All Forum Posts by: Robert Haney

It is interesting that so many people want to meet.  I'm not interested in meeting, but I am interested in helping you,, I hope,, with a couple of comments.

Without some additional planning and organizing the meeting will be mostly a social time with just a small potential business benefit.  A leader is needed to run the meeting together with an agenda.

Mr. Foster, I suggest that you continue to fill that role and look for a couple of other volunteers to help.  Y'all can create the agenda to fit the needs of attendees and their various motives.  From the various responders a start might be:

- Welcome 

- Meeting Objective

- Skills/team needed

- Flipping Vs Landlording

- How/where to find deals

- Financing alternatives 

- Estimating and analyzing deals

- Renovation/Contracting

- Selling

- Property Management 

- Wrap up/Path Forward

That should get you started - cross out, add, change, etc.  You could assign various people to speak on different agenda topics.  

Good luck avoiding a waste of time.

No.  They're all around different cities.

Our typical inventory of 8 flip houses is down to only 2 houses. One of the 2 is going on the MLS next week. The COVID has reduced our ability to buy to maintain inventory and therefore cut our business volume. However, the 9 houses we have sold had multiple offers in less than a week and sold for better than typical margins. So we have less exposure and a bunch of cash, but not by choice.

On the rental side I had 4 houses come available to either re-rent or sale.  I decided not to liquidate, but continue leasing them.  All leased with only 1 to 2 weeks vacancy.  I have not yet lost any rent to COVID.   So landlording has no yet collapsed yet.  

I may regret not selling the 4 rentals but replacing them would be very difficult and a lot of work, and the tax due is not attractive.

Katy,

No, there are no legal limitations here.  We have more freedom here in Texas than you.  Rents are driven by the product (property quality & location) and the market.  

You should learn all of your legal limitations prior to an investment purchase.  Since you didn't, now's the time to study and become well versed.  We do have a Property Code (laws from the state legislature) which I have downloaded and studied regarding tenants, landlords,  snd properties.  Depending on other people to tell you is a BAD method for this aspect of investing   I have found other people to often tell me wrongly when it comes to the specifics of the law.  While I do use a lawyer, I find that he may miss a fine point or that it may be to his advantage to leave some parts unsaid.

Repeating,  go and read the law yourself.  Don't be intimidated by it.  AFTER READING, then ask your questions of a lawyer. 

Surely you have a lease and can end the month to month if you desire?  It sounds like you MAY have been postponing a (legal) confrontation with some tenants due to fear.  

Confrontations are unavoidable to be successful in this business.  I have no idea if this is true for you and so I am not making a claim that it is.  However, RE investors MUST raise rents, evict people,  not let people stay for free or damage properly, negotiate, and say no.  On average, most people have a problem doing these things and should face it to change or leave investing.

Katy,

I stopped doing 12 month leases.  The cost of make-ready, plus vacancy, plus my time and effort to release are all to much to do 12 month leases.  I  lease for 18 months minimum and cut those costs by 50%.  I've had no problem finding tenants and they are the one's thinking longer term.

When tenants come to the end of the lease term I usually don't go month-to-month.  We sign a 1 page lease extension and I usually raise the rent - at least a little.  Getting several small rent increases is easy to do and they add up over time.  

Many (most?) individual landlords do not raise rents.  I made an offer on a property yesterday where the landlord had not increased rent since the tenant moved in 6 years ago.  The house across the street had the same situation. 

There are many other ways to control costs when we put our thinking caps on.  Our common sense as investors is a big advantage. 

Here in Texas I/we view cracks like that very often.   Is is usually caused by a foundation problem.  I had the foundation repaired on about a dozen houses. 

 Glad to be of help.  I've always thought this was fair and how I would want to be treated if I was the tenant.  It was well received by all my tenants as reasonable and fair.

I've not read other responses but I'll pass on what I've done the last 3 times tenants wanted to leave early.

I said ok if they will pay rent until new tenants move in.  Then I release the old tenants from their lease and return their security deposit balance.  In other words I asked only to be kept whole.

This has worked fine.  In fact it worked in my favor since their was no vacancy between the old and new leases.  The old tenants were happy to get out from under their lease too.

I disagree.  A preliminary report from a title company is MUCH better than NOTHING prior to a foreclosure auction.  

It is also typically better than a title search done by an investor.  Why?  The data bases used by title companies are larger and more robust than what is available to the investor.  An investor typically just has the country recorder's office and the tax office.

The country recorder's office and the tax office is generally enough to research prior to the foreclosure auction.  I've done this hundreds of times (40 to 50 per month) and only been wrong a couple of times on houses I've bought.  Even when wrong they were not "death blows."  It is part of the risk that MUST be accepted by the investor.  

Being part of the regular professionals at auction, I have been helped by regulars and I have helped regulars regarding title issues.  A benefit of being in the club.  Newcomers are generally not afforded this help since new competitors are not exactly welcomed.  Surprise surprise.  Regulars will sometimes run up bid prices on newbies.  

Bottom line: The "Bidding to Buy" book is very good for newbies.  There is more to learn that is not discussed in the "Bidding to Buy" book. (How to handle Fed tax liens, home equity loans and leins vs conventional loans and liens, reverse mortgages vs property taxes, collecting rent instead of paying cash for keys (I've collected $10k this year before people vacated), when to safely start renovations, how to wholesale your foreclosure, etc.)