All Forum Posts by: Rodney Burayidi

Sometimes tenants can point out flaws in a unit that an owner won’t notice because the owner doesn’t live in the unit. The tenant of this unit pointed out that one of the windows in his bedroom was not actually a window he could open, it was just a thick piece of plastic. He asked if he could have a window that he could open like all the other windows in the unit. The previous owner of the property before us had placed the plastic sheet in the unit.

This may seem like a strange request from a tenant, but have you ever lived in an apartment that didn’t have windows I could open? I haven’t. The window was a special order due to the size of the space and cost a little bit more than normal. It was worth the price and time for a few reasons.

1. The tenant most likely will renew their lease and having a satisfied tenant who pays on time is the key to keeping tenant turnover low and increasing profit.

2. We made an improvement to the unit that will benefit us and any future tenant in the long term as well.

3. That plastic sheet was weird.

@Elena Bemelmans thank you! I wish you the best house hacking your property!

The last time I posted was after recently purchasing a single-family home that has a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom guest house in the backyard. Today my tenant is moving into that 2 bedroom/1 bathroom guest house. Every time I post, I seem to come back having learned new lessons, some the hard way, more confident and with greater passion for investing. Also, since the last time I posted, I became a licensed Realtor with Keller Williams Signature Partners in the Atlanta, GA suburbs. Continually learning the new skill set of being a Realtor has allowed me to understand what is going on in the real estate world from two perspectives, which is really helpful in this current market. I must start out by highlighting the fact that the current market does not allow for a normal 7 day inspection. This phenomenon stretches back even to the fall of 2020 in certain cases. I believe a 3-day inspection is enough time to get an inspector into the property, but getting all the additional contractors, such as plumbers, roofers, electricians, and HVAC, can prove to be difficult, especially for anyone with a full-time job. You may have experienced the same thing and been surprised by the condition of your recent purchase after taking a deeper look. It’s only right that we start off where I left off last time.

My wife and I noticed rat droppings all over the house the day we moved into our new home. We did not notice them on the walkthrough or see it reported on the inspection report, so we were quite shocked. We were more shocked to hear rats running around our kitchen and living room every night. We also had cockroaches so we called up a local bug guy to deal with the cockroaches. I mentioned the rats to him and he jumped right up and said he could get rid of those for us too. My first red flag should have been the fact he isn’t a “rodent/wildlife” contractor. But instead, I thought it was just great luck that the bug guy could also get rid of the rats. Fast forward 2 weeks and $800 later, we still had rats. We called a national exterminating company, and they were going to charge us $13,000 to seal our crawl space. Not only was that more than we could afford, it also seemed like an excessive price. We then called a local company, not a random guy who can “do that too,” and were given a more reasonable price to get rid of the rats, seal our crawl space, clean the crawl space, and lay material to protect the floor. They also referred us to a roofing contractor that provided services for a quarter of the price of the national company. They told us their process, and how long it would take, and delivered. I wish I could say this was resolved within a month but the process was much longer due to our inexperience dealing with the issue. 

Unfortunately, the first few weeks included more than just rats. Two days after moving in, I noticed water leaking from the fridge that was left in the house by the previous owner. Not a little water; a lot of water leaking from underneath the fridge. Enough for me to think the carpet and flooring would eventually rot. The fridge had a water hookup from the sink to the back of it for ice and water dispensing. My wife and I decided to get a new fridge, not only to solve the issue, but because we wanted a new one anyway. The floor continued to leak even after having the new fridge installed, so we called in a plumber. The plumber informed us the way the tube was going from the sink to the back of the fridge was “creative”. That “creative” configuration was causing the leak. The plumber requested having a look at all the plumbing in the home to see if any additional work needed to be done. After 15 minutes the plumber came back with a laundry list of “creative” configurations that had been done throughout the home. Safe to say the previous owners allowed a handyman to fix the plumbing. Eight hours later, I said goodbye to the plumber and let him know I hoped to not see him again for a few years. This issue was resolved within the first 2 weeks.

