All Forum Posts by: Tim Swierczek

Dan K it would be cheaper and likely quicker for you to first file an ethics complaint with the Realtor board naming both the agent and the broker. You can always hire an attorney after the board investigates as that is not a legal proceeding.

Check with @Brad Schaeppi I'm not sure of his wholesaling knowledge, but only because I've never asked him. He is an expert in Real Estate law and has done great work for me. 

@Adam Tafel

Hey Jason,

I like the letter you sent. I think it's important you took it seriously. Most tenants are all talk but these tenants already called the city inspector and they know the term "Rent Escrow" which leads me to believe they are more likely than most to file in court. Lastly, you need to immediately and forever remove the payment of attorney legal fees to the prevailing party from your lease. It's the worst clause ever.  What that clause does for you is put a target on your back. You now have an attorney's attention because they can sue you and if they know they will win they can go after "Big Pockets Jason D" for payment instead of the poor tenant. If they don't think they can win they have incentive to proceed and force you into a settlement that costs you your attornies fees and theirs. This clause will rarely if ever work in your favor.

Lot's of good feedback here. I hate late paying tenants but I have found that in two situations I had tenants that paid late but always paid the late fee without complaint. Ultimately, that type of tenant is telling you they will gladly pay more if they can pay a little late. Those tenants worked out fine. The ones who don't pay or need eviction notices to scare them to pay are different in my opinion and you should look to get them out as quickly as possible

 I completely agree with Basit. I've seen dozens of college buddies start investment groups that stall quickly because they all bring the same thing. Hustle. 

Having said that, do you all have your own house hacks? If not, you would be best served by each buying a house hack first. If you go the LLC route, PM me up because my wife broker's commercial deals which are much cheaper than DSCR loans and you can't get a Conventional loan in the name of an LLC.

@Hunter Beckstrom I know many people who have been successful with both single and multifamily investing. From my experience multifamily is easier to cash flow, and has less downside risk from a cash flow perspective. Typically you will never have more than half vacant at a time and that means you are never at zero revenue. In theory, multi-family has more maintenance, due to more HVAC, and appliances but in practice, I have not noticed a difference in maintenance. That being said, it's not true that multi-family will be as easy to buy as you age. At some point you will graduate from being willing to house hack and then a single family will be easier.  I'd recommend you house-hack some small mulitfamilies and re-evaluate every few years. I typically make significant changes to my strategy every 4 years and tweak the plan every 1-2 years in between.

@Jared Schweiss We have had patios at most of our properties and they get used. It's obvious to me that our tenants like them. I do no think they add any rental value and most patios would not add resale value as they are a cheap easy addition. That being said, it's a cheap and easy addition, and if you have tenants who have expressed a desire to use the back yard it will likely be a hit. As for the lease, you should have quiet hours in your lease and if you have a four plex you should have language that addresses care for common areas. If you do not have such language you should have language that limits disturbing noise. Our lease is quiet hours are from 9 PM to 8 AM I think. We have not had a noise issue in many years.  The common area language should dictate that personal items are not stored in common areas, it may also address maintenance of those areas, but you will need to amend it to address outdoor furniture and grills.  We provide a simple Weber charcoal grill at our duplex unit for tenants to share, and leave it to the tenants in our single-family properties. It is not necessary to provide one but it was easy for us as we had an extra.

 Hey Eric I have experience on the management side. it would be worth a call or zoom meeting. Please PM me if you are still looking for a partner.

In this market, I'd start with a low figure. $25K and negotiate it in the LOI phase. Two years ago you would need at least 50K hard maybe 100K just to get a signed LOI.