All Forum Posts by: Rodney Lorenzo

It wasn't overnight. According to the PM, the city was making efforts to clean up the streets around my neighborhood. When they got to my street, they stopped. Funds may have run out. Police force reduced. I don't know. Hartford has pockets of bad areas. My street had a crack house across the street and a brothel a few doors down. You cross the avenue onto the other block and it turns nice. This wasn't anything I could control

Your analysis is wrong. Neighborhoods don’t decline because improvement money runs out. They don’t improve because improvement money runs out, and simply remain as they were.

Now look at what you wrote. There was a crack house across the street. C NEIGHBORHOODS DO NOT HAVE CRACK HOUSES!!! Then you say there’s a brothel a few doors down. Most C neighborhoods don’t have brothels, and if they do, they are discrete and the girls are pretty.

Bottom line: You bought into an F neighborhood, not a C neighborhood. It remains an F. Whoever sold to you unloaded a bag of s**t on you. I have to question your mental acuity first, though. How could you think that a neighborhood wits crack house was class C?

Your ignorance is so typical of what exists in this industry. Are you from Hartford? Do you make assumptions on places and base them on where you live? Are you saying that I'm a liar and that when I bought the place the crack house and brothel were already there?? No they weren't, because I didn't see them when I inspected the neighborhood. They get chased out from other neighborhoods, but it seems you lack the basic common sense to realize that. Why can't you accept the fact that they MAY HAVE come after I bought the building? Is that not possible to you? Cities run out funds all the time. They allow their neighborhoods to tank because their focus is on more upscale areas that pay higher taxes. Were you perfect in your first investment? Does everything you touch turn to gold? How many mirrors do you own? Just wait when Karma catches up to you sir. Good luck is like bad luck. It has a beginning, middle and end. I'd have to question your mental acuity too and wonder how you speak to your wife or kids like you do to other investors here. Get a life instead of harassing other investors from behind a keyboard.

You said that “soon after” you bought that the neighborhood went from C to F. Neighborhoods don’t decline that fast, and the fact that you “didn’t see” them doesn’t mean that they weren’t there. So I apply Occam’s Razor and go with the simplest explanation that accounts for all of the facts: You did not do a good job vetting the investment, which includes vetting the neighborhood.

Knock off the histrionics about lying. You made a serious error in judgement. Once the real, initial condition of the neighborhood is accounted for, what does that tell you about the performance of the property manager?

I was there. You weren't. Don't come off as a know-it-all, because your failures have yet to pop as they have to every investor. It just makes you feel better when you trash and berate other investors from behind a keyboard. Why? Because you're the epitome of a coward. I owned my error and I made the move to sell. This is was my experience, not yours. I learned from it inspite of pity-parties of one such as yourself that judges others without knowing them or their experience. You don't even know Hartford. The PM was fuel to the fire and in that neighborhood he was a complete disaster. So how was your first investment? Care to enlighten me? Maybe someone needs to go back to their basement.

I simply pointed out that your analysis was wrong: neighborhoods don’t decline that fast. The fact that the city ran out of money may mean that a neighborhood doesn’t improve, but it doesn’t crater a neighborhood two levels “soon.” The simplest explanation is that you missed your analysis of the neighborhood because you were too eager to get into the game.

I sold my first investment 8 years after buying it, doubling the purchase price and making multiples of my investment. I had good tenants and house hacked. I spent a lot of time checking out the neighborhood before I bought.

Oh, and it had a finished basement.

So you succeeded in your first investment. Not everyone does. The difference between you and I, is that I'm not afraid to share my nightmare on Biggerpockets, because I learn from other investors that are respectful and don't need to berate me. I deal with reality instead of tooting my own horn so that everyone can see what a wonderful and successful person I am. Everyone makes mistakes, but at least I own mine. So you've never made a mistake in RE in your life. Woopee!! Maybe RE isn't for me, but I'm not about to let someone's pessimism get in the way as if that's a reason to give up. RE is different for everyone. Experiences are different and cities are different, but I'm sure you're old enough to know that. So YOU"RE WRONG about Hartford, some neighborhoods do decline quickly there. You're just comparing the areas you have your investments to Hartford, CT, which is seems ignorant to me. Ask anyone who knows that city and they'll tell you the pockets that can change a neighborhood from C to D to F, just by going to the next block. I got knocked down and now I'm getting back up. That's all. I now know which questions to ask, which areas to stay away from. Mistakes are to be learned from, so save your arrogance for someone else please. You'll fail big time one of these days. Trust me.

