All Forum Posts by: Royce Talbo

honestly what people assume to be bias really isnt. an appraisal is an opinion of value, so different appraiser will have different values. you cant choose your appraiser(before you could), they get assigned the job. they get paid a flat fee whether your value is high or low so they dont care what your appraised price comes out to as long as they can explain it. they usually dont over value it because that could lead to overinflated fraud(the reason you cant choose your appraiser anymore, banks went with their go to appraisers who appraised high so that they could get people to qualify for mortgages and sell the mortgages off) which they dont want to deal with. 

so most of the time appraisals will come right at the asking price because they are lazy and just want to do a fast job to move onto the next one and can justify it with comps. other times they will actually run all the adjustments and do a good job and if its highly upgraded then it may come in a little higher or if its not in best presentable condition it could come in lower depending on what the appraiser thinks the property is compared to comps. 

doing an appraisal is more complex than just running comps and comparing pirce/sqft like most investors and realtors do. you have sqft living, sqft land, easments, bed count, bath count, garage vs carport vs no onsite parking, condition of home, location, etc. again its just an opinion of value, so one appraiser might think there should be a 10000 adjustment to one line and another might think it just needs a 7000 adjustment. some might look at your messy property that just needs a new paint job and flooring and adjust the condition lower than someone who knows thats all it needs. 

so to say an appraiser is bias doesnt make sense to me because they gain nothing by intentionally lowing your value because of skin color. they just want to get paid and move on the next one with the least amount of work. if you said some appraisers are incompetent, then yah i would have to agree but you cant choose which ones you get.

@Amy Raye Rogers best bet is chase cards. ultimate rewards let you pool your points from different cards. you can convert your points to travel credit through their portal and if you have a premium card(annual fee), your points are worth 1.25 to 1.5 points in the travel portal. sometimes its cheaper to book this way than with points through airlines and you also earn airline points on it. you can also convert your points to airline miles. most of the time its cheaper to book international airlines like air france that flies on delta than to use delta miles. same with singapore flies on united. there are a few extra steps with booking these miles. 
As for earning, I use chase freedom flex for rotating 5x categories, 3x dining, ink cash for 5x for office supplies and 5x for internet, cable and, cell phone. I buy a bunch of home depot and lowes gift cards from office depot to get 5x instead of paying directly at the store earning only 1 point, they also got lots of other gc like amazon you can earn 5x points on. i also rotate between the sapphire reserve, preferred and the business ink preferred.

When getting into the credit card points game you have to really research to learn the best deals, sweet spot on award charts and rules. FYI chase has a 5/24 rule which is cant open more than 5 cards in the last 24 months or they will deny you. amex has its own set of rules. also need to read the fine print some cards are once per lifetime signup bonus. there is a load of info out there on flyertalk forums, also you can check out the points guy or boardingarea. good luck going down the rabbit hole lol.

@Tricia O'Brien Yes that is illegal and there are people who actually go around calling landlords asking if they can rent and try to catch you in one of these discrimination cases. 

you cant discriminate against protected classes but you can against anything else. if they have 6 people you have to give them a showing unless they dont meet your other criteria. it is always good to prescreen (questions that would qualify them on paper). then more in depth questions at the showing. then if you dont like them because their car is too loud and it will disturb the neighbors or something else that is not a protected class you dont need to accept them. just document everything and keep a record. its best to just have a system in place with the things you consider good and bad and give points to each. 

@Kristen Brandner Move on. people that want to pay more than a month in advance is because they have been looking and got passed on by other landlords. yes some will be good tenants that were just in a bad situation, but most are problem tenants. This guy barely makes enough income monthly to cover rent. how is he going to pay for other expenses like food car utilities schooling etc. after he uses up the proceeds from the sale. 

