All Forum Posts by: Tariq B.

Pam Harrison:

301-343-2918

[email protected]

Investor Friendly, we have done 3 deals together

So I have been using the same property manager for almost 2 years now on one property I have a few states over from me. From the get go it was a rocky relationship. They did work to the house without my consent, and blamed it on email not getting to me so they assumed it was OK (needless to say words were exchanged, they paid half).

I am more on the Laissez-faire style of management when it comes to my management skills being at work or in business. It has worked out well for me, granted there comes a time when one needs to step in.

There has come a time when I have felt I needed to say "let's not forget who is working for who here now." Lets just say their professionalism is sub par and there communication never even makes it to the tee. (see what I did there?) I have to go to them to see what the updates are, instead of them letting me know first hand.

I have stayed because one, their turn over fee is cheap $150 and two, they charge 8% of monthly rent.

What almost put me over the edge with this company was a tenant left half way through the lease, they didn't even bother to tell me why. Just that he had put in a notice. I didn't even question it, I had just rented out another place and was aggressively looking for another property (which is under contract now). A little voice in my head told me to give it time see how it plays out. 

I sent them an email asking for an update. "Oh,we have had quite the traffic we even have someone interested who is an insurance relocation, they will pay 200 dollars more but it is only a 6 month lease...don't worry though you will come out on top with the extra 200" This really got to me (in a bad way) I didn't even write back. Again the voice in my head you had a plan stick it to (got that mentality from trading stocks) 

Needless to say, that didn't happen. I stepped in again. They had the price listed to high, so I sent them an email, telling them to lower the price. Which they did but they didn't notify me of receiving the email and taking action. 

Again the ideas of how I would draft up the FIRE email ran through my head. Also, who else would I get to do the job. Another deciding factor.

Few days went by, I checked the website and to my surprise it showed that someone had put in an application. I waited again a few days.

I again asked for a update. Then I got the email every landlord wants to hear. "We have your place re-rented they moved in yesterday on a one year lease for $40 dollars more then the previous tenant." 

Which is amazing because the other tenant moved out 4 days ago and they moved in yesterday so there was a total of 3 day turn over, which I have never even heard of. I was preparing for a month or two of vacancy and I got 3 days #winning. 

So with that all said I the PM is slightly off the chopping block. But it's interesting how if I had acted irrational I may have had the place vacant for a while. Because I would of had to fire them then get a new PM to take over

I suppose the moral of this story is:

Weigh your pros and cons

Try not to panic and think rationally

Step in when needed (it is your business) if you don't feel something is right inquire

Know your market, they have the title of property manager, but that doesn't mean you have to take their word on everything, in this case it helped because I told them to drop the price. 

Not sure if there was anything to take from this, but I hope you may of took something from my experience 

Thanks for reading!

I will second @Christian Hutchinson comment on PMI it is a pain, because it can really cut into your bottom line. It lasts 5 years but I think the guidlines have changed, since I bought my first property a little over 2 years ago. I am too AD, I am in the USAF though.

 How I started out was renting rooms.

I delibertly wanted to save my VA loan for a more expensive purchase, so I opted to use the FHA loan since I knew I would have orders coming down the pipe line to PCS soon. So I keep the VA loan in my back pocket for that event. Anways I used the FHA loan for a 3 bed 2 bath house In Oklahoma. I stayed in one room while renting outt he other rooms for $500 a piece to military memebers (knew they were going to pay). So I banked my BAH everymonth, living for free and some.

I then PCSed to Maryland, I love close to Baltimore and the market is AMAZING, 2 years after buying my first house I am now under contract for my 4th house.

 This will be the second house I have paid cash for.

 I am able to do that because the houses out here sale so cheap it's unbelievable. For example, bought a town home back in september for $29,000 and rent it out for $1,200 a month. I have one under conract right now that I bought for $17,500 it is rent ready and would get about $900 right now easy, after I put a little updates into I will get over $1000.

