All Forum Posts by: Robert Andrade

Juan Pablo Ceballos Patience will be the key. We have attempted to see houses and when we got there were unable to see them because tenants would not let us in. Even went so far as to pretend not to be home. Red flag! Other houses we went to see because we thought they might be an option and then once we got inside and saw the condition and, sorry to say, the quality of the tenants, we left without even seeing the rest of the house. Sometimes the pictures look great and so you will go to see it but then you find out it's right next door to a rooming house for a drug rehab. Very very tough city to invest in. Crime is a factor. There are gangs and drugs aplenty. They are definitely only in certain areas and if you stay to the nicer areas it's really not a problem but you definitely need to educate yourself on which areas are which. Sometimes the neighborhood looks great during the day but at night you wouldn't want to be sitting on your porch

Juan Pablo Ceballos hello. I have lived in New Bedford pretty much all my life. My girlfriend and I are currently seeking our first multi here in the city. There are plenty of multis on the market currently but 95% of them are in areas I would never want my children to have to walk through. We are FHA buyers and so will be living in the house we purchase for at least one year. Most realtors I have spoken with in the area feel it is definitely a sellers market as there are not many desirable Multi families currently for sale. The ones that are decent are overpriced if you are looking at this from an investor's point of view. It seems these owners are not willing to back off their prices very much because they know their mediocre properties are like gold in this city. I use the rental calculator here on BP to figure out what I need to purchase a property at considering the rent potential. We used this tool to figure out the best offer we could make on a multi we were interested in. Our offer was declined in lieu of a better offer. The house went pending and then shortly came back on the market as for some reason the deal fell through. We learned that the home needed a new roof and I'm sure a few other things. The seller was willing to replace the roof but could not reach an acceptable offer with the first buyer they chose and so the house came back on the market. We then restructured our offer, adding an additional 10,000 with the contingency that the owner would replace the roof. We were again declined. The seller wants what they have listed the house for but does not realize that with the repairs needed and the limited rent potential the house simply is not worth that money. We made an offer on a second property. Beautiful area, tenants that have been there 10 years who we met and really like. The property came on the market and we were at the very first showing. We were so impressed with the property that we immediately made an offer $2000 above asking price. Our offer was accepted and we moved forward having the home inspected. Many things were brought up in the inspection including a roof and various things we knew FHA would require to be fixed before we could purchase. We presented the list to the seller's agent and asked that several things be repaired or replaced before we would go ahead with a closing. The reply came back that the sellers were unwilling to do any repairs at all which was odd considering they knew when they accepted our offer that we were FHA buyers. My opinion is that because we came in with a full price offer so soon after it was listed, the sellers determined that they were underpriced. The house went off the market and I am sure the sellers are taking this time to do some repairs and updates and I'm just waiting to see the home relisted for more money. That has been our experience over the last three months of looking. We currently have a couple other properties to look at but contrary to what has been said, there really are not that many decent properties in this area for the right price. If you are interested in being an absentee, slumlord type of landlord/owner then there are multis everywhere in all the bad areas for pretty cheap. Hope this helps. Good luck

Good to know @Ann Bellamy

I guess it's wise to be specific in documenting why you've rejected a potential tenant.

@Jeff Martin I'm glad I'm not the only one who runs the #s 10000 times. like they're going to miraculously change or maybe I'll realize some horrible mistake I made inputting the data.  I've been using the rental calculator here on BP in the tools section. 

I guess its about knowing your market and just having confidence that your #s are accurate. I tried to be as nosy as I could at the open house, asking the existing tenants as many questions as I could get away with while the listing agent was occupied elsewhere. I wanted to see if I could get a gauge on why the seller was selling, what kind of landlord they had been, the neighborhood, what problems there have been with the property...  Answers to my questions led me to believe that the property was a good buy and may be in some demand. Having already run the numbers at full price and at various other prices, I knew that a full price offer would still cash flow adequately so that's what we did.. actually we offered 2k above asking because we really wanted this property. 

I had heard in one of the BP podcasts a guest say that he hated when his first offer was accepted with no negotiation because it means he could have probably got it cheaper. I guess I'll never know at this point but the inspection is coming up. We'll see if there's something there to use to negotiate down or if the RE God's were just shining upon me on this one.

Is it illegal to just not rent to families with children under 6 because your property is not de-leaded?

working with a local RE agent and Zillow. 

@Allen Culpepper

@Aaron Mikottis I see.  Awesome examples. They say you learn with every deal good or bad. Got my fingers crossed on this one. Everything going right on my first ever deal is not the paradigm I'm used to.  

Thanks @Aaron Mikottis

Why did you back out of the first two?

@Chavonne R. I would recommend starting your own thread asking your questions. I'm sure you'll receive plenty of help that way. Good Luck! :)

I read this post regarding open house style showings for prospective renters. Just Listed my apartment....bombarded with calls and emails! The thread discussed some pros and cons. Seems the method can be considerably time saving but at the same time a group showing can get overwhelming and you don't necessarily get the face time you'd like with potential tenants. In either event it seems developing a good method for pre-screening is the most efficient way to show rentals. Weed out the people who won't qualify anyway so as to not waste time showing to them but do it legally. Be very aware of what is permissible screening and what is discriminatory! 

In addition, if you're clear in your advertisement about your requirements, a lot of people will self-eliminate.