All Forum Posts by: Rob Kulp

Welcome to BP! I'll be vacationing in Sarasota, just south of Bradenton in June. Good luck in your journey! 

@Larry P. I'm in the process now of looking for a realtor to work with that has a lot of experience dealing with rentals and investors. Thanks for the advice!

@Account Closed, you've got quite a process laid out there.  Thanks for sharing!

What are some of the resources you seasoned investors use to evaluate a rental market that you are thinking of investing in.  What are your go-to websites to check out if the area is worth getting into and what exactly are you looking for when you are deciding if the area is worthy or not.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the site!  I can relate to your excitement and this site will be a great thing for you!  If you do enough reading you'll find success stories to keep you motivated and other not-so-successful stories to keep you grounded.  Either way you'll learn.

You know you love REI when you stay up til 2am reading about rules, laws, and RE math; as I was last night.

@Brandon Hicks, I ended up sitting down with my tenants and giving them an ultimatum. One that I should've done a long time ago.  I told them if they wanted to stay in the house they needed to be on automatic payments or they needed to get out.  And I also raised their rent. They said auto-payments sounded ok and we got that set up.  So now rent comes out of his paycheck before he even knows it there.  They are on a month-to-month lease and I'll be the second person to know if he should lose his job.  

The area where the house is hasn't bounced back very well since the crash and I was not looking forward to trying to sell it or find new renters.  Getting them on direct deposit has worked out...so far.  

@Dale Stevens  8 MONTHS???  That's insane!!!  So you can expect to lose 2/3 of a year of rental income just trying to evict someone.  

@Dale Stevens, thanks for the tip! I will take pictures when I go over tomorrow.  When I called the court house the woman I spoke with didn't mention a fee for the Sheriff but that doesn't mean there isn't one.  I really hope it doesn't come to that.

I keep hearing people say that Indiana is "landlord friendly".  Can I get some examples of some of the differences between IN and other not-so-landlord-friendly states?

@Jerry W., Yes, they took care of the place.  No, they never made payments on time, in fact they're behind two months.  I'm going to sell the property once they're out if they can't figure out a way to buy it.  

I've managed to calm down haha, and I'm going over to talk with them tomorrow about moving out peacefully.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll read the situation and see if I think I need to do a cash for keys deal as @Brian Gibbons and @Jeff Sprunger suggested.

Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions and advice.

Thanks for the replies!  

@Brian Gibbons, I like the cash for keys idea.  What is a typical amount to offer--one month's rent?

@Jeff Sprunger, I called the court house today and they explained the process and told me it would be about $220.  That's $90 per adult and $40 to file.  Also, it would take about two weeks before I get a hearing.  Does that sound about right? 

Hi everyone,

I have a sfh rental in Elkhart Co. Indiana.  I have/had the tenants on a lease option that expires today, April 30th 2015.  I trusted these people since we've known each other for a few years prior to them renting from me and my wife.  In the lease it states that the tenant needed to give me notice 60 days prior to the lease ending if they were going to buy the home.  At that 60 days mark I contacted them and they told me they were in talks with one of their parents and working on getting help to buy the house...so I let it go, but kept in touch.  Eventually that deal with the parents fell through, but they told me that they had a friend of the family that was going to help them buy the house.  I was cautiously optimistic that the deal was actually going to go through.  After dodging my calls and texts for the last couple weeks I found out just today that this friend has no intention of helping my renters buy the house and they've been lying to me the whole time.  I was planning on extending the lease another month if we needed the time to make the sale, but after catching them in a lie- it's all over. They gotta go.

Tomorrow is May 1st.  They will be in my house on an expired lease.  In Elkhart Co. Indiana, what is the quickest and easiest way to get someone out of a house on an expired lease.  I know I don't have to give them 30 days.  

I'm looking for advice from people who've been there, done that.  Should I just get a 10 Day Eviction Notice from rocketlawyer?  What's the cheapest legal way to go about this?  Who knows...maybe they'll just leave peacefully and I won't have to serve any notices or go to court.  And then I'll wake up from that dream.

I know I've made mistakes like being too lenient and trusting.  I'm new at landlording, I'll learn.

Thanks in advance!