If you are still really considering him at least keep looking and dont sign a lease until you have the cash inhand. some people might just lie to you and you sign a lease giving him the benefit of the doubt that he will actually close in 2 weeks. he could just get into the house and not even have a house to sell and will not be able to pay rent because of his income. then you end up with a squatter and if the eviction moratoriums is still in place or get reinstated then you are screwed.

I find majority of my tenants on craigslist. I tried zillow and facebook for the past 5 times and zillow is not worth it. FB gets a lot of inquiries usually 40+ for 1 week listing for me and at least 30 are a waste of time. I only found 1 tenant from FB the rest are from craigslist. You will get pretty much the same tenant pool from fb and craigslist the trick is just prescreen them before scheduling a showing. 

@Keith Miller A kitchen consists of sink, stove, and refrigerator. if you have 2 out of the 3 it isnt a kitchen. I have seen rentals with sink, hotplate and refrigerator. I have also seen sink and stove with refrigerator in another room. both legal, but easiest(illegal) way is to just put in one of the items after county inspector leaves. they never return to check it out unless someone complains. if that happens just remove the item put it outside to comply then put it back in after they leave. they know whats going on so they dont really waste their time. though once you get a complaint there is a flag in the system on your property. then you might get that one guy who loves his job and will check up on your property periodically though highly doubtful.

@Jeffrey Donis thanks for the input majority doesnt apply to me or my market but I might try the referral program.  i already give discount to military and cater to military since there is a base nearby. i forgot about hotpads.com, ill look into them.

@Doug Spence how many inquires do you usually get on zillow and how many actually show?

Where is the best place to find large pool of good quality tenants? I currently list on craigslist, AHRN for military, tried zillow zumper and facebook. cozy is no long available since they merged with apartments.com. any other sites?

Zillow has only given me a few inquiries and couple showings over the years so not worth paying.  Facebook has a load of interest but very few qualify for the showing. i usually get around 200-250 views, 30-50 inquiries, 15-20 replies to my prescreening questions and 5-10 showings with 3-8 actually showing up. so i feel its not worth my time replying to all these people when i usually end up picking someone from craigslist, but with craigslist i only get 5-10 inquiries and about 3 showings. I tried zumper but had several problems in the past with listings so i stopped using them. apartments.com from what i read they sell your info and your get lots of spam emails but havent tried it yet so cant say if its true or not.

I have been doing this for the past 15 or so years and craigslist was the go to, but times change and i need to adjust to the times. in the past 5 years craigslist has slowed down and i dont get as many inquiries so i am trying other sites but none seem to be worth it. i dont think its my listing as i have decent (not professional) pictures, the price is not too low that i attract low income and not too high that majority cant afford. im priced right in the middle for my area compared to other listings. the description lists the property info, pets allowed, drive time to shopping centers etc. 

basically i get better quality tenants from craigslist, but very little applicants. Where do you guys tend to find a large pool of quality tenants from? 

call the landlord tenant hotline 808 586 2634 they can help you with the covid eviction questions, but your property manager should know the answers and should be dealing with this not you, thats why you pay them.

@Austin Yamamoto if you decide to keep it as a rental keep in mind that after your tax assessment reaches over $1m and you dont have a homeowners exemption, you will have to pay higher taxes. if you sell you should sell within the next 2-3 years after moving out. irs says you can write off $500k in capital gains if you live in it 2 out of the last 5 years. whether to sell now or later is up to you. the market should go down cuz all the missed mortgage payments, but at the same time it might go higher cuz of the fed inflating the dollar and lowering int rates and high demand. noone really knows. 
If you keep it as a rental you should really refi rates are low now like 2.5 or something. i refied last Nov for $480k at 3.25% my PITI is about $2550. so yours should be lower and if you can rent your house for $3200 you should cashflow.

from skimming the article doesnt seem like it would.  one part says its only the outside structure and you still have to put in the windows, doors, roof, plumbing, electrical. basically all you have is concrete siding. you still have to frame the inside to install insulation and drywall. i feel its the same concept as container homes, a unique way to build but not necessarily a better revolutionary way.