All Forum Posts by: Rodney Sums

I currently own my home in California and purchased our first rental property in Alabama a couple of months ago.

We are planning on leaving California in July of 2024 as the cost of leaving here is getting crazy and moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. We have a long-term goal of investing in real estate to set up our retirement.

We were able to buy our house on the down market in 2010, we owe about 310k at 3.8% and could sell it for the low 800k.

My dilemma is should I sell or rent my house in California

Renting will give us a $800 to $1000 cash flow, but California being a tenant state worries me.

But on the other hand, selling will give us way more freedom and buying power, and it will accelerate our plan like crazy but I want to make sure I’m not missing something and making a mistake.

The current plan is to sell the house here in California makes a 400/450k profit which should not be taxable as we are married and have lived in the house for the past 13 years. Move and rent in Charlotte for 6 months to see and analyze the market and the area. Once there, accelerate the machine, buy another 1 or 2 investment properties in the next year and a house where we will live for a year or two to renovate, then rent it and buy another one.

Do you think the plan is appropriate or do you think I should reconsider keeping the house and renting it?

@Rodney Sums

It’s annoying that people’s lack of financial planning falls on us. Almost all my tenants are paycheck to paycheck. So when their car breaks or they have a financial issue come up, I don’t get paid on time. Or at all. Most of my tenants don’t have $1000 in the bank for emergency contingencies. Their car loans get paid on time so they don’t get repossessed. But sometimes as landlords, we come last even though our mortgages are due on the first and our banks don’t care. So it’s on us to enforce rent being paid on time. Or to kick these people out in a timely manner. I cut my tenants some slack and let them be late once in awhile. But the habitual late tenants are very annoying.

@Rodney Sums

Karma

Just because something is done all the time illegally does not make it right. I work my butt off to do things the right way and people who have money don’t think they have to play by the rules

You really think this is hurting this guy? Come on…

If he wanted to get in there he could easily get in there.

We buy distressed debt and deal with this all the time btw so it’s not like I am some left wing wingnut.

@Scott E.

So I read an article that there is a lot of misinformation in this article

The person is not living in the main house it’s a guesthouse and paid six months of rent. It was $105/night

It was found the guesthouse was not permitted and because of that it gives her some rights

Honestly I feel no sorrow for this guy because he didn’t play by the rules and now he is getting screwed big time and it’s usually the people with money that always get away with it but this time jokes on him.

This is another one of those very hot topics with an unstable predator party(tenant). It needs to be handled very intelligently and delicately.
The problem with blasting noise and creating other problems for the tenant, is it can be *easily* argued in front of a judge, that an unsafe and unhealthy environment was created by the owner for the tenant and that opens a whole 'nother package of problems and significantly increases the lawsuit dollar amount. It also paints the landlord in a bad light in front of the judge, and would likely hurt all arguments made in the landlord's defense.
Crappy situation. It needs an aggressive attorney and likely an aggressive local or semi-local eviction specialist, who has tall experience with challenging tenants.
Yuck.

hmm definitely seem's like something I would avoid. 
 Is the nurse already a tenant? If so, how has her response to this been so far?
Interested to hear how this works out for you.

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Account Closed:

Better yet, the worst song ever...."Horse With No Name',

 Come on now, that's not the worst song ever. My god, just about anything from 1990 forward qualifies more than America :D . 

On a side note, I read the whole article again and the guy who rented to her was an idiot. That doesn't mean I am not on his side, only that he just kept digging a deeper hole from the get-go. She's still a real piece of crap. 

On a side note, the whole thing reminds me of a tenant I had once. They rented one of my homes that had a front porch that had actually once been part of the interior of the home, but years ago someone had removed the outer walls to create the porch and built a new inner wall (ie the basement was under the now open porch, the attic over it, and they put support posts in to hold everything up). The sides of the porch didn't have any railing, because it never really was a porch, but all of this predated building codes in the city. Nevertheless, they had young kids and she asked me if it was possible to have a railing put in. Considering it would have been almost certain injury if someone fell, I told her we'd go ahead and close it back in the way it originally was to make it safe, and then they'd actually have some bonus space. Halfway through the project she decided she would rather have an open porch, so she (I don't have proof but I know it was her) called the city to complain about not having a permit. The city came down there and promptly gave us a stop work order on the property. I went down the next day to get the SWO resolved. I told them all I was doing was putting the house back the way it was originally. Nope, they wanted me to submit engineering plans describing the load shift (which was ZERO since all the supporting posts were remaining in place, literally we were adding 2x4s and if anything providing better load distribution to the existing solid basement walls). I told them there was no way in hell I was paying engineering fees to put back what was there, and we settled on a compromise wherein they let me put half walls up just under my construction license/bond. So I had to have my guys tear the upper parts of the finished walls off and do half walls. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. 

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Bruno Alhasson:

I recently bought a property in the City of Detroit from an auction, and it turns out there's a squatter there. Talked to both of the next door neighbors and apparently this lady (with kids 😮‍💨🤯) broke in and set up house only two months ago. This means that she has zero legal right to the property in any way.

According to House Bills 5069, 5070 & 5071, squatting is a crime in Michigan. Also, I would be within my rights to get in there, change the locks and make sure she won't be able to break in again.

My question is, do the police even enforce this? How likely is it that they'll even charge her for squatting? Better yet, would they be able to physically remove her themselves? This is the first time I've dealt with squatters so I am hoping to hear from people who've been there and done that. 

I am not at all willing to do a cash-for-keys deal, nor am I willing to go through the eviction process (especially in the City of Detroit). Also, I have not approached the squatters yet; I will once the deed work is done. I am just planning for the worst case scenario, since people have proven to be wildly unreasonable.

Doesnt seem like I have many options. Again, this is my first squatter situation so I would love to hear any input on how this whole situation can be handled.

 lol you're not willing to go through the eviction process? You're in the wrong business my man.

 No, I'm not willing to go through the eviction process. Not in this particular situation. 

If you've read those laws you would understand that anyone worth their weight in air will know its silly to go with the option that literally takes 100x longer, if not more.

Quote from @Rodney Sums:

Quote from @Jamie O'Connell:

I own a property that I bought for $55,000 in cash and put another $25,000 into fixing up. I believe it will appraise between $90,000 - $100,000. I bought it outright and don't owe any money on it. I would like to get as much of that cash out as possible to recoup what I have put in to it. It is owned in an LLC and I have a high credit score.

Looking for any suggestions on how I should get the money out. Some say LOC, or cash out refi but the under 100k appraisal possability is one road block. High fees for DSCR Loans and such is another possible road block. Have owned for almost 4 months for possible seasoning issues.

Any thoughts or contacts would be greatly appreciated! 

The simple solution sounds like take a mortgage out on it, with consideration to cash flow calculations. That's where the lowest payment will come from as opposed to a LOC.

What's your income situation?

 Income is good but not reflected on tax returns yes as I was W2 till December 22'