All Forum Posts by: Robert Leonard

It is not a Christmas Party, but we will meet at a legendary place that is fit for a party! For our December meeting, join us at Don's Seafood in Downtown Lafayette!

We will hear from a local title attorney who does a lot of work with investors. They will share their expertise on how successions impact our ability to buy and sell property.

https://www.meetup.com/BPACADI...

There's a very large group of investors who meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Normally, this month's meeting was a week early. You can find them on the meetup website. If you search for THE RING or Baton Rouge REIA, you will find the group. It's free to join online and $10 at the door for meetings you attend.

That's in addition to the investors you can connect with here on BP.

https://coraweb.sos.la.gov/commercialsearch/CommercialSearchDetails.aspx?CharterID=440795_258DC9822F

That company has been around since 1995. If it's a scam, it probably is somebody using their identity.

@Timothy Boyd I think the number one reason to sell, besides those already mentioned, is the tax exempt status of the sale of your personal residence. You are nowhere near the $250k capital gain that would be taxable on the sale of a personal residence.

@Robert Smith makes some valid points, but I'll put a different perspective on how your Ft Wayne experience reads to me. You bought in 2006 and sold in 2012 for a $10k loss, you said? The way I see it, it cost you $138.89 a month (not considering any of the tax benefits) to live in a place that I bet would have cost you a lot more to rent? That's if you lived there the full 6 years ($10k/72)?  The scenario of keeping the house as a rental could have lead to your story of what it was like to fire 3 property managers because of costly extended vacancies and how one bad tenant did $XX,000 of damage to the place? Just saying, I don't think you did so bad and there are a number of ways holding onto it from a distance might not have gone well.

Are you paying the asking price for the house and the lot?

What is the flood zone of the lot?

When you say "we" estimated moving and setup costs, who is we? Was a house moving company involved in that estimate?

$130-150k seems like a wide range? What are similar aged/style 1,000 sq ft houses selling for in the area of the lot? That will help you narrow down your ARV.

To your questions:

1. Somebody in the transaction needs to know and understand real estate contracts to get those things right if you won't involve a realtor.

2. When you get your contracts with each seller (house and lot) the title attorney will do the searches for liens and other title-related concerns, not you.

3. A lot. Every usual concern and then a whole set of house moving related concerns. A very competent house moving pro, Ed Smith, Devillier House Movers, can advise you about those concerns. You can find him with an online search. My post was blocked when I included his phone number. :-) NOTE: I have no business affiliation with this person/company.

Once you've accepted late or partial payments, you establish a precedent (or expectation) for the tenant. You do have to give a notice that you will no longer accept the partial or late payments before you can enforce a "new" requirement. 

This is generally how it works and only an attorney can give you the specific legal answer when they have all of the facts of your situation. I did PM you a recommendation for someone who can help you with that. Sometimes, tenants will "straighten up and fly right" after you establish clear expectations and consequences for noncompliance.

A couple other points to ponder, December is a bad time to have a vacancy or to ask a judge or JP to evict.  What is your late fee policy? I have several tenants who are good in every other way, but they are habitually late by several days and it just amounts to me getting $30-50 extra every month, because they just have bad habits for how they handle their rent payments.

I second what they said and OH YEAH, GEAUX-TIGAZ!

Hello and welcome to BP @Elvin Green! I do business in the BR market and I look forward to the chance to do business with you.

They are not tenants and your remedy for a "BFD gone wrong" is not an eviction.

This is not legal advice, but if I were in the same situation, I would seek a "mutual agreement to cancel" the BFD. Ask your attorney how that's done.

Ben, don’t feel bad about not understanding the ABC’s of neighborhoods. This is one of my pet peeves here on BP, because it is all made up. There are such classes of commercial properties, but in residential it is totally subjective and all made up. If each person has their own definition and has to explain what it is, you may as well just say what you mean from the start. I think it is much easier if you stick to the numbers. 

When I say, I buy houses to rent for $1,000 or more per month, that’s pretty easy to verify and is not a matter of my opinion. I digress.

We are in the same market. We can grab coffee or lunch one day to talk more about the subject.