Now that water issue was fixed, it was on to the next water issue: the downstairs Jacuzzi.. We knew the Jacuzzi would need to be replaced, so we reached out to a contractor I had met through the agent who helped me buy the home. The contractor was well connected, and his rates were good. He had his plumber give us an estimate on what it would cost to replace the Jacuzzi prior to closing, so this was not an unexpected cost. The plumber suggested replacing the Jacuzzi with a regular bathtub because the previous Jacuzzi was so old that the style couldn’t be matched. We agreed, and he started to work. I’d heard that you don’t know what is going on behind the walls of your home until you knock them down. That rings true for underneath Jacuzzis as well. Underneath the Jacuzzi was old, rotted wood all the way down to the crawl space, which meant more work than expected. Five days later we had new wood on the floor, a new bathtub, and a fancier looking bathroom. I’ll be honest, I felt drained and tired from working a lot and managing the rehab, but I could see the end result: a comfortable home for me, and a happy tenant in the other unit. It was now time to focus on the outside of the property and the second unit. I tried my hand at some landscaping as well and built a fire pit during the rehab. It was a lot of work and gave me a newfound respect for those who self-rehab properties.

We once again used the services of the contractor to rehab the outside of the property. I read the book Long Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene in 2019 and utilized his section about working with contractors. One crucial detail I failed to utilize was the date the contractor needed to finish the job. I had used this contractor for a couple easy jobs and everything had gone smoothly, so I convinced myself the larger rehab would go along the same lines, but the contractor had actually subcontracted the work to another person. That subcontractor turned out to not be reliable. His work was good, prices were low, but the job took more than 4 weeks. I know if I had put the specific date everything needed to be done by, I would have had a quick turnaround or paid the contractor less for not meeting the requirements of the job. With the rehab finished, the second unit painted, carpet replaced, and not smelling like smoke, it was time to get professional pictures taken and start marketing it.

Prior to marketing the property, we read the book The Book on Managing Rental Properties by Heather and Brandon Turner. It completely prepared us for marketing the property and screening the tenants. We settled on an earliest move-in date and qualification standards, then listed the rental at my brokerage. That’s when the floodgate of calls and excuses came in: “Can I pay 6 months up front?”, “Can I move in even if I don’t meet the requirements?”, “I know it says no pets, but can I bring my indoor dogs? They never go outside.”. The most memorable call was one person who didn’t have a job but still thought they should get to move in. We did not adjust our criteria or price. We knew we had to protect ourselves as landlords. COVID-19 has hurt a lot of investors, and we needed to make sure we accepted a tenant that was highly likely to consistently make payments. We believed it was better to have a vacant unit than a tenant who needs to get evicted. The other interesting aspect of finding a tenant was showing the unit. We did one group showing that had 25% turnout. Our second group showing had even less. We eventually stopped having group showings and only showed the property to people who had already applied. It cut out a lot of people who were “window shopping”. We finally got a qualified tenant who did everything they said they would do. Today that person is moving into the unit. I learned a lot from house hacking this property and will utilize it with my future projects. What’s next? 

We decided that we want to start investing in commercial multifamily properties, 5-units and up. The only caveat would be if a 4-unit multifamily property in the Atlanta area with 1 unit vacant crosses our path. We are willing to do some rehab and evict tenants if needed. But before purchasing any more properties, we will be building capital as one of the steps to reach our goal. This will be a lot easier now that we have a tenant. The other step to achieving our goal is learning the underwriting process for commercial multifamily. I’ve started watching and listening to Ashley Wilson’s multifamily content on BiggerPockets to lay the foundation. I’ve also decided to host a monthly zoom meet-up for anyone else who is interested in getting into commercial multifamily. The August meeting will be Thursday, August 26th at 8 PM ET. Please send me a message on BiggerPockets if interested. As stated in the beginning of this article, I am a Realtor at Keller Williams Signature Partners in the Atlanta suburbs, so please do reach out if you are looking to invest or know someone looking to invest in the area and is looking for an agent who can help them reach their goals.

The last time I posted was after recently purchasing a single family home that has a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom guest house in the backyard (Previous post: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...). Today my tenant is moving into that 2 bedroom/1 bathroom guest house. Every time I post, I seem to come back having learnednew lessons, some the hard way, more confident and with greater passion for investing. Also,since the last time I posted, I became a licensed Realtor with Keller Williams Signature Partners in the Atlanta, GA suburbs. Continually learning the new skill set of being a Realtor has allowed me to understand what is going on in the real estate world from two perspectives, which is really helpful in this current market. I must start out by highlighting the fact that the current market does not allow for a normal 7 day inspection. This phenomenon stretches back even to the fall of 2020 in certain cases. I believe a 3-day inspection is enough time to get an inspector into the property, but getting all the additional contractors, such as plumbers, roofers, electricians, and HVAC, can prove to be difficult, especially for anyone with a full-time job. You may have experienced the same thing and been surprised by the condition of your recent purchase after taking a deeper look. It’s only right that we start off where I left off last time.

