All Forum Posts by: Sean McKee

Inspection schedule starts today. Full interior inspections with 10 photographs every four months. Under sinks, tub area, trash, each room from door and right side.

"I will be having a property inspector on: June 1, 2023 at x time. This is my usual and customary quarterly inspection. " 

Get your realtor, lender, insurance agent to recommend the person to go take cell phone photos and keep it to ten minutes.

Document condition, how she disposes trash, any health or safety hazards you repair before she complains.

Get in front of this and be the perfect tidy landlord. Do not use her unprofessional language. Stop the text messages inform her to email you and respond fast to emails and nothing to text. Block her text if you must. Have the email tied to your phone so you can respond in 10 hours. Get the emotion out of your business. 

You should have called prior landlord BEFORE leasing. Now you follow the law, be a perfect gentleman, and collect rent on time.

I entered into a one year lease with 4 tenants (jointly & severally, and collectively referred to as "Tenant"). The Lease requires Tenant to carry a renter’s insurance policy covering Tenant’s household goods, personal property and personal affects in an amount not less than $10,000.00 and liability insurance coverage in an amount of at least $250,000.00 naming Landlord as an Additional Insured. Should I require that each of the 4 tenants obtain such a policy, or would one single policy cover any claims arising from "Tenant's" acts? 

I'm mainly concerned about liability. If Tenant #1 carries the policy, and a guest of Tenant #3 hurts themselves on the property, would the policy apply? 

Pet was not lease and dog has damaged dry wall, doors, door trim and carpet. The lease says $300 violation and daily $10 for voilation. How can i charge the tenant?

 That does put it into perspective truly, but for a newbie on my first deal It's not very clear whether I'm headed the right way or if this is a train wreck I should jump from. My husband helped me set up a simple spreadsheet of the finances and it looks like it's working. This might boil down to me not keeping proper track of the finances rather than the performance of the building itself. I just got notice that the leases are renewing with an extra $50 each so the income will be $3300 now, against a mortgage payment of $2400. Everything in the middle seems what I'm not keeping good track off.

I now have to make roof repairs urgently because there's some cracks in the ceiling, water is coming in and we're just starting the mega raining season. I have more than enough available credit to finance that, the hope is that indeed month after month I have cashflow available to make a dent on the whole thing afterwards, which again on paper it looks like I do, but when it comes to the numbers in my accounts they always look way worse.

Good Morning,

I’ve contacted the county of Dallas which I live In Dallas Tx an emailed to get the water shut off list an were denied

Can or Is anyone willing to assist me on how I need to ask or how to utilize the Public Information Act To My Advantage 

Any Help Would Be Greatly Appreciated 

In our area we often have Multi Family properties that have been converted from larger single family homes to Multi family homes at some point. These conversions were often done many decades ago. We also have "Built-as" Multifamily (mostly duplexes). These built as multi family properties were usually built after 1960 and have a basement, garages, central air, and a more modern layout. Some newer (1980+) even have an extra bathroom and a balcony as added amenities. 

Having bought BOTH "Built-as" and converted multi family, I can safely say that I will always prefer Built as MF. Besides utility issues with converted properties, these converted older homes tend to have layouts that just don't make sense, feel cramped, and in need of reframing to make them feel more "modern." Even after this type of work, this layout is just harder to work with. With what I had, I did the best I could and really improved the feel of the units.

All of my properties are equally renovated but I found out something very interesting when it came time to showing the units to potential tenants. I found that Built As MF were much easier to rent to higher quality tenants, and I could demand more in rent. 

For example, my Converted Multi Family 2 Bed unit has about 900sqft of living space, in unit washer/dryer, private deck, access to backyard, walk in closet, bedroom office suite, enormous granite kitchen island, 42 inch cabinets, and basement storage - rents for 1400/M. I had it up for $1475, and my current tenants negotiated it down. 

On the contrary, my Built As Multi Family 2 bed unit, has about 980sqft of living space, basement washer/dryer, balcony, no backyard, walk in closet, garage, basement storage, driveway parking - rents for $1700/M. I had it up for this amount and had multiple applicants to choose from. 

I quickly found out that layout is very important to people, and they would even sacrifice a certain location or some amenities in order to have a better "feel." People don't want to feel cramped. They don't want to do their laundry in the living room, or worse the kitchen. Modern layouts make more sense and attract better quality tenants. Quality tenants are looking for quality units. A strange layout and slanted ceilings can deter good tenants. 

Hope this helps!

Hello, all!

I bought two duplexes in 2022.  They are my very first rental properties and I'm very excited to keep moving.

On the second one I bought, I was told that there is only one HVAC system for the two units, and it's only controlled on one side.  So I went to an HVAC company this week to ask for a quote to put some dampers on.  They informed me they cannot do that, or even work on the current system because it is out of code.  Each unit needs its own HVAC system.  So, now instead of buying dampers, I have to buy an additional furnace and AC unit.

What can I do in a situation like this?  Like I said, it was disclosed that there is only one, but it was not disclosed that it is a code violation.  Neither the seller, the two realtors, nor the home inspector told me it was a code violation.  What do you recommend?  Should I contact an attorney?

Thanks for your help!

Hey team,

I'm 26 y/o and very new to RE investing. I'm exploring the possibility of house-hacking in the Chicago area. I have a Property Analysis spreadsheet that was shared with me by a friend. As I evaluate different options here, I wanted to ask - what are fair vacancy and ongoing capex rates to account for in my analysis? 

I currently have 8% for vacancy and 5% for ongoing capex. Are these fair estimates?

Similarly, if anyone is open to connecting with a stranger, I'd love the opportunity to hear from someone who's already house-hacked a property in the area and hear their story (and advice). 

Thanks!

Hi, all...

I have a tenant who's had repeated complaints from neighboring tenants about loud arguing, yelling, screaming profanities, etc. I responded several times and that issue seems to have subsided. I recently had cameras installed in my common areas...the tenant turned them around! One more complaint came in yesterday from another tenant who smelled cigarette smoke in the common area. A review of the video clearly shows the tenant leaving the apartment with a cigarette in the mouth. 

Her lease is up in 60 days. Can I get the tenant out sooner? I could use recommendations on giving a three-day notice or letting the lease expire at the end of April.

Thoughts?