All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

 I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  Fear is totally holding me back from doing a flip right now.  I've done a handful of live-in flips and bought some rentals but what is really holding me back is that now I have an investor (my mom) who is willing to put up the money and I have total analysis paralysis.  I am fine with the potential of losing my own money (although I haven't) but the thought of possibly losing someone else's money freaks me out!  

Anyway I love this thread and reading people's take on fear and how they mitigate it.  It's such a reminder that to be successful I can't let fear stop me. 

@Colleen F. 

Thank you, those are good ideas. 

@Thomas S. 

Yes, our 7 year tenant does have us well trained.  We aren't going to let future tenants do that and we won't be as flexible in the future,  so we learned a lesson and that is our learning curve.  

So glad you have it all figured out and can now spend your time writing snarky comments to newer investors.  Must feel good to be so smart.  

@Cassie Chun

Don't do it.  We had our best tenant ask to extend the date for just one month and we said yes no problem . Well now she pays a little each month. She's been there 7 years and so we don't really want to charge her late fees,  but this was never an issue until we tried being really cool about one late payment.  We had a similar situation with our other,  much worse tenant. He always paid late so we extended the rent due date.  Well,  now he pays late past the extended due date.  At least he does pay the late fee.

It really is a learning curve situation.  

My advice,  just stick to your rules on payments and it will save you headaches later  :)

@Luciano A. thanks for the advice, I will check that out!  

@Caleb Heimsoth Thanks Caleb, that's exactly what I was thinking.  I know Cozy does make their money off of running those checks but I tried to stress to the potential tenant that we do not make any money from them, in fact the money is paid directly to Cozy.  

$100 seems just way out of line and totally shady.  I would never try to make money off of things like background checks-- I'm trying to make money from rent :)  I figure I want upstanding renters so I better be an upstanding landlord.  I'm glad that $40 per person isn't really considered by most people too much though since I was liking Cozy.  

@James Wise thanks so much James.  I'll keep it at $40 per person and see what happens. :) 

@Wendy S.  thanks for clarifying that about Cozy. :)  I didn't realize you can split up the process from the application and the credit/background but that will be very helpful to let prospective tenants know.  

@Jason Miller what part of Michigan are you in? If I recall correctly Lake Shore Drive would be Holland?  I feel like this will make a HUGE difference in what you do, since the entire lakeshore if a little different depending on where you are. 

Thanks for the reassurance @Ned J.…  You are so right that really I should be looking out for myself which is selecting the best applicant!  Since I'm newer to this everything seems so "high stakes" so it's great to hear for others who can see the trees through the forest (or however that saying goes...) :)