My wife and I noticed rat droppings all over the house the day we moved into our new home. We did not notice them on the walkthrough or see it reported on the inspection report, so we were quite shocked. We were more shocked to hear rats running around our kitchen and living room every night. We also had cockroaches so we called up a local bug guy to deal with the cockroaches. I mentioned the rats to him and he jumped right up and said he could get rid of those for us too. My first red flag should have been the fact he isn’t a “rodent/wildlife” contractor. But instead, I thought it was just great luck that the bug guy could also get rid of the rats. Fast forward 2 weeks and $800 later, we still had rats. We called a national exterminating company, and they were going to charge us $13,000 to seal our crawl space. Not only was that more than we could afford, it also seemed like an excessive price. We then called a local company, not a random guy who can “do that too,” and were given a more reasonable price to get rid of the rats, seal our crawl space, clean the crawl space, and lay material to protect the floor. They also referred us to a roofing contractor that provided services for a quarter of the price of the national company. They told us their process, and how long it would take, and be delivered. I wish I could say this was resolved within a month but the process was much longer due to our inexperience dealing with the issue.

Unfortunately, the first few weeks included more than just rats. Two days after moving in, I noticed water leaking from the fridge that was left in the house by the previous owner. Not a little water; a lot of water leaking from underneath the fridge. Enough for me to think the carpet and flooring would eventually rot. The fridge had a water hookup from the sink to the back of it for ice and water dispensing. My wife and I decided to get a new fridge, not only to solve the issue, but because we wanted a new one anyway. The floor continued to leak even after having the new fridge installed, so we called in a plumber. The plumber informed us the way the tube was going from the sink to the back of the fridge was “creative”. That “creative” configuration was causing the leak. The plumber requested having a look at all the plumbing in the home to see if any additional work needed to be done. After 15 minutes the plumber came back with a laundry list of “creative” configurations that had been done throughout the home. Safe to say the previous owners allowed a handyman to fix the plumbing. Eight hours later, I said goodbye to the plumber and let him know I hoped to not see him again for a few years. This issue was resolved within the first 2 weeks.

Now that the water issue was fixed, it was on to the next water issue: the downstairs Jacuzzi. We knew the Jacuzzi would need to be replaced, so we reached out to a contractor I had met through the agent who helped me buy the home. The contractor was well connected, and his rates were good. He had his plumber give us an estimate on what it would cost to replace the Jacuzzi prior to closing, so this was not an unexpected cost. The plumber suggested replacing the Jacuzzi with a regular bathtub because the previous Jacuzzi was so old that the style couldn’t be matched. We agreed, and he started to work. I’d heard that you don’t know what is going on behind the walls of your home until you knock them down. That rings true for underneath Jacuzzis as well. Underneath the Jacuzzi was old, rotted wood all the way down to the crawl space, which meant more work than expected. Five days later we had new wood on the floor, a new bathtub, and a fancier-looking bathroom. I’ll be honest, I felt drained and tired from working a lot and managing the rehab, but I could see the end result: a comfortable home for me, and a happy tenant in the other unit. It was now time to focus on the outside of the property and the second unit. I tried my hand at some landscaping as well and built a fire pit during the rehab. It was a lot of work and gave me a newfound respect for those who self-rehab properties.

We once again used the services of the contractor to rehab the outside of the property. I read the book Long-Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene in 2019 and utilized his section about working with contractors. One crucial detail I failed to utilize was the date the contractor needed to finish the job. I had used this contractor for a couple of easy jobs and everything had gone smoothly, so I convinced myself the larger rehab would go along the same lines, but the contractor had actually subcontracted the work to another person. That subcontractor turned out to not be reliable. His work was good, prices were low, but the job took more than 4 weeks. I know if I had put the specific date everything needed to be done by, I would have had a quick turnaround or paid the contractor less for not meeting the requirements of the job. With the rehab finished, the second unit painted, carpet replaced, and not smelling like smoke, it was time to get professional pictures taken and start marketing it.

