All Forum Posts by: Teddy Mao

I started working back in summer 2018 and was very interested in real estate investing. I bought my first property for self-living back in early 2019, a condo in Dallas TX. I was living by myself at that time, and was very much into house hacking, but the pandemic hit and disrupted my plans. In late 2021 my wife and I both found jobs in Chicago, bought our second property (also a condo) there, moved in and had our first kid there. We were super lucky to have hit relatively low rates (15-year 2%-3% range) that we would not see again today.

The Dallas property is now rented, giving a almost zero cash flow over a 15-year fixed mortgage, until the recent HOA increase pushed it into the negative side slightly. I have been a passive remote landlord throughout the time, thanks to my agent and nice tenants over there.

We have almost enough cash to pay off the remaining balances of the mortgages but obviously we want to use it in a different way. But my real estate investment knowledge is very limited to the basics that one always starts buying it as their primary residence. I was thinking of PRR but it seems challenging with a toddler. Getting a property solely for investing purpose (without living in it first) is completely new to me and seems costly at this time.

So I am here to ask for some ideas on how I can start out with this. Thanks!

Moved out of my condo in early January and start to turn it into a rental property. My first project was replacing the vanity countertops and sinks in my bathrooms. When my workers ran the water for testing after they finished, my downstairs neighbor observed an overflow in her kitchen sinks.

Later HOA asked plumbers came to fix the pipes. They claimed there are 3 feet of sandy stuff blocking it and they have to auger it through. HOA then encourages me to hold my workers responsible. Their reasoning is based on the following:

1.The overflow happened right after my project. Everything was fine before then.

2.The amount and density of the sandy stuff is likely a result of introducing grouts or other construction garbage down the drain, instead of day-to-day usage.

3.The location of the clog is only connected to my kitchen and my neighbor's kitchen.

However, I could see some potential points of failure in this logic. I cannot even convince myself charging this against the workers. Questions like:

4.The workers only worked with bathrooms, which are on a different floor from the kitchen.

5.Grout is not supposed to be used in a vanity countertop installation. Glue is used for attaching things. There are also no signs of tile works. The workers have even come earlier to measure the dimensions to avoid cutting materials and introducing dust at my property.

6.The test water run was the first time in the past 3 weeks that someone has run water constantly in my unit. The blockage could have already been there but just not triggered.

This is the first time I remotely manage a property and it is really a big headache for me. Checking with the workers isn't really helpful, as they won't say they dumped things, whether they did it or not.

My questions:

1.Any suggestions on how to avoid such controversial things when managing remotely? I have an agent but she just cannot stay there for hours supervising the workers.

2.I probably won't do this, but if we were to go to the small claim court, which side is more favorable given the evidence so far?