All Forum Posts by: Stephen G.

With the difference in cost between reglazing and replacing, I would honestly just replace it. I had an issue with an old tub from the fifties that had been previously reglazed. I decided to sand some of the glazing off and reglaze it. About 2 to 3 minutes into the process, I decided to run a lead test to see if the previous glazing was lead based... Turned out that the tub itself was lead ceramic! In the end i decided to replace it (obviously). there's not much of a difference in labor between sitting there and sanding and reglazing it, and just replacing it. Plus it will save you the possibility of running into a nightmare like I did..

my buddy owns his own painting company, and it took him almost three coats to get rid of the olive colored tint from his old tub. it cost him a hundred fifty bucks in glaze, and my guess is that it will cost you about the same to get rid of the blue. It only cost me 275 to replace my tub (after tax and including a new overflow drain!), to me it's a no brainer...

I agree with Douglas. ULI has some great books with a ton of relevant information. I purchased a few on Amazon and they are extremely in depth and to the point. Im looking more towards the commercial side of development, however you may find "Professional Real Estate Development" and "Real Estate Development - Principles and Process" by the Urban Land Institute extremely helpful. Good luck!

@Ravi Dehar 

Cozy sounds great, and I personally believe that the ability for landlords and property mangers to offer electronic transactions will become crucial with the new Millennial Generation. Think about it - a lot of Millennials (myself included) do not carry cash. Plastic/electronic transfer is the preferred method of payment in today's society.

Now my questions:

What if we charge our tenants other fees? (e.g. parking fees, excessive garbage fees, or penalties incurred by landlord from the Town due to tenants negligence such as failing to shovel the sidewalk, etc.) Does Cozy allow us to collect on these other fees electronically? It doesn't necessarily have to be a "late fee". 

And what if we raise the rent after a years time? How easily are we able to "edit" the payment requests?

Thanks

Its unfortunate that Sparkrent is no more. I was considering using the service a while ago, however I never bothered since I didn't have a large rental portfolio. 

Now that I'm about to add more rentals, I found out that Sparkrent is no longer. Such is life...

I was looking at Buildium but I know that they charge a good amount of user fees. 

Anyone here ever use TenantCloud (formerly Evaproperty)? If so, what are you thoughts on it?

@Shawn Torsitano I required the eviction as a contingency of sale in the contract. The previous owner had to evict the tenants so, in essence, I didn't have to bother with it. And if they decided to trash the place because they were upset about it, it would have been up to the previous owner to remedy the mess.

One thing I should add:

The current tenants were under rental agreements (month-to-month) and not leases. This made it easier for the owner to remove them, provided that they didn't want to bother fighting the "eviction". 

I'm not sure how things would have played out had there been leases in place instead. Then it may have been decided differently, or it may have depended on if their was some kind of "transfer of ownership clause" in the lease itself... Maybe one of the other BP members can give you better direction in the event that a lease is the dominating factor in your situation.

-Steve

I occupy the rental I own, but unfortunately I had to let one of the families go before I could move in...

But lets look back at the full scenario...

I was literally looking at dozens of properties before finding the one I eventually moved into. And almost every property I looked at was 100% occupied. There was one duplex in particular that was almost completely turn-key and I could have moved in and not had to worry about a thing. But morally I felt like I had to let it go since the upper unit was being rented to a father and his kids, while the lower was occupied by his parents. Kicking one out would have meant that they both would have left, and at the time I felt that just the thought of this would have kept me up at night...

But after thinking to myself that I may eventually have to remove someone from the equation anyway, the very next property I viewed I decided to grow thicker skin.

I ended up evicting a family that had no security deposit on record (because what is a tenant if you have no leverage over them?) So they left and I moved in a month later.

Well, I bet you would have loved to see the look on my face when I found out they moved into the apartment right next door!! 

Anyway, he ended up coming up to me and thanking me because his family was able to rent a larger unit from my neighbor, and had I not made them leave, they would not even have considered a larger apt.

So in the end, it worked out for everyone - almost...

In reality, he also thanked me because he was hoping to buy the property that I bought. But after seeing all the work I put into it, he said I saved him from purchasing a headache.

And he was right.

But had I set my morals aside for a moment, I could have evicted the tenants from the previous "turn-key condition" property and moved in without lifting a finger to fix up the place. 

So in the end, maybe nice guys do finish last. 

From my personal experience, I'd say evict the worst tenant on the premises and move in (if it happens to be a property you really, really want). Don't just settle because you had too big of a heart to kick someone out... 

I drive a 2008 Ford F-150. Its great for hauling supplies for my various projects at my rental prop. As far as payments go, my monthly mileage reimbursements from my company just covers the payment. However, I wouldn't say I break even with all the upkeep and maintenance needed every so often. But its as close to a "free" vehicle as you could get (without winning a raffle)...

Dear fellow investors,

Need some help with this one....

I just spoke with my mortgage broker regarding financing terms for a fourplex which I plan to occupy (as the owner). It was my hope that I could acquire the property with a 95% LTV conventional mortgage, which would save me a large down-payment requirement and qualify me for even lower interest rates.

At first, she agreed that this could absolutely be done. However, she decided (to her credit) to do a quick search of the mortgage regs just to be certain. Here is what she came up with:

• Owner occupied single units (SFH) could be purchased with a 95% LTV
• Owner occupied doubles required an 85% LTV
• AND owner occupied three and four unit properties required a 25% down-payment (minimum)...

Though this is slightly discouraging, she admitted that these regulations seemed rather stringent and said she would do more research and get back to me in the next few days. I'm hoping that she'll find another product that would allow this purchase to go through with a 95% LTV - or maybe I'm dreaming???

So, I'm open to any suggestions or recommendations on mortgage products that would allow me to purchase this property as an owner occupant with a 95% LTV. I'd even settle for an FHA mortgage if need be (since the property is in immaculate condition).

Any suggestions?

Or are the regs that she referred to the new norm in the wake of the housing bust???

Thanks for the help as it is greatly appreciated!

In talking with fellow investors that have SOLD their properties in this fashion, I was given one piece of advice (although I am not sure of the legalities behind this method). As a seller, it was suggested to me to file all the necessary paperwork, and and also have the buyer sign a copy of the deed back to me (as the seller). I'm not sure how legal this is, but it was suggested to me as a way to avoid a lengthy foreclose battle...

Anyone else know if this is an acceptable practice? Any downfalls? 

Please advise.