All Forum Posts by: Ryan Behnke

Thanks everyone for giving their opinion. @Bryan Devitt made some valid points that I didn't mention. The amount of water was about the size of a beach towel on either side of the wall separating the rooms.  I did have someone in there sucking up the water until the bed bug issue came up and we were told by the bed bug company to not have anyone in the property until it was taken care of. The basement company was also scheduling work 45 to 60 days out. So the fastest I could get them in there I did minus the bed bugs. 

Even with all that said I should have handled it different and will in the future. Anything like this comes up again I will offer the tenant to break there lease and move out and if they stay I would take a chunk off the rent. 

I have already contacted a lawyer and will try to settle this out of court by dropping the collections.  

I'm seeing everyone's point. Also this house was not uninhabitable. It's a trilevel 4 bed 1.5 bath. The lower level was effected by water which was one bed room and a family room, not the living room. What should we have done different? Should I have offered a credit off of their rent for the time the repairs were happening? @John Chapman you said bed bugs are a way of life with rentals. How do you handle that? The laws for Wisconsin that I read were you would have to prove it was brought in by a tenant. With a multi unit I would assume that the landlord would just treat it because of shared walls and it would be hard to prove. But with a single family it would be easier to prove since we lived there before these tenants. Also their deposit covered the last months rent, the unpaid water bill that they never paid, unpaid electric, as well as cleaning the house and garage that they abandoned. Again I see everyone's point and I'm glad I asked because seeing things through a different point of view helps a lot.

@Tim Herman Yes, in Wisconsin you can have a lawyer in small claims. We did have a bed bug company to the rental and they are the ones that treated the property before we could do any of the work to the lower level rooms. We also had a bed bug company test our new home with results showing we do not have bed bugs. The PM company did send the tenant a list of the repairs that were done to the home within the appropriate time frame.

So I received notice that I am being sued by our last tenant in Racine Wisconsin. The back story is that I had a property management company taking care of the single family property but I was notified about issues with the home and or tenant. So a few months after the tenant moved in there was water in the lower level of the house which had a bedroom and family room, about 255 sq ft of the 1750 sq ft home. I went back and forth with the PM company for a month troubleshooting some possible issues before getting a foundation company in there. Turns out there needed to be some drain tile installed. After we found out about the drain tile, about two weeks later then tenant had bedbugs in the property. We were told to not have anyone in the property until that was taken care of. That took 2.5 months before the house was safe again. Once we got the go ahead I scheduled the foundation company to come in and take care of the work. They came in and did the work almost 2 months later and it took about a month to get the areas back in order, new carpet and baseboards back on. The tenant then moved out a month early and abandoned the property. After cleaning the property and getting it back in order we used all of their deposit plus a little over 2K. We sent the 2K they owed to collections. Then a little over two months later the property management company and I are being sued for a little over 8K. They want half of their rent back for the months the work was being done on the two rooms. They want 2K for grievance. And they want us to pay for half of their bed bug treatment. I don't think most or any of this will stand in court. We tried to move forward on the basement work as fast as we could. We were never dragging our feet. The bed bug issue we proved was the tenants that brought them in because we lived in the property before and had our new house tested and we did NOT have bed bugs so they would have had to bring them in. And grievance I don't believe is a thing with rentals, correct? This would be the first time I would be going to a trial. Is small claims that difficult that I can't represent myself or should I lawyer up? I had one go to the initial appearance since we live out of state. Or do I see if they will drop their claim if we drop the counter claim for the 2K? I would entertain this just to save me time and money.

Originally posted by @Ryley Marble:

Originally posted by @Ryan Behnke:

@Elenis Camargo These are for sure possible. I'm doing one with a local bank and they are lending up to 75% appraised value. I did have to call around to several banks though. Most banks would only to a HELOC if I carried the first mortgage on the property with them. Also the bank that I am currently doing the HELOC will do up to 100% if its owner occupied.

They are out there you just have to look. If one bank turns me down I then ask if they know who might and they give me a name or two to call.  

And even if you find a bank that will make sure to keep calling to see if there are others and what their terms are.

Ryan, who are you using to get 100% LTV? You can just throw that out there and leave us hanging..haha.

 Huntington Bank. Again it has to be owner occupied. 

@Sonnie Irons Welcome to BP! I recently moved to Cincinnati in July. I have house hacked my past 3 properties. You sound like you have things in order. It would be good to at least talk to a lawyer and CPA do determine if you need them now or later. Leases are fairly easy to read over and understand on your own. Setting up an LLC depends on what assets you currently have. If its one property and that's the majority of your wealth then it might be a waste setting up an LLC right away. Also if you want to buy the property as the LLC vs you, the bank might not give you the best financing. Also when you look for a CPA make sure they are investors as well.

If you have questions I would be glad to help. I have had rentals for the past 15 years.

Those pictures look amazing! Great work! You sure have an eye for what something could be.

@Elenis Camargo These are for sure possible. I'm doing one with a local bank and they are lending up to 75% appraised value. I did have to call around to several banks though. Most banks would only to a HELOC if I carried the first mortgage on the property with them. Also the bank that I am currently doing the HELOC will do up to 100% if its owner occupied.

They are out there you just have to look. If one bank turns me down I then ask if they know who might and they give me a name or two to call.  

And even if you find a bank that will make sure to keep calling to see if there are others and what their terms are.

Thank you everyone for your feedback! There are many thoughts and ideas in this thread. I like the discussion it started.

From what I see $100 a door isn't a must but more a variable into an equation and sometimes not even part of the equation.

- Depending if you are a cash buyer or financing that variable could be different.

- Depending if your goal is monthly cash flow or equity that variable could be different.

- Depending on the area of the of the world you are investing in that variable could be different.

- Depending on the class type of property that variable could be different.

@Thomas S. I like it! Thanks for the input!