All Forum Posts by: Tariq B.

Hello All!

I write this post to hopefully give someone the strength to not give up and keep on going, even if you fail sometimes it's not the end you just need to look on the bright side of things and keep on pushing. Failing an inspection may not be a huge deal to some people but to me it is a huge deal because I do all the work myself, when a property fails, I feel as if I have failed. This post can be applied to all aspects of getting shot down and getting back up on your feet. Even if it helps just one person, then writing this was worth my time.

In my time as an investor I always run into people who solely will not do section 8 or stopped doing section 8 not because of the tenants, but because of the dreaded inspections. I always felt that was quite a silly reason not to take up the advantages of the program, until recently.

At the beginning of working with the program I had no problems passing, passed the first time every time. Lately however, I have failed 2 initials and 1 annual. It really started to grind on me. Failing an annual in my opinion is not nearly as bad as failing an initial, reason being is TIME. Some places do it different but in Baltimore you have to get the inspection done AFTER you have found a tenant not before and to boot it takes about two weeks for the inspector to come out once the voucher is turned in. For example: I had my future tenant turn in her voucher on the 22nd of June, I called up to see when they had scheduled it, they kicked back "looks like the inspection will be on July 8th".....uhhhh what??? Thankfully, I pressed on them and they magically appeared to pull an open date out of thing air, so they moved it to June 28th...much better. However, If you so happen to fail the inspection, it is again most likely going to be another two weeks. So as you can see that is over a whole months rent you may have had if you had not gone the section 8 route having to jump through the loops of the inspections. So I get where people can get frustrated.

Failing for things that are dangerous in nature I understand, but when there are things on the list like needs to replace toilet seat....needs to paint exterior door two different shades....needs to install CO detector on second floor (which there was) cut grass in back yard (he was referring to the grass outside my property line...) Bathroom door drags when opening (the wood expanded due to the heat)...I can again understand the frustration.

But I like to look on the bright side of things, and while the inspection process can be a PITA I do find that with every inspection I add more and more things to keep and eye on to pass the next one. 

Also I have found that the re-inspections are a joke. They only come in to look at the stuff they got you for in the initial, in and out in less then 3 minutes and some of the things they do not even check. I wonder sometimes if they write down petty stuff just so they have another inspection to come and get paid for.

Needless to say I did just pass the re-inspection, granted my scheduled time was from 9am to 11am the inspector did not show up to 11:47am which added salt to the wound but was subsided with the news of passing. 

Putting all the negativity aside (as I try to stay positive) I find that there can be pros to the inspections. It keeps me on my toes, it doesn't let me slip as far as standards go. I not only have to please a tenant I also have to please an inspector who knows some of the codes more or less. It keeps my values in check and helps me stay on track of not turning into a slum lord, because after doing a few of these low income proprieties I can see how it is a very easy pit to fall into. Why the inspections are annoying sometimes they are challenging and I never turn down a good challenge.

So the moral of this story is, that even if you are feeling down and at the moment you may feel like you have failed, you need to keep your head up and keep pressing on. No matter what happens in life there is always a positive to pull from a negative situation.

Now to wait for the housing authority to tell me what they are going to give me for rent!

Tariq

@Ned Carey Unless I am mistaken you have to pay the $30 every September regardless if the property is lead free or not. Cause if that's not the case then the city owes me money! lol

@Dan Fox Always use the premium version for gosection8. I have used it from the get go and tried it one time without. It is a night and day difference. 

Hey everyone sorry it took me so long to get back with the results. 

It was quite the adventure. 

I called up the tech immediately. Told her I was going to let my self in since she wouldn't be there her words "do what you have to do" so I get to the house just before the tech arrives and there is some guy I have never met before in the place. He asks me what I'm doing here I tell him I am the landlord blah blah blah. He informs me he is leaving soon and I can't stay...uhhhh...yes I can, tenant said it's okay. He argues with me and then proceeds to call her.

This is where it gets confusing...she tells me why am I doing this to her that she had told me to wait and we had an agreement that I would come another day, and that she doesn't want me there with out anyone else there. She actually seemed angry that I was trying to fix the issue immediately. 

Needless to say, I eventually got that guy out of my hair and convinced her that I needed to get in there and she should trust me, eventually she came around and said it was okay (again) for me to go in. 

Tech showed up...(it reminded me why I took it upon myself to do things myself) He was pretty much useless. Told me the wrong size for the filter and said that the thermostat was not working it was energizing wires it need to. (which technically was right, but I already knew that from the energy report by BGE) He told me go buy a new one and pop it in it will work.

Ran to Lowes put in a new one annnnnddddddd NOTHING still not working. *Banging head against wall* Come to find out it wasn't that the original thermostat was broken...it just wasn't programmed right but of course the tech didn't catch that and assumed it was just broken. 

So I went ahead and programmed it and the fan on the outside unit came on..such a good feeling.

The real kicker is the tech wanted $305 dollars to install a thermostat...outrageous.

 The bill was high due to the stat not being programmed right, which like a few people here guessed it was running on emergency heat. I have not seen the bill yet 3 times now she has failed to leave it when I have popped in. I told her we would talk about it when I pick up rent. So we will see how that goes. Thank you everyone!

right that's what I was thinking it is hard to rack up that much in one month. I will put more info later, I am waiting on the tech right now.

Have a fairly new tenant in. She told me she had a high bill about $800. So she had an energy audit done which was free, they told her the vents had leaks and the thermostat was wrong. 

So called the pro's in for this one to see what's really going on technician should be there soon.

She requested that I pay half of the bill since it was not her fault. I will probably help her out and pay the half or offer to do a few up dates to the place instead so my money goes to something instead of an electric bill.

But curious how other landlords would tackle this one.

I fix up properties by myself all the time. If I can do it you can. I never had a construction background just learned as I went along. Started small now can do a whole house.

I focus on D & C properties because of the cash flow. I do it for close to $1000 cash flow A DOOR I would never do it for $1000 for 8 doors, not worth the head aches.

Cash flow is absolutely not dead, I can assure you that.

@Account Closed Oh trust me I have, I will never turn down a conversation with someone who many years on me. I am fascinated with peoples stories/experience.

haha hey @Garrett Fulton, close enough. 

Nice man! Looks like we are at about the same numbers. I also started in Baltimore about 2 years ago as well. Nice to see young individuals going for it. I was hoping for a bigger response rate but one is better then none!