All Forum Posts by: Brad Larsen

Had multiple guys reach out to me on several projects. When I say email me your contractor license and insurance info, I never hear from them again. Am I off track? How are you ensuring folks are legit? 

I have a duplex in Texas that I want to move into one side of. It is currently rented out on a fixed term lease until Dec 31, 2023 but I want to move in before this. How much notice will I need to give my tenant and can I even do this? Thank you.

I've got a total 18 units in my personal name and plan on acquiring more. I'm a little behind the ball on this, but I decided I need an umbrella policy for protection. Each property has $500K in liability, but I have a sizeable net worth now and feel I need to be protect above $500k. However, I engaged a broker to find me a policy and they came back with a couple issues. First, I need to have either my home or auto with the insurer to get an umbrella with them (not a deal breaker, but not preferred), but I have too many units. Most underwriters had a limit of around 4 units, we found one that would take 16, but wouldn't insure me at all if I had more, not even 16 of the 18, I had to own less than 16. Does anyone know of an insurer that can do 18+. Preferably without switching home/auto, but I can if I need to. Or am I going about this the wrong way. I don't really want to form an LLC, as there is an extra tax in my state and that doesn't really solve the insurance problem.

Hi all, 

I am a new landlord and had some inherited tenants that left me with a mess to deal with and lots of unpaid rent. 

Long story short, I have fixed the apartment up nicely and looking to see how people market their units for rent and what process you take for the initial screening and background check. Is there a website you recommend for the background check, application, etc? I will appreciate any tips. Thank you in advance. 

A motivated seller called me today from one of my postcards. He immediately wanted me to give him an offer when I picked up the phone. I didn't get a chance to ask questions or anything. He got upset when I wanted to get more information about the house. He said I should have already have an offer ready. I sent out so many postcards I couldn't keep up with which addresses was which. That's why I asked for his address, so I can look into it to get more information. I have not even looked at these properties in person to know what I am making an offer on. All I have to go by is what I saw on Google Street Maps. And you know Google Maps photos can be misleading once you go see the house. How to deal with sellers who want offers right there on the spot before you can do further due diligence on the property? He was angry too.

I have applicants who can show income statements/proof of income, clean background and want to sign a year lease on my house but they are from Germany and moving to the US. So they don’t have credit history / report. I have never done this before and am a new landlord. Should I be cautious about this? They are willing to pay a very high rent for us that would be excellent for cash flow. 

Hi, currently manage 15 apartments across five buildings. I work a full-time job in advertising and have been property managing on the side. I was just requested to manage three large apartment buildings with a total of 120 units.

I use Buildium and so far have been able to manage it all by myself but as I start the scale, I am looking for a virtual assistant to help me handle incoming calls for maintenance, coordinate that maintenance and do some level of bookkeeping. I have scheduled a bunch of calls with different virtual assistant agencies, but I wanna know if anyone has had success with virtual assistants. Are there any agencies to avoid or ones that you would recommend?

Hi fellow real estate lovers! I need help figuring out whats the best way to collect rent in 2023. My 4 bedroom apartment unit is going to be complete in about 4 months and I want to know whats the best way to manage income in a way that I do not have to chase the tenant around? Any tips are much appreciated, much love!

Hello community, we are new to real estate investment. Have only owned this house in Texas for a year, and our tree fell (split in half, half on the roof, half in the street). Our property management company needed to get ASAP authorization from us to get someone in there to clean it up, so we gave them the thumbs up for the $3,300 clean up fee ;-(

Next comes the roof damage estimates, will get those in a few days. My question to you awesome people: Our homeowners insurance deductible is $5,000. If the room damage puts us over that threshold, should we still consider paying out of pocket to avoid them raising our rates next year? We had a very hard time getting insured this year, due to Texas being one of those states that apparently insurance companies aren't loving these days.  So I fear trying to save money by getting the insurance company to pay for this will mean we pay more in the years to come. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks, all.