My problem with you is that you are blaming the PM for problems that could have been avoided by you doing better analysis of the neighborhood. It had nothing to do with the city not paving a street.

Paving what street? Do you even bother to read my posts? I never said anything about paving a street. Are you proud of your ignorance? We need to speak to each other like adults, not like high school kids, which means face to face. The PM, if competent, could've turned that building around because they knew that building and neighborhood like the back of their hand. Yes, I absolutely made mistakes with this investment, but if you were able to be successful despite your negativity and pessimism, well then so can I. You're a walking example. Don't hold your breath with your good luck and fortune, because things can come crashing down like you've never seen. What makes you any different? Where are you located? It would be better to continue this conversation in person instead of from behind a keyboard like a coward don't you think? I'm pretty sure you wouldn't use that tone with me in person. Most cowards wouldn't.

this is sad.. !! Everyone makes a mistake in RE over time myself included..

Except John Clark, the other poster, doesn't know that. Somebody needs to remind him. Were you a success on your first investment?

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Ko Kashiwagi:

Hi Rodney,

More than half of the agents I've worked with haven't required them but perhaps NY is a little different. One way to navigate this is to just look for deals yourself and get the listing agent to be a dual agent on that transaction specifically. That way you can look on your own.

From the contracts I've been offered typically it gives you the right to cancel and fire them at any point if you are not happy as well. So you could technically just keep on moving on until you find the right one.

Hi Ko,

When you say for the agent to be a dual agent, you mean with my own agent? This would give me more lee way to look on my own. The only problem is that, for lack of experience, I can't yet determine if the house is overvalued and/or worth doing a rehab on. Should I ask the listing agent how much upside there is and if it's worth BRRRing or will she not know that? My own agent knows this.

0 Votes

Westchester County, New York

Quote from @John Clark:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Quote from @John Clark:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

Best of luck to you Rodney in your future investments. Knowing what not to do is half the battle, and now you have some experience.

Thank you for your kind words. It makes me hopeful when other investors speak to me with a civil tongue, instead being chastised like John Clark. The majority of posters responding to my post have been "compassionate" individuals, but then you have those that thrive on the failures of other investors. This is why they're on BP. You wonder what kind of childhood they must've had.

You will find that crack houses aren’t mushrooms; they don’t just spring up after a rainstorm. Also, you said you toured the “area,” but never said that you viewed that particular block before you bought. Now, from your other posts, I see you didn’t vet the property manager either.

So you made a major, major, investment with little checking and now want to blame it all on an allegedly bad property manager.

Here’s some advice: Trust no one and personally verify everything. My wife’s friend said it best: “The last time I trusted someone, I had twins.”

Again, you're white washing everything and judging an area that you're not familiar with. That's the thing with RE, is that investors talk based on the areas they're familiar with and ignorantly assume that the rest of the country is exactly the same. Crack houses do spring up overnight, when they get chased from other neighborhoods. It's not as if it's a long ordeal or that they need permits from the city. They work at rapid speed compared to govt programs that take their sweet time in providing landlords much needed funds. Again, a competent PM could've done wonders to turn my building around and instead did the opposite. He successfully ran it into the ground. I know of 2 other victims (also known as witnesses) that he did this to. We're talking about a entity whose manager went to bed with a client behind the woman's back. She put that in a review. The same manager that stuck her friend in my apartment, only to cause me over $9000 in lost revenue. Again, the plus side of all this, is that this won't happen again because of "experience". Unlike you, I don't possess a crystal ball and claim to be a successful RE investor. Not yet. Things can turn around for me, like they can for you

I notice that you don’t deny that you did NOT inspect either the specific block nor the specific building before you bought. So much for “owning” your mistake. Nor do you deny doing zero due diligence about the property manager (more “owning” dare I say?).

