All Forum Posts by: Steve Shafer

Hi @Belinda Stoner, tough situation. Landlord/tenant law varies state-by-state, so I would recommend speaking with a local real estate attorney. This should also be spelled out in your lease, which, after this situation, you will likely want to update with more specificity to address this type of scenario. With that said, in my state (CO), you have 30 days if not specified in the Lease (which can instead state 60 days) from the end of the Lease to return the security deposit. As long as the Lease is in place, you do not need to return the security deposit, one of the reasons being, is that it can be applied to unpaid rent. Until the end of the lease or until you find a new tenant, you don't yet know what his final financial liability will be, and thus it is logical that you would retain the security deposit until then. Again, this is looking through the Colorado legal lens. I highly suggest you consult a local attorney. Best of luck.

I would say most come from Apartments.com and Zillow—hard to say exactly over the years, but probably 45/45 with those sites, and 10 from FB Marketplace. 

The above info is all in reference to my long term rentals. I've done mid-term as well, and for that, Zillow is nice because renters can filter by "furnished" — not sure if this is possible on apartments.com. The short/mid/long - term strategy is a continuum with stability/energy being directly correlated to income, in my experience. If your property is a good mid-term candidate, then it's just a matter of whether the extra effort is worth the extra income to you.

Bigger Pockets has a ton of resources on the process side of things to walk you through getting the unit ready, all the way into managing the property. It sounds like you're already managing one unit in the duplex? So don't be scared, you got this! 

Step 1— Read everything here that is relevant to your situation https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/property-management

Step 2 — List your property on Zillow, Apartments.com and Facebook Marketplace — that will give you exposure to 80%+ of the rental market 

Step 3 — Keep taking action on the scary things—they're not as scary as you think

Good luck!

It all depends on how robust it needs to be, but you probably can't beat the price for this one—just over $2,000 with sidewalls https://gettent.com/20-x-40-presto-series-pole-canopy-1-piec...

@Albert Johnson As much as possible, I try to vet tenants thoroughly to weed out people who may behave disruptively in my properties. Sometimes, these folks still slip through the cracks. When that happens, very clear and direct communication is required. Bring the accusations to the tenants on behalf of the other tenants, not with your own judgment, "Hey ____, I'm hearing that there are some issues at the property—speeding down the road, potentially folks living here who are not on the lease..." and just let them respond. Hopefully you have a lease that you can point to that spells out things like "quiet enjoyment" and no unauthorized persons living at the property for more than 2 weeks, for example. Frame it as, "This Lease exists so we all know what is expected of us, and what we can expect of each other. We all want the same thing—to enjoy our living situation and live in peace with our neighbors." Make it a collaborative problem to solve. You don't know at this point exactly what's going on, whether you just have an irritable tenant, or if the Lease is being violated. Clear, constructive communication should bring more facts to the surface that you can then work with. Tough situation, but these are the moments that make us better landlords and people in general! Good luck.

@Jenna Meditz I am currently using Apartments.com. They acquired another management tool I was using, so I was then migrated automatically. Their platform is robust enough for all basic landlord/tenant needs—rental advertising, screening, applications, rental payment, document storage, maintenance requests, etc.—and it's free. Apartments.com makes money by landlords paying to make their rental listings "premium" to get bumped up in search results. One tidbit to note—the two biggest online rental listing companies are Zillow and Co-Star (Apartments.com is owned by the latter). If you are posting a new property, make sure to post on both sites, which will then syndicate to 80%+ of listing sites. The third one I always list on is Facebook marketplace. Good luck!

Welcome, Jayson! 

@Max Lichtenstein Cap rate is just your net operating income (gross rents minus all of your expenses) divided by the value of the property. Cap rates change with the market, so in a strong Seller's market when everything is priced high relative to rents, cap rates will be lower, and vice versa. It takes a deeper dive to understand how exactly to think about and utilize cap rate data. 

Hi @Max Lichtenstein , great to hear that you're taking this big step.

Analyzing a property like this should be pretty simple and straightforward. Figure out all of your acquisition costs (down payment, closing costs, rehab, start up, etc.), all of your regular projected expenses (debt service, property mgmt, utilities, cap ex, vacancy), your projected income, and then use those numbers to figure out all of the metrics you've heard about—Cash on Cash return, Cap rate, cash flow. Do a lot of reading through forums on BP, watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts. What are your goals? How long do you plan to hold the property? Crunch these numbers, explore resources, ask these questions, and pretty soon you'll know what your criteria are and will be able to easily analyze, or underwrite, properties as they present themselves, so you can act quickly and confidently when the right one comes along. 

Hello @Will Harris !

You're looking for a rehab loan, either a 203(K) or a conventional product. 

Here's a good primer: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/...

Any good loan officer ought to be very familiar with how these work and can talk you through all of the guidelines and requirements. Never hurts to start with where you bank (unless it's one of those credit unions you mentioned having been unsuccessful with), and then compare rates and terms with a big national bank like a Chase or US. 

Good luck! Sounds like a cool opportunity to keep it in the family and give it some much needed attention.