All Forum Posts by: Patrick L.

Any decent agent would have probably dropped you as a client already. If you want to run around putting in lowball offers that's fine, but as an FHA buyer with a low down payment you'll probably need to be at or above asking for a seller to deal with you. When I sell my rehabs FHA buyers to go the back of the line, I almost never accept FHA offers when I have similar conventional financing or cash offers. I'll take a few thousand less to avoid dealing with the FHA buyer and their loan.

There are ways to pitch a lowball offer but in your case it'll probably never work.   I get many of my low offers accepted but while they are low in price they are preferable with every other aspect.  If I'm coming in way low I'll do it with an all cash offer, large escrow deposit, short close date and a very short inspection period.    I'm offering the seller a quick guaranteed out.....what are you bringing to make anyone take your offer seriously?

 South St Pete isn't "filled" with bad tenants but many parts of St Pete south of central are pretty rough, especially until you get south of 26th Ave S.   There are areas you can drive through that most people wouldn't be willing to get out of the car.   That being said I own about 30 properties in the "south side" and I have some great tenants that have been with me for years, my average tenant stays 3.5 years.   It's an area that requires a hands on approach to managing and screening as well as careful purchasing because you really have to take it block by block....there are blocks where they sell drugs with impunity and there are blocks dominated by owner occupants that have been there for 30 years that won't let any of that crap happen in front of their houses.    

I own a lot of property in and around St Pete and while many areas of St Pete have been booming there are neighborhoods that are declining in the area too.   A lot of the low income folks have been priced out of the fringe neighborhoods in St Pete as those prices used to be low and have now shot up.   I've seen areas like Lealman really decline with an influx of bad tenants coming in and crime going up.   I'd lump in some parts of Pinellas Park into Lealman but the area you're talking about is a blue collar working class area that should be fairly stable for now but I wouldn't anticipate any big gains there.   It's also the type of area that can be hard hit with price corrections if rates tick up too much.   

You're talking about 2 units, you don't need an entire property management software package.  If you want to use anything just use an accounting program of your choice such as Quickbooks, but honestly you could track it all in a couple of excel sheets.  

Since you're in St Pete, the attorney that I use here in St Pete for my evictions has a lease available for purchase for $35 and he also provides other forms (3 day notice, 7 day notice, etc) for free.     Website is keithringlaw.com

There is definitely no reason to reinvent the wheel looking for an attorney to create a lease for you.  Unless you're looking for proper wording to add some very specific non-standard clauses to your lease just buy an already done one.   The Florida BAR also has a lease and other forms available.

 It's become very common for people in the neighborhood to turn these rentals in, especially if you get just one bad renter in there that annoys owners nearby.   Code enforcement in St Pete has a lot of resources and manpower so they do investigate and pursue these cases when reported.  If there is any evidence of your property being advertised online as a short term rental they usually go the municipal ordinance violation route.   You'll get a certain number of days to bring your actions into compliance and then if you don't you will be served with a summons have to appear in court.  You will get a fine and if you continue the penalties will escalate.   In addition they can do a daily fine on the property (generally $100-200/day) which they usually cap out at $10k but lately they've been going the MOV route.   

You can't just license a residential house as a bed and breakfast in St Pete.   There are a handful that are grandfathered in but the residential zoning would not allow that use.

What you want to do isn't allowed by city codes and there isn't a work around other than trying not to get caught.  If you get caught you will get punished.   Find a legal use for the property or do it in a jurisdiction that allows it.

Just bite the bullet and tile it, it'll look much better and be more durable than any fiberglass stuff.   You can find a tile for $1/ft that will look decent, especially if you go with a larger tile (not 4").   Labor will be most of the cost but it can be done in a day.    If you think $250 is "unaffordable" then that's another issue, renovations cost money especially if you want them done right. 

You have a verbal lease, you accepted rent and gave them keys.   If they don't pay you will still have to evict, the process definitely isn't any easier without a signed lease.   

What would a fine be for a bag of garbage sitting out?  Your exposure from a federal fair housing lawsuit could be extremely large, especially since everyone involved already knows that the root of the issues are race related and not garbage related.  An attorney would love to jump on her case on contingency.   If there aren't existing violations from the health department or code enforcement then it makes your PM's side of things really hard to prove.   I don't know how landlord friendly your state is but trying to convince a judge to evict a tenant over an outdoor bag of garbage (with no municipal violations/fines) is going to be pretty difficult most places.

 I'm not a tax guru but I get 1099's all the time for my rental business.   Any charity or government entity that pays you more than $600 in rent is going to require a W9 and will issue a 1099.   It's gross rental income on there and you can deduct expenses just as you would on any other rental income, it's not a big deal unless you were planning on under reporting the gross rent received on your taxes.   

Also please note the advice above is Florida specific since the original poster is in Florida.