Did you ever stop to think that it is precisely BECAUSE you do not know an area that you cannot whitewash and have to check things out personally?

I will let you in on a little secret: Chicago has more crack houses than Hartford. You are wrong when you say crack houses spring up overnight. You admitted by omission that you never checked, so you don’t know. I checked my neighborhoods personally. I know. Never used a crystal ball, either.

A competent property manager might have handled things differently (notice I didn’t say “better”), but from what you’ve posted, he was pissing against the wind no matter what. Was he scum based on past experience? Maybe. Your reckless conduct was an independent cause though. Telling the pm to stuff the building with warm bodies for the immediate cash and then not expect trouble? I don’t think you can handle more than series E savings bonds.

Are you bored with yourself? Do you not have a life, that you have to come at me with more of a pompous attitude? It seems I may be living rent free in your mind. You can't just ignore my post can you? Are you OK?

Hartford isn't Chicago. Bad comparison. When you acquire a building, what do you do, go knocking on the door of each house asking to interview each resident to ask if they're prostitutes or crack heads? Besides driving by, what else do you deem as "inspection" of the street your property is on? You speak in vague terms with no regard to elaborate, which you obviously do deliberately. Is this fun to you, getting on BP so you can make another investor feel like crap on their first investment? So you never did answer me on meeting in person. Something tells me you wouldn't use these words to my face. Do you own any mirrors at home? Try looking into one once in a while and you'll see what imperfection looks like. There's a reason you don't put your face as your profile photo. Just like I had my failure which I own, you'll have one too some day.

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @John Clark:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

Best of luck to you Rodney in your future investments. Knowing what not to do is half the battle, and now you have some experience.

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Calvin Thomas:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

When I acquired a 6 unit property in Hartford, CT in 2022, the neighborhood appeared as just working class. Soon after, the neighborhood went from class C to class F. I stuck with the same PM, owned by Tom Kopchick, because they knew the building and neighborhood quite well. Unfortunately, things went South really fast. I thought, let me evict the non-paying tenants and replace them with paying ones. Well this was like pulling teeth. Units were not flipped because the PM blamed it on the bad neighborhood and said that govt programs were the way to go if I wanted a consistent rent roll. He never told me that it would take several months to get funds from these entities. I ended up with 4 empty units and 2 paying tenants, then only 1 paying tenant. I still paid the mortgage on time, but was a struggle at times borrowing money from friends and family just to do so. A veteran was finally put in one of the units (the one paying tenant), however, the PM failed to tell him to open his own electricity acct and after 6 months, ended up with over $2000 of charges under my LLC. When I went by the building one day, they refused to let me into another vacant unit because they said once a govt program takes over while they find a tenant, I as the owner cannot have access to it. This unit ended up costing my LLC over $1800 in electricity charges when it was supposed to be vacant. The electricity shot up to over 3000 kw over the winter prompting me to think they had a grow house in there or a squatter the PM was collecting rent from himself.

In a neighborhood like this, you need a very competent PM. Instead, I ended up with the worst and most incompetent in the state, if not the whole country. They never got back to me on anything. It was, "yeah I'll take care of it" and I'd never hear from them again. Some of the problems were not taken care of at all. Homeless people were shacking up in the basement and breaking windows on the ground level trying to get inside one of the units. The PM had a manager who stuck her "friend" in one of the units prior to my acquisition and because they had a fall out, she stopped paying rent so I got no revenue from that unit for 7 months. The PM was horrible at trying to evict her and she finally abandoned the place, costing me over $9000 in lost revenue. When I attempted to replace them with another PM, Tom begged me to keep him on. Like an idiot and a firm believer that everybody deserves a second chance, I proceeded to continue on with them. Huge mistake. Things got much worse. He deliberately used a plow to destroy my driveway when there was snow, prompting my insurance company to come after me. In the two estimates I got to repave the driveway which were around $7000, Tom wanted 15K for it. It seemed to me that things were broken so they can make money off of the repairs. A PM could easily get away with this. There was a leak in the skylight above the inside hallway and they implied that I needed to redo the entire roof because of that one leak. That would've cost me over 20K.

