All Forum Posts by: Theresa W.

Welcome @Jason Miller.  Looking forward to chatting at one of the meetups.

Hi @Lois Ginter.  Good question.  I have limited experience with low income tenants.  Coincidentally, they also are ESL speakers and I've found that in many respects, more communication is better.

My lease has an addendum with several topics: Property maintenance, Yard maintenance, Prohibitions, and Failure To Maintain.  This is where all of my rules and expectations are listed.  The key to adherence, I've found is verbally explaining what you want and following up with a written expectation in the lease.  So, when I have to snake a drain because they've poured cooking oil down the sink, I remind them of our chat and point out it's also in the lease.  Then you can decide whether to use your leverage from the "Failure To Maintain" section.  just my two cents... good luck!

Oh lord, I see this post is from long ago... Sorry.

From the information you gave, it sounds suspiciously like a parcel that the developer of the property next door needed to reserve as dedicated open space for the housing he/she built and is now looking to unload the tax burden. 

If it's been rezoned from Residential to Open Space, there's little to no value, hence the $10k price for 8 acres.  It may be a lose-lose situation to get stuck with a property that you cannot rezone but have the privilege of paying taxes and assuming all of the liability.

Talk to a city planner.  They'll tell you the real deal.

@Sandro Visani  Hi Sandro, could you give us a little more info about the property?  Newer construction or is it an older part of the Cole neighborhood?  What's the condition of the property.  The Cole neighborhood is one of my favorites, but it can vary widely.

IANAL, but in a lot of states you can't keep security for rent.  However, it seems you've got plenty of justification for incurring costs from the dog cleanup.  Immediately securing the door does not seem like conditions for severing the lease.  You already did them a favor by giving them an 8 month lease, now they need to hold up their end of the bargain.  Rent for all 8 months plus whatever you want to hold back for pet damage.  just my opinion.

My two cents as a former city planner.... It's not a big concern if you are planning to continue using it as a residence.  "Legal non-conforming" is our term for grandfathering.  There are many, many houses out there that get lumped into a rezoning, because the community has determined what they want for a future use.  Some upsides:  you get to use a residential loan for this property, but your exit strategy in the future is much broader - you can sell to a commercial developer.  The downsides?  Your neighborhood may transition to commercial sooner than you'd like or if you discontinue using it as a residence for whatever reason, you've lost your legal, non-conforming right.

To help ease your mind, ask for a letter from the city (through the planning department) stating the residence is a legal nonconforming use.  As an investor, I'd love to find this kind of property: buy with a residential loan and change the use to office or commercial at some point in the future, or sell as residential.  Good luck!

I plan to go!  Thanks for holding our feet to the fire, Bill!

Welcome @Eric Konrad. One of the best bang for your bucks is the monthly meetup (next one is Feb 1). For the price of a beer, you can meet folks with all types of REI situations. There's even one investor that attends the meetings that manages her MF in Ohio from here. Hope to chat with you at one of those.

Welcome @Nate Wightman.  I see we are "neighbors".  I'd be great to chat at one of the BP meetups (next one is Feb 1) in Denver.  I know some light rail developers currently building MF in Golden and would be happy to give you details.

Welcome @Mo Powers!  Micki's right - come join us for the monthly Meetup (next one is Feb 1).  Looking forward to meeting you.