There is money to be made everywhere, just keep pushing. By your pervious posts I don't think you will have a problem with that. One thing to mention though. TRY your best to stay humble, people pick up on that more then you realize.

 I grant a lot of my sucess to trying to stay humble and remembering the nights where we didn't have food on the table. It helps a lot. No one likes a cocky person. Ride the line between confident and cocky, but becareful not to step over that line. If you have any questions, reach out. Good Luck!

Tariq

Thank you for the positive vibes! @bill gulley sorry if I made it confusing, but I'm not an agent just yet. I'm on the fence on getting my license or not.

Just received word that the offer has been signed and I am under contract. This marks the 4th property in just over 2 years.

So I have been going back and forth on getting my license simply because using an agent seemed redundant especially since I was the one finding properties, she would never send me potential places. BUT she came through this time. She told me that she had someone come to her wanting to list a house. To make a long story short. The person needed to go into a nursing home and medicare was forcing them to sale their house. Medicare wanted them to sale it for 55k but my agent told them along with another agent that it wouldn't sale for that much and then got the permission to list it for 20k. She told me that she wouldn't list it till I came by and checked it out. So the same day she got the keys I stopped by. The house was in very good shape. All cosmetic by the looks of it. The plumping had been updated, as well as the electrical but the icing on the cake was a brand new central AC unit which had been put in a few years prior, which is really really hard to come by in my area of investment.

The daughter who had power of atoney was there along with her husband, when I stopped by. 

I made certain to follow the usual psychological factors that help in business. Firm handshake for men, soft for woman. Give a nice warm smile AND ALWAYS remember their name it makes for a good impression on the way out. THEY WILL remember you if you leave the place with again a handshake, a smile and statement ex; "it was so nice of you to let me see this house I see lots of potential here. Thank you again Robin." (you can notice the reaction in a persons face when you use their name, it's quite interesting to pay attention to.)

Needless to say I left the property me and the agent along with her husband (also an agent) stood on the corner of the street, while I contemplated in my head what I wanted to do. They told me to blurt out a number. I didn't want to because I thought the number I had in mind was to low for what I was going to get. Regardless I said it....I want to do $17,500. They sort of chuckled and laughed. I stood my ground (because now I thought to myself that may be too little and an insult,by their reaction) I said yes, $17,500 no contingencies all cash.

They said they will see what they will say.

15 minutes later, I received a text.

They accepted your offer of $17,500....Such a great feeling!

Just about any entry is good entry, if that appeals to you then go for it. But keep in mind you may not get the property for years (depending on the area) or you may never get it because they pay you back. The first step is to take that first step. So get your feet wet, doesn't matter what pond you dip them in as long as you dip them and get them wet. 

Update:

So I rescinded my offer, then today I noticed they had dropped the price to $11,900. Quite interesting since they didn't want to accept $14,000 just a few days before that. However I'm pressing forward with another property so I will leave this one to others. But if I was still interested I would offer full price and press forward. Gotta love bank owned properties and the logic.

So over the last month I have been dealing with nothing but homepath properties because the house they have work well with my strategy, but man it has been a headache! I have put offers on 3 places no dice. Finally I put a offer on one, $900 off list price, inspection clause, close asap.  

They took over 2 weeks to respond to me....counter offer full list price and no inspection.

What would you do in this situation?

I'm going to go to the place right now contemplate everything I need to do to it money wise, I was thinking of countering back with giving them what they want but asking for money towards closing...what do you thing?

On the last property I bought with finance I was able to lock in then do a "re-check" on the current market rate a few days before closing. The agent told me she could only do this once and had to check into it, but we made it happen. Check into that as well 

If you signed a contract with them. Then a few weeks later you decided to buy with someone else (that's how I interrupted the post) then she very may well have a case, as posted above. Usually they go for 6 months but it really depends on the brokerage. You could just cancel the deal and wait it out ;)