All Forum Posts by: Kimberly Weatherford

Have any Virginia landlords received payment from the Rent Relief program since the switch to gov2go in December? We have two tenants whose applications were marked complete Feb 1st and Feb 28th respectively, and each time I call I’m simply told they’re “under review”. Various agents have escalated the cases or forwarded them to a supervisor but nothing seems to happen. I’m aware that under the law, we are entitled to evict anyway because the tenant wasn’t approved within 45 days, but I don’t want to evict just because the state is being slow. That’s not the tenant’s fault. Still, we are small time landlords (3 properties), and can’t afford to continue to pay all the expenses of the properties with only a small fraction of the rent coming in indefinitely.  Are there any options available to get the payments through or other ways for our tenants to get rental assistance?

Just got an email from Cozy that due to an error with Checkr, they missed evictions on some applications. They sent me a new report which shows a judgment this past January for a tenant who moved into one of our properties July 1st. Needless to say, this is frustrating and it's too late to decline the applicant. Do I have any recourse with Cozy? Does anyone have a good suggestion for a more reliable source for background and credit checks on tenants?

Hello everyone. We are looking for a tenant for our first rental property. One applicant is a tattoo artist so basically self-employed. We asked to see tax returns and what she has reported as income does not meet our 3x rent requirements. She said she makes a lot in cash that she doesn't report and that would be enough. We asked for bank statements showing deposits, and while there is definitely more than she is reporting, it didn't make the 3x rent number.

Her credit score is 700+. She has plenty of cash on hand and large dividend-paying stock accounts and is willing to put down a higher deposit. Said she had one eviction-although it didn't come up on the background check. It sounds like she was kicked out of an apartment for writing a rude note and leaving it on someone's car. 

Would you accept this tenant? Ask her to prepay for 6 months rent? A larger deposit? Or just pass based on inability to prove income?

For what it's worth, we have two other well-qualified tenants applying for the property so filling the vacancy isn't an issue. Our inclination is to pass but we want to be sure we have thought through our options.

We had the same challenges when trying to work with large national banks, but small local banks were able to process the loan for us no problem. Look for a bank that keeps their loans in-house and see if they will finance it for you.

We were pretty early in this deal and definitely not attached. At $125K plus some minor repairs, it made sense to us. Many of the things the inspector discovered were things we couldn't see, like when the HVAC was installed they removed joists under the floorboards for vents but didn't reinforce anything so the floor was now unsupported, or that the electrical wire ran entirely under the house before the breaker box and needs a disconnect installed, or that the ductwork for the HVAC is disconnected under the house and needs to be repaired, there are wiring issues which are a fire hazard, etc. Our realtor told us we couldn't submit a revised offer because of the as-is listing. I thought we could submit it and they had the option to refuse us. I'm not sure if our realtor actually submitted a verbal offer with the seller or not but we walked away from the deal anyway. If we'll be at $150K after closing costs and repairs then we can get a property in better condition for the same price. 

It has been interesting to hear all the different perspectives on what is meant by "as-is". This has been really helpful to us as newbie investors and definitely given us some things to consider on future deals.

Thank you very much for your insight everyone! We'll talk more to our realtor and make sure she submits a revised offer in the future. I just wanted to be sure I understood correctly. I appreciate all the replies!

Hello!

We're trying to purchase our second rental property. It is two homes on one piece of land and sold "as-is", which we understood to mean the seller would make no repairs. It appeared to be in good condition but we still put an inspection contingency in the contract. The inspection came back with major issues, many things not up to code and repairs probably in the $15-$20K range to bring it up to code. Our offer was $125K so the numbers didn't work anymore. We wanted to negotiate a reduced sale price but our realtor insisted that with an "as-is" sale, you can't negotiate at all, our only options were to proceed at the original price or cancel our contract. Is this typical of "as-is" listings?

Welcome! Hope you're able to find a great flipper to work with!

Welcome! Sounds like Jacksonville FL could be a great choice for you. Hope you are able to find a great first property!

Welcome! I hope you are able to find a great first deal and real estate investing works well for you!