All Forum Posts by: Shawn Peden

@Brad Clarizio Lots of good info it seems so far, I like the idea of refinancing and getting the equity back out of the properties to reinvest. That's what I have been planning for our goals, yet I have a long ways to go it seems before I get to that point. Wish I had your problem now!! I certainly wish you the best of luck in whatever you do decide to do and cant wait to hear about it.

@Account Closed thank you for your input. After reading Sue's comments, I actually thought about getting a second opinion. I had a lawyer recommended to me in the beginning that I had called, unfortunately he was on vacation. The lawyer that I went to I had used in the past years ago for an eviction. He's been in practice for many many years and is a real estate attorney and treated me right before, although it was an easy slam dunk case. To be fair to the lawyer I am using, he actually isn't charging me anything yet, and even said if it went to an ejection case he would refer me to someone else. So I don't believe he is after my money, but again, it never hurts to get a second opinion, so I will make some calls today.

As far as being a squatter, that is more my term than the lawyers, but he doesn't consider him a tenant because there is no landlord/tenant agreement, also the "tenant" even said yesterday when we spoke with him, that he was never living there, he was just fixing it up in return for purchasing the house, another turn of events. Clearly he is living there along with 4 or 5 other people that we have seen in there since this started.

I am certainly hoping Sue is correct and this will be another easy case and he will be gone in no time. Since we have so little into the place right now, I am not worried to much about it yet. We will see what happens.

Thanks @Alex Saleeby I certainly hope this doesn't turn into the nightmare will is having mentioned earlier. We actually have thought of calling local law enforcement to see if we can enforce trespassing or something. I certainly am going to try everything.

We did go over today to try and talk to him, someone else was there working on their vehicle that broke down (along with the other 6 that are sitting there) he said he would let him know and it actually does seem some of the vehicles are gone and some of the back yard is cleaned up. He then actually did call us and said he had to think about things. I asked about what and he said basically whether or not to get a lawyer cause he has lots invested in fixing the place up. He didn't have time to talk and is suppose to call tomorrow. We will see I guess.

@Charlie feid Welcome to BP!! 

This is a great place to learn all you need to know about investing in real estate and getting your questions answered. 

As far as your question goes if you run the numbers on the place you are investing in, your numbers should include maintenance and cap ex, as well as other things. Cash flow doesn't just mean what's left over after making the house payment, you have to account for your big ticket items that will eventually come up, like that roof repair, or that water heater. So you will have that $2000 cash flow plus the $500 you are putting away every month for when things happen. 

@mindy jensen we didn't really plan on replacing them, but we will be using the BRRRR strategy on this place, and we will have plenty of equity built in even if we have to replace all the windows, so if that's what happens and he gets out we will be happy with that. Thank-you for the link, I certainly hope this situation doesn't turn into a horror story like Will's!!

As far as holding up in court, there is no landlord-tenant agreement, so technically there is no one to evict which is why we would have to do an ejectmen not an eviction, now how would the judge rule if we went ahead and tried? That's anyone's guess, but I don't think my lawyer wants to try and fail with that route, he would rather go with the ejectment. That's how I understand things anyways, certainly not a lawyer, so just going off of my understanding of what my lawyer told me.

@Jd Martin the place is small 524 sq. Ft, 1bd 1bth, certainly is gonna need a lot of work, but we are into for $3500 of taxes and filing fees, the deal fell into our laps cause the owner was tired of dealing with the situation, so hopefully we are solving a problem for them. Either way it's our problem now though.

@Mike H we aren't really opposed to offering him more, but we have to talk to him again in order to negotiate with him. As we get closer to the end of the month, say a week out or so, we will start showing up way more often, maybe casing the place for hours on end everyday instead of stopping by once every other day. There has been someone there almost every time we've stopped by, just not him. So we leave a message to have him contact us and move on.

@Greg S. Thank-you for the advice, I will certainly check into this, I don't see how it could be determined habitable with no water, and no electricity and all the junk all over the place. I would think it would also be deemed a public nuisance.

I will keep everyone posted, we go back again today to see if we can catch him.

Welcome to BP Robert, you are certainly in the right place to learn, ask questions, get advice, and get motivated. Have you figured out where you want to get to, how your going to get there, and what your next steps are? I certainly wish you the best of luck and think your on the right track by just introducing yourself. 

So we have purchased a property that we feel will turn out to be a great deal, basically purchased for the back oweing taxes. Here is our first problem though, it's occupied by a "tenant" that supposedly had a verbal agreement with the previous owner that he would fix up the place in return for rent. Without making that story long, there is a difference in the owners story and the tenants story, however the fact is there is no tenant/landlord agreement so he is a squatter technically. We have already spoken with a lawyer and have put things in motion by presenting him with a vacate notice treating himas a tenant, but it probably won't hold up in court, we are just hoping to scare him out. If that doesn't work, the lawyer says we will have to go with an ejectment, which is very costly and time consuming. The next problem we are having is just trying to get ahold of him, he's a shady character who we are sure is a drug user of some sort and makes his living by stealing. Talking to the neighbors, they all can't wait for him to be gone and thanked us for buying the place. We have been on the premises at least half a dozen times in 2 weeks and only talked to him once. He has until the 30th of June to vacate and says he is trying, we have also offered to help him into a new place by giving $500 once we get the keys. He believes the windows he installed are his and he hasn't been paid for them so he's taking them, which we told him he needs to talk with the previous owner about payment, but we bought the place as is. We are trying to be as professional and accommodating as possible without letting him run all over us. So, one individual told us, we need to just walk on in, change the locks, let him call the police when he can't get back in, or to just post a 24 hour notice letting the occupants know that work will be started and then walk in and start taking down walls or whatever we are going to do because he's a professional tenant and knows how to play the game.

So what does everyone think? How would you handle the situation? The place needs a full remodel, possibly an addition to the house, so we aren't worried about to much more damage, however it's not what we want either. The house has no water turned on and electricty has been removed (wires actually cut) from the house, so it's unsafe and uninhabitable IMO.

Can't wait to hear your opinions and questions

Use rentometer.com, its free, put in address and bedroom count, and what you would ask for rent and it comes back with the medians and averages are in the surrounding area and where your asking rent compares. Fantastic free tool IMO. Knowing the area helps too, but it isn't absolutely necessary. Hope that helps. 

Hi Noel, try running numbers on this place and see what you come up with.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1...

hopefully that link works I seem to be having issues with posting. Tried 3 different browsers to get mentions to work with no success.

This place is actually in Cheney, just outside of Spokane, Let me know what you come up with.

There are alot more experienced investors out there than me by far so this is only my 2 cents,which is worth more like 1 cent,  but I think your vacancy rate is a little high. Of the 2 rentals I currently have, my vacancy rate has been less than 1%, but this is going to be due to many factors I believe, area, type of dwelling, actual rents, quality, etc.. the rest of your numbers looked good to me though, maybe a little off in taxes and insurance, but without actually knowing a specific property all you can do is estimate. Of the properties that I have been looking at recently, if I were to offer asking price, I have only been seeing cash flows  of less than $50 per door, but I am also looking to put very little down, like 3.5%, which is certainly going to effect that number. All that being said, I do think you can do better than $10 a month cash flow. Good luck to you and let me know if there's anything I can help with in the future.