All Forum Posts by: Ryan Nastase

Hello BiggerPockets Experts!

I have just put a SFH under contract. The owners are brother and sister and they inherited the paid-off home from a parent that just passed away. The sister is currently living in the property but does not have another place to live once we close in 40-days. Upon close, she will get around $80,000 but she has no money and little income to find a property in the meantime. I worry that if I let her lease the property after close, she may not pay and the eviction process right now, is quite challenging. Here are the options I see.

Option 1: Let her lease the property after we close for a month or two and hope she pays rent and vacates.

Option 2: Give her a loan now to find a property and require funds due at closing.  Can I put a lien on the property to protect myself if the property doesn't close?

Option 3: Do nothing and hope it closes with her moved out.

Do you see any better options? What do you recommend?

Thanks in advance for your expertise. 

V/R,

Ryan Nastase

I am 32 years old. I bought my first SFH two months ago. I am under contract on my second. My strategy is two-fold. First, purchase SFH and then rent them out with lease options. Second, purchase SFH in areas that I expect higher appreciation rates and hold long-term. I am doing a cash-out refi right now and plan on purchasing 2 more this year, then 4 next year. In 10 years I plan on having at least 30 SFHs (20 lease options and 10 long-term hold).

@Daniel Kelley that’s what I did as well. The obvious pros to Avail over Cozy is the layout, ease of use, lease creator, and syndication. The advantage of Cozy over Avail is the cheaper cost of running all the background checks. I talked to Avail an they are currently developing a phone app too which will be nice. 

@Daniel Kelley I use Avail.co. It is an excellent website that allows you to syndicate your advertising, screen tenants, collect rent, and receive maintenance requests. It’s free or for $5/mo per unit you get expedited transactions and a web portal among some other benefits. I just started land lording and this platform has been a big part of my system.

I am getting ready to close on my first rental property and am shopping around for the best self-management platform. So far the two I have found that stand out above the crowd are Avail and Cozy.  I really like Avail because it is very well designed and advertises on many websites.  However, I dislike the higher than normal tenant screening fee of $55.  I like Cozy because it has a more moderate priced screening fee and allows for no partial rent payments.  I dislike Cozy because it is harder to navigate than Avail in my opinion.

If you have experience with one of these sites, what is your opinion of it? Also, what is your marketing approach in addition to the limited number of sites these platforms share with (ie Links to Craigslist, MLS, etc)?

Thanks in advance!

Ryan