In trying to get another PM to come on board which none would touch with a 10 foot pole and my hemorrhaging money left and right, I decided to put it on the market. Tom the PM got upset because he wanted to sell it for me, but I told him that if he was inept as a PM, what made him think he would be great at selling my building? All reviews of this PM on the internet are all horrible. Goes to show you that before you contemplate hiring a PM, ALWAYS check their reviews first. Most lie through their teeth. Additionally, he never charged me a "percentage" of the rent roll as stated in the agreement. It was always a flat fee of over $600 whether I had 4 tenants or 1. With the appreciation, I didn't lose as much money as I thought, but had I held onto it, I would've gone bankrupt and had the building go into foreclosure, all because of their incompetence. Again, I tried my best to find another PM, but there were no takers. It's PMs like these that ruin the reputation for the others. I truly believe that they can steal from under you and get away with it. Even the REIA in CT was of no help. An entity that supposedly "helps" investors, but said nothing on how to avoid bad PMs. Besides them, I contacted the AG of CT, the mayor and an attorney to see about suing them. I got no help whatsoever. The state literally has enablers that allow rogue PMs to get away with a lot and I'm sure this is like this across the country. The Dept of Consumer Protection was a joke and was of no help either. Everyone assumes landlords have bottomless pockets so they don't really care about them. I sought advice on Biggerpockets, only to get berated and spoken condescendingly by other investors. It's as if I was supposed to have a crystal ball and why didn't I do this or that. Were they successful on their FIRST INVESTMENT? Crickets. It was more like "look at me, everything I touch turns to gold". Yeah right. Now, I'm focused on fixing and flipping. An endeavor I look forward to, as I refuse to get discouraged in my real estate journey.

1. Reviews on the internet, may be good, may be bad. I don't trust them 100%

2. Set boundaries for your PM.

3. Install cameras around the building and in the common areas to check and see what's going on.

3. These areas are usually not worth the headache because the quality of the tenant is usually sub-par at best.

4. It can take a couple of months for the County to pay section 8 payments. This is true, but they will pay.

5. Your PM is not a licensed salesperson or broker, so they are operating illegally. (https://www.elicense.ct.gov/Lookup/LicenseLookup.aspx). You can file a complaint with the DCP, and they will look into and fine. https://www.elicense.ct.gov/Activities/Complaint.aspx

6. You can try, but I am not sure that one of the attorneys I know in Stratford will file a complaint for you in Hartford (it's far), you can try though. He's a good guy, Christopher D. Hite, Esq. - 203-870-6700.

Thanks a lot Calvin! Yes, he was illegally operating his business. Another mistake I made by not asking for a license. The govt programs may be worthy, but I was hemorrhaging money while I waited. I just told the PM to get anyone off of the street, because I needed bodies in those units. I couldn't afford to pay the mortgage with my own salary on top of my own expenses. The DCP in CT is a blatant joke. They're a group of corrupt individuals that only serve as enablers of rogue PMs. He's been fined before by other victims, 2 of which I know. I decided to write off the losses, instead of pursue this guy in court. It would've cost me too much in the long run. Initially, the attorney that represented me during the sale, I later found out was a friend of his. Corrupt individuals usually like to defend their own kind and when I saw no reaction from him after I gave him a long list of transgressions he made against me, I fired him and replaced him with another attorney. He was too biased to hang on to.

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

Best of luck to you Rodney in your future investments. Knowing what not to do is half the battle, and now you have some experience.

