All Forum Posts by: Scott Menkes

I am also letting my tenant out of her lease early bc of a rodent issue. From the first day she alerted me of am issue i had my professional pest control out there. They tried everything traps ,poison . Nothing seemed to work she is deathly afraid of mice so she went to live somewhere else till the issue was solved but to no avail the rodent is still in her apt. I fired my pest control and hired a new company. Let's see what they can do. But the tenant told me yesterday she just wants out of her lease. I agreed. My question she doesn't want breaking the lease to look like she's a bad tenant and wanted me to write a letter stating she was a good tenant basically a reference letter. Should I do this my husband says no that she need to write a letter giving us notice and why she's breaking the lease. If a prospective landlord needs a reference they can call me. Is this the right way ?

I am analyzing another SFR in my area (Virginia Beach) that is an REO listed on the MLS that my realtor showed me. We would look at this property as either a flip (primary objective) or a buy and hold (back up plan). Some specifics: 3/2 ranch listed at 117K, with about 25K in repairs needed. ARV is between 175K to 190K (i am working with the Realtor to help better define). On the surface the property is very close to the 70% rule for a flip at the low end of the ARV and is close to the 1% rule for buy and hold for the all in of 117K plus 25K. However the expectation is that there will be multiply offers and could drive the price to 130K which than gets us outside the thumb rules which is why it is important to nail down the ARV.

I think our MOV could be 127,000 based on 80% of the max ARV (190K) minus the 25K in repairs. If the ARV is achievable we could walk away with 17-20K in profit after all is said and done.

The back up plan of buy and hold becomes less attractive and falls below the 1% rule 127K + 25K = 152,000.  We think the rent would be 1300 per month. 

Do we make an offer or keep looking?  Is the MOV of 127K too risky?  Should we be looking for deals else where such as finding a wholesaler in the VB area (which leads to our next series of questions of finding an experienced wholesaler in this area).

Not sure if this a good format for asking these questions but I look forward to the feedback from the knowledgeable community that is BP. 

I just discovered my SFR also has a foundation issue that was not identified during the home inspection two years ago. Does anyone have a recommendation on who they have used in the Hampton Roads area for these types of repairs? I called one of the big guys (JES Foundations) in the area and have an appointment Thursday but I would like to get additional estimates.

@Account Closed 

Thank you Wendy!!

@ dawn anastasi The property manager is also a realtor and will be working on both leasing and potential sale of the property.  We will evaluate both to see what is in our best interest.  Thanks for the reply.

Thanks all for the replies. This particular house I would consider is in a "bad" neighborhood. It is Craddock in Portsmouth, VA however I agree with @ dick Rosen in that everyone has to live some ware. @John Blackman - the PM we met today is familiar with the neighborhood and she gave us some great insight today including what @ dick Rosen also said about making it look nicer than the neighbors. She used the term make it cute again and I think that is our goal which will work with which ever direction we go. I agree with what everyone is saying about proper screening of the tenants, unfortunetally even though i read and heard this over and over I had to learn it the old fashion way.

I think the question is rethorical but maybe I am not thinking clearly. We bought an REO SFR two years ago and only had to put in a few thousand dollars to get it rent ready. The house sat unrented for about six months until we got our first tenant, then we evicted our first tenant within about six months and fired our property manager and then we rinsed and repeated and after many months of vacancy followed by many months of unpaid rent we just evicted our second tenant and fired the second property manager. Had a meet and greet with a new property manager who we met at the property just a couple days after this last eviction. The property needs a lot more work to make it rentable or sellable but we can't get started until we kill the fleas (just the first of many things that needs fixing). I estimate about 5k in needed repairs to make it rentable. If I had to do over I would not have bought in this neighborhood but I feel like I have to continue to throw money at this property before I can collect income or sell. If nothing else I feel like I am paying for an education and I have a good feeling about working with this new property manager.

I kind of feel like one of the dumb investors headlined in today's newsletter "How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Investors". 

 Thanks Christian, we were members last year but it is time to reengage and start attending the meetings again.  It definitely help get the couple of properties that we do have.  I see the meetings moved over to Holiday Inn from the Double Tree where we were attending.