Prior to marketing the property, we read the book on Managing Rental Properties by Heather and Brandon Turner. It completely prepared us for marketing the property and screening the tenants. We settled on the earliest move-in date and qualification standards, then listed the rental at my brokerage. That’s when the floodgate of calls and excuses came in: “Can I pay 6 months up front?”, “Can I move in even if I don’t meet the requirements?”, “I know it says no pets, but can I bring my indoor dogs? They never go outside.”. The most memorable call was one person who didn’t have a job but still thought they should get to move in. We did not adjust our criteria or price. We knew we had to protect ourselves as landlords. COVID-19 has hurt a lot of investors, and we needed to make sure we accepted a tenant that was highly likely to consistently make payments. We believed it was better to have a vacant unit than a tenant who needs to get evicted. The other interesting aspect of finding a tenant was showing the unit. We did one group showing that had 25% turnout. Our second group showing had even less. We eventually stopped having group showings and only showed the property to people who had already applied. It cut out a lot of people who were “window shopping”. We finally got a qualified tenant who did everything they said they would do. Today that person is moving into the unit. I learned a lot from house hacking this property and will utilize it with my future projects. What’s next?

We decided that we want to start investing in commercial multifamily properties, 5-units and up. The only caveat would be if a 4-unit multifamily property in the Atlanta area with 1 unit vacant crosses our path. We are willing to do some rehab and evict tenants if needed. But before purchasing any more properties, we will be building capital as one of the steps to reach our goal. This will be a lot easier now that we have a tenant. The other step to achieving our goal is learning the underwriting process for commercial multifamily. I’ve started watching and listening to Ashley Wilson’s multifamily content on BiggerPockets to lay the foundation. I’ve also decided to host a monthly zoom meet-up for anyone else who is interested in getting into commercial multifamily. The August meeting will be Thursday, August 26th at 8 PM ET. Please send me a message on BiggerPockets if interested. As stated in the beginning of this article, I am a Realtor at Keller Williams Signature Partners in the Atlanta suburbs, so please do reach out if you are looking to invest or know someone looking toinvest in the area and is looking for an agent who can help them reach their goals.

@Kent Kiess thank you!

@Anthony Fontana Thanks for finding this property and getting me in contact with great contractors!

So much has happened since closing on my first deal. My first deal was a long distance investment property purchase of a duplex in Indianapolis, IN in November of 2019. The story can be read here. After closing on my first deal and filling both units I was preparing to purchase another property in Indianapolis, IN. Then the most unexpected event happened in March 2020 (other than COVID): my wife got a job that required her to relocate to Atlanta, GA. All plans to purchase another property in Indianapolis were put on hold, and I immediately started planning on purchasing a duplex, triplex, or 4 unit property in Georgia with the intention of taking advantage of being able to live in one of the units so we could make a low downpayment.

At this point I was not licensed in my profession to work in Georgia, had no prospects for a job, was unsure of when we would be actually moving, and had no idea what the normal property prices for the Atlanta market were. Despite those 4 facts, I believed I could qualify for a loan by myself and perfectly time the transition from our apartment in New Jersey to our new investment property home in Georgia. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and the lessons I learned along the way will stick with me for the rest of my life. It was now April, and my first step was to find a real estate agent in the Atlanta area, so I browsed properties on Zillow and reached out. I started to receive a daily list of properties from a very diligent and hard working real estate agent. The real estate agent advised me to get pre-qualified by a lender so I could be prepared to make an offer. After contacting the lender, I was told I would need a “job offer letter” before I could qualify for a legitimate primary residence loan downpayment and rates. I didn’t have a job offer letter and was not even licensed in the state, but in my mind “I would be licensed in no time, and I would be flooded with job offers”. For the next few weeks I let the real estate agent know which properties I was interested in and the agent would go to the home, take a video, then send it to me. After a few weeks, I found a property that was going to work. I made an offer on the property, the offer was countered, and I decided to not pursue it. After a few more weeks I realized I was inadvertently wasting the agent’s time so I apologized to the agent and decided to part ways. The main lesson I learned was that if I plan on using traditional financing and want to buy out of state prior to moving, I must have a job offer letter. Some of you may be wondering why I didn’t just have my wife apply for traditional financing. She did make the offer, but my arrogance and belief I would “have a job offer in no time” caused me to reject her offer. I eventually came to my senses further along in this journey. Ultimately it would not have made a difference at the time because we still did not know the start date for my wife’s job so we had no timeline for moving to Georgia.

