All Forum Posts by: Shelley F.

Im originally from Kalispell and bought my first investment property there in 1974...for a whopping 6k! A few years later bought a house on a double lot in Whitefish for 23,500. Out of curiosity I looked the Whitefish house up , its worth over ten times what I paid for it, and the extra lot was sold off to pay for my college education way back then. If I were starting over up there I would look into a duplex, live one side, rent the other. Best of luck to you! Sure is a beautiful place!

Adding to the above...my concern would be...the co worker in need moves in with her kids...your original tenant is okay with all that and pays on time...until she doesnt (or cant as she is likely supporting the other folks) and then that original tenant moves on, and  what do you have then? the same situation the co worker was in before. 

Just my hunch. could be wrong. But Ive been there done that too

I asked a friend who is the chaplain for the sheriff office and his son is the sheriff, he will pick them up and give a proper disposal if they cant find the family. 

oops...key stuck on 'e'  wont let me edit. sorry!

Seems Ive seen this topic on here before, never thought it would happen to me. Tenants left, place not trashed, but lots of "stuff' left behind. They frequently went to storage auctions and then sold stuff. Cleaning up we found a pretty gold box..with cremated remains inside. I contacted tenant and they said they have no idea who it might be...whats the right way to deal with this? 

Seriously..look into the price of this used stuff..If they left you a useable stove and fridge and removed the washer dryer.....they probably saved you the hassle of moving them yourself. Are you planning to provide a washer dryer in the unit? Then get one that you can depend on.

I would let this one go....Its probably not worth your time to try to prove anything in small claims court. From now on dont supply a washer/dryer. 

I should add that the one time I did supply them for a tenant they were a 'gift' from a friend trying to clean out a storage unit. I provided them as a 'courtesy' for that one tenant and specified that I would not repair them if needed. Two years later they did need repairs and tenant decided to junk them and buy her own.

The other concept is 'skin in the game' ...whoever the owner of this property might be has already a lot of 'skin in the game'. The property management company, as others have pointed out, likely is not the owner and wont be making sales decisions for them.  Sellers carrying notes, and lenders of all sorts, look to YOU to have some sort of involvement financially (skin in the game). You need to figure out how to structure that or they will just move on.

I recently added a vintage home, a HUGE one, to my inventory........already have a very qualified tenant. State of California. I was looking at old issues of magazines before bed and in my dreams went through each and every room of this big old house picking out paint etc. Woke up exhausted.

Ive been through this too...it never goes totally away. Once I decided that I had my best ideas come to me in the middle of the night so decided to write them down immediately to review later. When I looked at them the next day they were all gibberish...