1 Vote

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Joe S.:

I see your frustration! I bought some properties before that I lost money on. :(

Try not to get too worked up over @John Clark multiple posters here have different styles of speaking and it’s really nothing personal to you. They don’t know you. Not everybody has even joined the party. There’s some posters that would make John Clark warm and fuzzy by comparison. No need to meet them in person, man to man. Lol.😂

I've dealt with a couple already. BP could care less in allowing these bad apples to harass other investors. Their block button doesn't work. Being respectful and decent is hard for some people, but they sure make great cowards bashing people from behind a keyboard. Obviously, it's not wise to assume all investors act like immature kids, because the majority don't. I always believe in Karma and their day will soon come. Wish I could be there to see them cry like babies

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Jon K.:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Thank you for sharing this experience. The silver lining here is that you've learned some valuable lessons. Location may be one of the most important aspects of an investment, but due diligence on a PM company (as well as managing the manager) is pretty important too. I've been through my share of bad PMs in the past and each one has cost me tens of thousands in their own way.

You're not the first person that has told me this, which is why I don't have a very positive impression of them. They can steal from under you very easily and get away with it. Wish the industry would make a better effort in combating this problem

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Steve K.:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Quote from @Steve K.:

Where is the property? I grew up there and if you give me some cross streets or the address, I can tell you if it was ever a good location to buy/ if you ever had a chance if success.

Near Little Italy or what used to be. Near Franklin Ave and Bond St. When I inspected the area, it seemed to be a working class neighborhood like any other, but later I learned of how the neighborhood can change from block to block and my building ended up on the worst of all the blocks. It wasn't like that when I acquired my building. I also didn't make phone calls to the police dept. Big mistake

Yeah I grew up about a mile from there. It's not the very worst part of town. I'd call it a D not an F, maybe some F blocks mixed in depending on recent gang/drug sales situation. Not a place I would ever buy personally. Barry Square, Frog Hollow, Sheldon Charter Oak are all nearby and are rougher, solid F. Franklin Ave has some great Italian bakeries and that's kinda the only reason people go there. The original Little Italy must have been a super cool neighborhood. My grandparents told me stories about it from the 1920's. It pretty much got wiped out in the great flood of 1934 though and never recovered to what it was. It was actually on Front Street by the way, not Franklin Ave. (the original Front Street which was where Constitution Plaza is now, not current day Front Street which was destroyed and moved in the 40's before they built the plaza in the 50's). So yeah Little Italy peaked in 1933 and was in an entirely different part of town.

Hartford has a long and complicated history with some big ups and some big downs. But the important gist of it is that it was a really cool place to be starting from around 1850 and peaking during the Civil War. It has been mostly downward spiraling since then.

One thing that struck me is that you thought it was a "working class" neighborhood. It was about 75 years ago. The sad thing about Hartford is most people who have jobs move out of the city if they can. They move to the suburbs for less crime, better schools, higher quality of life, etc. So what looks like a working-class neighborhood is actually going to be mostly people who live on welfare/ section 8 now. The good parts of Hartford are mostly not in Hartford lol.

Wow, I wasn't privy to its history. Before I acquired this property, I would drive around the neighborhood to scope out the environment and the streets seemed quiet to me, keep in mind I should've done this at night, but with living 1.5 miles away, I wasn't able to go there with my schedule. I made the mistake of not calling the local police dept because had I done so, I would've gotten an earful and I would've backed out. I once saw a building in the Parkville section which is gentrifying and before I left, I heard gun shots. This deterred me from buying the property and this was in a "gentrifying neighborhood" go figure. I never heard gun shots on the street I had my building on. The city has changed for the worse since you left and you cross one avenue and the same street goes from D to F in a heartbeat.

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Steve K.:

Where is the property? I grew up there and if you give me some cross streets or the address, I can tell you if it was ever a good location to buy/ if you ever had a chance if success.

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

All Forum Posts by: Rodney Lorenzo

Rodney Lorenzo has started 15 posts and replied 97 times.

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: The more agents you have looking, the better

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs

Post: Avoid Revolution Properties LLC at all costs