After parting ways with the real estate agent, I decided the best route to go was finding a property management company so I could get their feedback when I could realistically purchase a property. As I’ve read in many real estate books, mainly from Bigger Pockets, property management companies have a lot of insight into the markets they manage, and the best ones give great guidance. I found PMs to interview by searching for “Best Property Management Companies in Atlanta” on Google and I searched the Bigger Pockets forums. After interviewing 3 companies I decided on a PM that was actually from the Bigger Pockets forum. I explained my situation to the PM and that I would not be searching until I have a job offer and will follow up with them once I have reached that point.

My wife was eventually told her start date was in July. I still didn’t have a job in Atlanta but I was currently employed full-time in New Jersey. I decided to quit my job and move down with my wife into an apartment and continue to apply for jobs with the hope it would be easier once I was local. We were duped! The apartment we moved to was in a great area of northern Atlanta, and the complex looked beautiful in the pictures online but turned out to be horrible when we arrived. Neighbors had left garbage, broken glass, and bottles all over the front yard. Inside our apartment was no better despite the fact it was “recently renovated”. The floor in our apartment was uneven like a funhouse at a carnival, and there were soft spots where our feet would sink in. There was a hole in our bathroom wall where we could see the neighbors bathroom, spiders were crawling all over the place, and last but not least, the place was infested with cockroaches. We had signed a 6 month lease, so we were not stuck for long, but we were definitely counting the days. We knew we would not renew the apartment lease within a week of staying there.

Once in Georgia, I contacted the PM and was connected with a real estate agent who works for the PM. The real estate agent began to send me properties on a daily basis, which was very helpful in learning the pricing of multifamily properties in the area. I initially set our max price at what turned out to be unreasonable for the market. Not because the price wasn’t at market value but because the competition for homes was so intense at the time that thirty offers would come in for one home so every offer we made was outmatched even with an elevator clause. One aspect of the home purchasing process that was different from my last experience was the process of collaborating with my wife about what the perfect investment property would be to live in.

My previous purchase was a long distance purchase with a loan in my name. The process was more or less driven by me with my wife more interested in the bigger picture of what I was doing. This time around, my wife applied for the home loan since she had the full-time W-2 job. Applying for a loan, which seems like a regular process to an investor, is not regular to someone who is not interested in real estate and has a full-time job. I didn’t realize how time consuming it was to get all the details and paperwork in order mainly because I enjoyed learning the process when I went through it. Lucky for me my wife will not stop something once she starts it and was very motivated to leave our terrible apartment as soon as possible.

We started making offers on properties and eventually were informed about an off-market deal in an up and coming neighborhood of Atlanta. I drove by the neighborhood and told my wife I think we should offer. We made an offer, and it was accepted. My wife wanted to take a look at the property as well, so we took a drive to the neighborhood. My wife was not impressed with the neighborhood or the size of the living space of the property. We ended up backing out of the deal within 3 days of the offer being accepted. To say I was disappointed about backing out of the deal would be an understatement. The next 2 weeks were spent figuring out what would work for both of us. We began to make offers again and made an offer on a single family home with a 2 bedroom/1 bath apartment in the backyard located in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA. This property somehow met both our requirements. We had initially planned to have the PM manage the apartment in the backyard but were later informed that they do not manage properties when the owner lives in the units. It was a surprise, but I’m grateful to have met the real estate agent in the process. The real estate agent had immense knowledge of the area and great contacts for inspection and contracting. I am very much up for the challenge of managing the apartment myself, and in preparation I purchased The Book on Managing Rental Properties by Brandon and Heather Turner. A book that has been helpful so far in planning my low scale rehab for the property is The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs by J. Scott. This was a whirlwind experience, and I know it will be very helpful in my future in real estate ventures. My plan for my next investment property will be purchasing a foreclosure. I have actually started the process of learning how to do it by putting into action steps I learned after reading the book Bidding to Buy by Aaron Amuchastegui and David Osborn. And yes, I did eventually get a job.

@Matt Abrams thank you!

@Account Closed thank you!

@Lamont Glover II thank you! I hope the house hacking is going well! I definitely want to hear your story.