All Forum Posts by: Ursula Leake

There is a way to get around all of that. If you buy "off market" and use creative finance, there are none of those limitations. Click to enlarge

Here's one for instance
So, I bought "off market" paid the seller $5,000 and I paid closing costs. No bank involved, no seasoning, no limit to number of properties

Zillow Premium Listing services has never failed me. But, here's the caveat based on my experience. Your listing will get preferential treatment for the first five to seven days. If you aren't hyper-responsive, there's no point in paying for the upgraded service. Within the first five days of listing, I expect to field calls and messages from over a hundred prospectives and be willing to do 30-50 showings during that period. By day six, I am lucky to get one to three phone calls or messages from prospectives and maybe one to two showings per day. Zillow Premium is worth it if you are willing to do the work during that first week.

@Grant Stuard

I've got 24 SFR and it took me 8 years. It was slow the first 5 or 6 years since I could only afford to buy 2 houses a year. But I found ways by getting creative with finances like doing five 401k loans to acquire houses. I've used 0% for a year credit cards to buy houses several times (just did one last month-lol). I used a HELOC to snag 2 houses (my first 2 rentals). And I've bought 12 houses with zero out of pocket $ by doing cash out refis on houses that had some equity I wanted to tap into. I've paid myself back every penny I've ever put into real estate so it's infinite cash flow from here on out. But I've found ways to get the cash for down payments then have harvested equity to scale up.

Well usually pre-screening application help weed out the limited interest prospects or you can have a set of questionnaires before you setup a tour with them. After the tour, if they're still interested, and they match the your criteria/standards, you can send them a credit/background check which typically cost $35-50 fee being non refundable. The fee will allow them to be more committed and more skin in the game.

@Carlos Valencia @Albert Bui

Ursula,

At the end of the day as a landlord/owner you do not want to rent to anyone who has bad credit and does not pay their bills. You also want to avoid "tire kickers" or people who are not ready to rent and just wasting time. How you avoid that in most case is to take an application for a pre-screen to do the research.

Like a Banker we need to take an application before we send out an approval and that’s not much different than renting a home. What I would say is develop a script that you use to make the prescreen seem like its a renter tool or "benefit". You could say we use this as our way to keep all interested parties in our "Approved" database so that as new properties come up you are already in the system. This helps you have a better chance on being the first person to know when a property is available.

Basically helps us gauge your income and your Max monthly payment so that we can align you with the right rental. Although we do look at credit its not an ultimate decision maker instead its just a way to verify who you are in a legal way other than a simple drivers license to protect all parties.

Hey Ursula

Great topic, simple answer. I'm not showing an apartment to anyone who hasn't filled out an application with a background and credit check.  From there, I set up appointments with anyone who has qualified.

Qualification equals income = 3x rent, credit 650+, no housing court issues, no violent crimes. 

I always try to set up appointments right around the same time, and take the first person who has a deposit to hold in my hands.  Very simple, very black and white. 

I'll get 50+ comments of 'when can I see the apartment' in the Zillow portal. I always just use the saved reply which is 'as soon as you fill out the application we can set up a showing'. Only 10% actually fill out the application. Saves ton of time on my end and weeds out the non serious residents.

Happy Investing !