timely payment however. They seem like very friendly people who want to stay.

The second set of tenants has apparently had issues making their rent in the past according to the current landlord, but since they have found new jobs (within the past 6 months) and now make more money they have not had this issue anymore. However, I found that they also have a foreclosure on their record and that apparently the man has an upcoming lawsuit being brought against him from a medical provider. This has me concerneed as to whether or not they will be able to make payments as well. They are very good people and have actually contributed to the property by fixing it up in some ways. I had originally leaned toward keeping them but now the medical lawsuit has me concerned.

Both tenants have issues, but I do not want to get rid of both sides. This will be my first rental propery and I do not want to start out looking for tenants when I already have tenants who love the property, want to stay and pay rent. I realize that I could also eventually do a credit check to make a more informed decision, but I am not yet the current landlord and time is very much of the essence in my situation. Also, I feel like CCAP has given me a lot of information already that could help me make an informed decision. I am just looking for advice from other more experienced investors on what I should do in this situation.

I have been trying to close on a short-sale Duplex since July of 2016. The process has been long and very, very stressful. When I first seen the property in July, the bank would not take my offer because they were already in the negotiation stage with another buyer. Once this deal fell through, I moved in and made an offer, negotiated and I had an accepted offer by September 14th, 2016. I realize that the short-sale process is a long process, but I have met several other roadblocks along the way. Since I am using an FHA loan, there were several issues flagged in the inspection. I personally went to the house and fixed all the issues and patiently waited for a month and a half before the listing agent would meet with the FHA inspector again to allow him to inspect the property again. The property passed, the slow short-sale process continued and we hit another roadblock. My lender performed a title search and found that there was a second mortgage on the property. The listing agent had never run a title search. The second mortgage was through a separate financial institution as well. When this was discovered, the two banks had to negotiate between each other to divide up their part of the accepted offer. I was recently informed two days ago, that they had finally completed this process. I also found out, two days ago, that the property is being scheduled for auction on the last day of this month, and now the very incompetent listing agent is scrambling to get things done.

My question is, if they fail to follow through with this deal and the house goes to auction is legal action possible? Again, to reiterate, I’m wondering if there is an incentive on the bank’s part to make sure this deal goes through. If there is possible legal action, I would assume that they have an incentive to follow through with this deal and not allow it to go to auction.

Thank you all for the feedback. I'm not sure that I provided enough information in my initial post. In response to Michael, I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to when you say "short sale approval." If you're referring to an accepted offer, I had an accepted offer on 09/06/16, well before the rate lock. If you're referring to something else please let me know because I'm unaware. I am a first time home buyer so I'm unfamiliar with some of the terminology still. In response to Denise, this short sale is in excess of 90 days now. The negotiation ptocess took 6 weeks itself. The reason my 30 day lock expires tomorrow is because that is when my lender drafted it up and gave it to me. The listing agent is the one who seems to be holding things up here from what I can tell, i know that banks work slow during short sales but the agent himself is not answering phone calls and doesn't show to the property at scheduled times when he is supposed to meet the appraiser. Im not sure whose "supervisor" I would talk to in this case. Ive been told that I cannot talk to the bank myself, and the listing agent will only speak to my agent. Everything else in the process is done at this point but because the listing agent has not given us a closing date yet my lender is telling me that he has to charge me to extend the lock. I guess, to be clear, my question is whether these fees are reasonable rates, especially in light of the listing agent holding things up.

I'm in the process of buying a Duplex, it is a short sale and the Listing agent has been taking his time on getting anything accomplished. According to both my realtor and my lender he is not returning their phone calls. He has yet to provide us with a closing date and my interest rate lock, according to the contract with my lender, expires tomorrow. My Lender has now called and told me that is going to cost anot her 1100 dollars now if I'd like to extend the rate lock for 21 days, or even 1400 to extend it for another 30. He is telling me that its possible that he can bring that price slightly down but it will still not be cheap. I'm still new to the process so I wanted to ask if this seems normal to anyone, and if I, as the buyer, should be held responsible for the slow process being caused by the listing agent. Is there anything I can do about this?

Thanks to all of you for the information. It helps a out a lot.

I'm looking for help answering some concerns I have about a duplex. We are in the final stages of closing on a duplex and I discovered mold in the property recently. I had an inspector come look at it and was given an outrageous quote of $20,000. I asked my realtor if there was any chance of the bank renegotiating and she told me no. I told her I would walk away and she told me she would check with the banks realtor to doublecheck. She called me back and again told me there was no way to renegotiate the price and that the bank realtor would not even attempt it. The reasoning given is because it is a short sale and short sales work differently than normal sales. They also don't have an inspection contingency in the contract. I realize that I could jeopardize my earnest money because of this if the bank decides not to renegotiate, but I feel like I'm being lied to concerning whether or not there is a possibility for negotiation. My question is, on an "as is" short sale near the final stages, is it possible for the bank to renegotiate if a major issue is found with the house? 

Thanks to all of you for your input. I think I will try to renegotiate and see if the bank will work with me on it.