All Forum Posts by: Tricia O'Brien

@Kelly Bankes I try to figure out what they expect to get paid per hour and then come up with a per visit rate I can offer them. For example, one PM whose office is about 30 minutes from my rental home in IN told me she didn't really want to take on my house because she pays her people a set hourly rate plus mileage. She figured it would cost $30-$35 per visit to go out to my property.  Then I found someone who lived in the same town as my property and offered her $35 per visit to go to my place for inspections or to meet a repair person.  Maintenance / lawn care people people are used to bidding by the job.  So you can talk to them on the phone and describe the work and sometimes get a rough estimate by phone if it is something simple. Like lawn care for a back lawn that is about 40 ft x 30 ft and front lawn is 30 ft x 10 ft is going to be $30 every 2 weeks, etc

Hello ! I am looking for an investor friendly Title company and / or escrow officer in the Central Valley of California - preferably in Modesto, Turlock, Manteca or Stockton.  I have a tenant who may be buying the house she is occupying,  and I need to find a Title company that can help me with that and inform me of all the proper disclosures I need to obtain and sign and have the buyer sign such as lead based paint disclosure,  etc, etc.  I have heard Chicago Title is pretty good, but I don't have a name of a particular person there.  Thanks in advance! 

@ Richard F.

Thanks for your reply!

What is the typical starting Watts for a window air conditioner? If ,for example, the starting watts for the window air conditioner was 2,500 watts and there's also a computer , a clock radio and two night table lamps on the same circuit how do I determine the total load the tenant wants to put  on that  circuit?  Can an electrician do some work on the electrical panel to increase the capacity of a circuit ( say to 6000 watts) without digging into the walls?

Is is a big safety hazard to plug a 5000 BTU air conditioner into a heavy duty 6 ft or 12 ft extension cord and then plug that extension cord into the wall?  I know the manufacturers do not recommend this, but I was wondering if anyone has done this and did it work out well for you?

 I have an Indiana rental home where the central air conditioner just  quit working and I have decided to give the tenants some window A/C units instead of replacing the old one due to cost.  They prefer 3 small units (one for each bedroom) rather than a large unit in the living room and one in the kitchen. I just discovered one of the bedrooms does not have an electric outlet next to the window.  So I'm trying to figure out a solution, and I think it would take at least 2-4 weeks to find an electrician to do a small job like adding one electric outlet to this room.  Plus might be several hundred dollars. Thanks for any input! 

@Liam Delumpa

@Joel Allen

@Shlomo Koheler

Hello!  I live in Alaska and self manage a property in California and one in Indiana.  I have used some property management companies, but it has worked best to use a realtor or handymen to do specific tasks for me "a la carte" rather than pay a property manger a monthly fee to do nothing except collect rent and issue a monthly statement.  I just had a process server post a 30 day notice to vacate at my place in California.  I'm a little nervous about how I will handle getting keys back if the tenant decides to leave on time and not get evicted, but I think I'll figure it out with the help of some local people in a facebook group for real estate investors or possibly with the help of a handyman or process server I know.   

@Joel Allen Hi Joel, did you work out the arrangement with your PM when you signed the contract that the PM would handle the exit of the tenant as well as the tenant placement?

@Janeth Graziani  Look on Facebook to see if there is a Facebook group for real estate investors in the Sacramento area. People in that group should be able to refer you to an eviction service or attorney if that is where your property is located.

@David P. She probably would not show you the Chase Bank statements on her phone app because she knows it would not back up her story. Maybe her $20K/month income is from an illegal source such as drug dealing or sex trafficking.  It is good that she gave up on renting to you.  You might need to lower your rent or do better marketing / photos to get solid tenants who have VERIFIABLE income. Best of luck to you! 

I do backgrounds checks that are conducted through www.Avail.co and they run them through TransUnion Smart Move.  In addition to that, I check for criminal background and evictions through the local source for that region. For example, in Indiana you can go to mycase.IN.gov and put in someone's name and date of birth. It will pull up civil and criminal cases against them if there are any. You should try several different spellings of their name on these govt websites such as: last name only; last name and first name; last name, first name and middle name.  

In California, if you do a search by county under, for example, "Case Index Stanislaus County California"   it will show you how to search someone's history for criminal and civil cases. You just need their name and date of birth.

The national databases sometimes miss things that the local sources (state and county) will reveal to you.

@Richard F. Good points! By certified, return receipt you mean the green postcards from USPS that the receiver has to sign to confirm they received a letter, correct? 

It's usually a red flag when people are eager to move in and send money even though they have not done a formal application yet. I would put her through your normal screening process and see what you find. The credit report she gave you might have been altered by her.  Since she is self-employed, check to see if she has had any business evictions in addition to evictions from a personal residence. You might call her bank to verify she really has the account she is stating that she has if they will talk to you.