All Forum Posts by: Shawn Stiteler

Hello, so I am selling my first rental. It is a duplex and I still have the two original tenants from when I purchased it. The one tenant has been behind since I purchased the property and has caught up a lot on her past rent (through Covid) and I have decided to put the property up for sale. My question is what happens to this dept (about $3,000) she still owes. I would like to know my options. I plan on waving it in exchange for her cooperation in keeping the place clean and available for showings. However, I’m not sure if I actually have any leverage other than just waving the dept when I sell. 

I am a relatively new landlord (1.5 years) and encountering my first major issue. I bought a duplex January 2021. The first floor unit had oil heat and I wanted to change it to gas. There was nothing wrong with the heater but it was old and I wanted to get a more efficient source of heat for the unit. I was already contracted to get the heater replaced, just waiting for parts and permit processes.

I guess to keep this short, my major issue is the heater that was in the unit just completely broke and can not be fixed and there is no way to fix it anytime soon. May even be 2 weeks. I brought over electric space heaters as soon as I knew it was dead. However tenant is saying it’s still too cold in the place.

I tried researching for what my options and obligations are but all I could find is lawyer forums for “when your landlord refuses to fix the heat”. And how it should be fixed in 24 hours or “reasonable amount of time”.

So what do you do when you can not fix the heat in a reasonable amount of time?

Hello Bigger Pockets family,

So I’m closing on a duplex on the 15th this month (January) and this will be the first time that I will be inheriting tenants. I’ve turned to my bigger pockets books and gone through everything I can find on the subject and it has answered most of my questions. However I’m still a little lost on a few details.

1. The existing tenants are on a month to month lease (defaulted to M2M after the 1 year expired. Do I need to do a whole new lease on the 1st of February? Or does this previous lease hold?

2. What do I do about the security deposits? One tenant doesn’t even have one, but the other does. So I would assume the landlord would just cut me a check for the exact amount and I would then deposit it into a new account and then give the tenant the paper trail and new bank info. But I could not find anything about that in the books I have and wanted to be sure.

3. What happens with January’s rent. My assumption is that we would just prorate the rent by days in January and the landlord would cut a check for that amount at time of closing, but again didn’t want to assume.

If there is anything else o should know I would greatly appreciate it. I am getting the existing tenants and landlord to fill out the estoppel agreement so thanks Brandon Turner for all your wisdom you have put in to pages! And thanks in advance to this amazing community for all the help over the last few years!

-Shawn Stiteler

Thank you all for the information. I figured there had to be some reason it was strongly recommended. I had not thought about the eviction or him just up and leaving. He has been great so far so let’s hope this goes smooth.

Hello Bigger Pockets Family,

I am a newer investor and have a question. I did my first BRRRR deal recently and got the place rented in July. The tenet was a single guy and had a great profile from all the screening. He is a disabled vet and gets full VA benefits and SS that is more than 3 times the rent and set up auto pay for rent on the 3rd of every month. He so far has kept the place in great condition, and has even spent about $500 on landscaping items to make the exterior even nicer. All in all an exceptional tenant and I feel very blessed to have him as my first tenant.

However here is the dilemma. During the screening process he mentioned that his niece would be staying at the house for the first few weeks to get him all settled in. However it’s been about four months now and the niece is practically living there. The tenant moved from New York to South Jersey, he claims he needs his niece to help do the shopping and cooking and such and that she only stays there about four or five days a week and spends the rest of her time in New York. I know from reading the books and generally following bigger pockets it’s important to have everyone who’s living there on the lease. When I asked them about adding the niece to the lease I got a lot of resistance stating that because she’s on a lease in New York she can’t be on the lease here. I don’t want to rock the boat and upset the tenant because everything has been great thus far. However I’m hoping to find out exactly why it’s so important to have the residences on the lease. The tenant clearly qualifies with income and everything else by himself. I just want to make sure I’m not missing some liability aspect.

Any advice would be great. Thank!

@Christopher B.

That’s a good question. I think I would be looking for some one who would want to keep the property long term. This would be for a long term but and hold investment (at least 5-10 years). That’s where the equity question comes in, at the sale or a cash out refi would you split the equity 50/50 or just pay them back there original loan amount (maybe with a set interest on top of that payback)?

Hi BP family!

So I’m looking to put together a deal that I’m working on. Pretty basic here, duplex for sale, price is $149,900, rent total for both sides is $2,200.

PITI is about $890 with a 20% down pay ($29,980).

My goal is to bring in a partner for the down pay, while I manage the property, and they just get to share in the cash flow. However, I have never done a partnership deal before and want it to be fair on both sides. So my question is what is a fair ROI for the silent partner?

$2,200

-35% (10R,10capx,5vac,10PM) -$770

-PITI (principal, interest, taxes, insurance)-$890

Cash flow-$540

/2=$270 (11%)

So is a 11% ROI a good deal all by it self?

Or would they need to share in the equity gain too?

Any advice or basic partnerships lay out would be of great help! Thanks all!

I assume there are no vacancies? I would think that this would be the ideal time of year to do turn over if you ever had to do a major one. If there was a vacancy you could always advertise it at your $850-950 and see what interest there was for it. I really do not have the experience with that. It probably has to be an all or nothing type deal, unless you are allowed to just not renew leases one at at time to test your theory.  

Hey guys, I saw this thread and it caught my eye. I am also a new investor, but I am located in South Jersey. I saw you guys mentioned it a few times. I have a pretty good pulse on the areas around me. I work at one of the largest exterior remodeling companies in the lower South Jersey area and run appointments all day in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland county almost everyday. We travel to almost all of South Jersey. So if you ever have any questions about specific areas in this neck of the woods feel free to ask. Best of luck in your property hunt!

I will add a small disclaimer. This was our very first time, so I can only share the one time experience. Hopefully some other more experienced investors can weigh in.