All Forum Posts by: Rochelle Wilkinson

hey there.. I have a situation that KEEPS arising and wondered if  I could get some feedback.. the apartments we rent have a huge student ratio, we are located next to a major university.. which is great.. we are at full capacity.. but I keep running into the problem of tenants having their parents come stay for 6 months at a time.. ( they travel from India mainly and want to see how the kids are doing and since its half way around the world they stay for long periods of time).. the problem I am having is 2 extra people residing in the apartment for upwards of 6 months.. they are sleeping in the living room.. which breaks the housing law of so many people per sleeping square footage.. they even call and ask to add them to lease so they can get health insurance while they are here.. help... its about 25% of the tenants who i am encountering this with.. and to put this is real life scenario.. the parents are here now.. and dont go back for 6 months so what to do with tenants who have them here already?????

@Chris Seveney.. we are a hub for those who work in DC, and near a major university.. so I think that is our advantage too

@Chris Seveney is there any good reason NOT to do furnished units? liability? people destroying your stuff?? Im playing devils advocate here   how many units do you have furnished?

@Account Closed, I would send the message tomorrow as it is lengthy and almost midnight here..if you approve

@Account Closed I would like to send you a private message if you dont mind.. I read your profile.. and I think I could use your advice on  a couple things if you dont mind??

Can you explain the 5-10 deal to me please? I inherited the buildings I have and am looking to buy townhomes now.. thanks in advance @Russell Brazil  @Stephanie Medellin @Jerry Padilla

I decided to advertise a Furnished apartment in our 60 unit complex.. We are located next to a Major University and have alot of students who come here from other countries with absolutley nothing.. and they end up going to Grad school, and getting jobs in DC once they graduate.. they are very minimal they whole time they are in school.. The furnished units would come with the following

  a sectional couch, beds, pictures on the wall, shower curtain, rugs, dishes , pots and pans, dining room set.. etc.. 

I advertised a 2 bedroom apartment that I can usually get $1,200 empty  for and was asking $1,635.00.. well I signed the lease last week.. and have procured all of the things I will need from a consignment shop.. in total I spent almost $1,600 ..so i will pay myself back in 4 months.. after that it is all profit.. so of course my wheels started turning and I cant stop thinking if I can do this with at least half of my units.. 30 x $400 a month = $12,000 a month profit from renting people my furniture.. err. thats $144,000 a year... just for the furniture.. minus my investment of $48,000 furnishing the apts..

I am looking for advice from anyone who has don this in the past or still does it?? Am I looking at any liabililty if someone is say " horsing around on the furniture" and it collapses on them?? is there something I can get them to sign waiving me of any said liability?? I know we rent furnished houses at the beach every year and I have never signed anything.. however I am sure it is in the contract

My thinking is people rent their own personal houses right now on air bnb.. and vacation rentals.. in my mind I am sure there is something I wont be happy with but for that kind of extra monthy income I am willing to give it a shot.. and looking for input.. ya or nay?? would you do it??

and yes I am considering that these items will need to be replaced approx. every  4-5 years.. 

@Gino Barbaro my next steps are to start to buy up the townhouses surrounding the apartments and fill them with the people on my wait list.. and I am actively pushing my 17 year old who is trying to figure out which college courses to take to study all things involving real estate investing. Do you have anything to suggest to him to take? He is currently in a program learning AC service and electrical work , which I told him is great.. he can do those things 9-5 while buying and holding real estate and when his property needs a new AC system he can install it himself.. but have a job and start buying and holding real estate

wow, reading some of these responses I feel like a jerk posting this but I am blessed.. I have figured out , and have the best tenants ever.. I inherited a 60 unit apartment complex about 4 years ago.. it had 14 vacancies, 1 squatter, 2 people who were behind in rent ( 1 guy was behind by 13 months!! and the other was behind by 6 months).. the building was, welp, a dump.. the annual rent roll was way below market. I drove around in my car and checked out the other complexes near my buildings.. I compared apples to oranges.. came home .. scratch down some numbers on paper to determine a new rent.. when it looked like a number people would accept , welp that was the new magic number.. all the vacancies were replaced with new tenants at the new rate.. work done in the apartments was painting, new carpet, new counters, new kitchen tile floor.. kitchen cabinets stayed the same as I didnt have enough money to replace. but oh what a difference new paint and carpet made.. had my husband rip ot all the old dead overgrown bushes outside ( he has a landscaping company) and I had my company ( my career was i own a housecleaning business) my company came in and scrubbed the apartments before new tenants moved in.. I had no prior experience in managing a 60 unit apartment complex.. but used common sense and my gut.. you want to know the numbers?? here they are  when I started the annual rent roll was right about   $325,000 a year, we had the 14 vacancies, the squatter, and the 2 non payers.. I kicked out the squatter, made payment arrangements with the 2 non payers ( i made them write out post dated checks in advance for the past due rent and told them the first time a check bounced they were OUT.. all the checks cleared.. I collected over $14,000 in back rent in less than a year and a half.. tenant number 1 has been on time since then.. tenant #2 who had the larger amount to pay back slipped right after he finished paying me off and I took him to court immediatley, he told the judge he wanted payment arrangements and wanted to stay..I told the judge I wanted him out.. and he was gone.. he begged me in the hallway to let him stay I said " this isnt how I do business, so Im sorry but you'll have to go.. I warned you it would only happen once"  todays new rent roll after 4 years is almost $ 725,000 annually... yep you read that right.. and we are at 100% apartments full and I rent most apartments before they are even vacant and have a wait list..and believe it or not my tenants pay on time, and most of the time early.. there were so many people who told me I couldn't do it and I am doing it....since my background was I owned a cleaning service.. but it was my years in providing great customer service that helped me in apartment management.. I listen, Im on site, they know me when they see me.. and I truly care that they are happy in thier apartment

@Russell Brazil ok thank you for answering.. next question.. if I acquire 9 houses at say $180,000 a piece and have real estate holding worth 1.6 million. could this be leveraged to purchase a multi unit apartment complex worth say 4 million? is that enough ?