All Forum Posts by: Vitaliy Volpov

Hi Jakob,

Let me preface with the disclaimer that while I am a licensed attorney, you should not treat what I say as legal advice and should always consult with an attorney of your own choosing before you make any decision.

With that out of the way, does the prior owner not have contact information for these tenants that he or she can give you?  Is there a lease?  If so, what does it say about entry by landlord? Are you saying that you think that they abandoned the cat at the residence? 

If the latter, this might qualify as an emergency in which case you would not need to give them notice prior to entry. If you can take the legal position that the animal is in distress and you have every reason to believe that they abandoned it in the unit, you would be able to legally enter the unit to save the animal’s life.

Obviously, if there are other considerations at play, which you have not mentioned, this may not be the appropriate way to handle it. The main thing is your actions have to be objectively reasonable under the particular circumstances.

Vitaliy

@Phil Farinacci, sounds good Phil. I will private message you once we have the listings finalized.

Vitaliy 

Also, if you have any questions about investing in the Capital Region, please don't hesitate to reach out.  I would be happy to help or, if I cannot answer your questions, refer you to someone who can.  

Hey Allison,

I live in Clifton Park, NY, but invest in less expensive areas like Troy, Cohoes, Watervliet, and Rensselaer (and some suburbs of Albany). In my opinion, if you are looking to build a rental portfolio, buying in Saratoga Springs (or even Saratoga County) is not the best option. Price to rent ratios are just not profitable. If you’re looking to do a live-in flip in Saratoga, that might be an option if you can find a cheap enough property that you can force appreciation into. But, the Saratoga market is very hot. Cheap properties are hard to come by.

What are your goals? What are you looking to accomplish with real estate?

Vitaliy 

Yeah, this can definitely be a real problem in New York.  M2M leases is one way to deal with it.  Luckily, I have not had too many issues with non-tenant "occupants" at my rentals so far.   

The issue in our state (New York) is that a landlord cannot legally restrict a tenant from allowing another "occupant" to live in the apartment, regardless of their background.  New York Real Property Law 235-f, titled "Unlawful Restrictions on Occupancy" provides that it is unlawful for a landlord to restrict occupancy to "a tenant or tenants or to such tenants and immediate family."  It further provides that any lease entered into by one tenant shall be construed as permitting occupancy by "immediate family of the tenant, one additional occupant, and dependent children of the occupant provided that the tenant or the tenant's spouse occupies the premises as his primary residence."  Occupant is defined very broadly to include "a person, other than a tenant or a member of a tenant's immediate family, occupying a premises with the consent of the tenant or tenants."

In other words, in New York, an applicant for an apartment can tell you that he or she is planning to live in the apartment by his or herself, go through and clear your background check, move in, and then permit another person with a criminal record (or any other undesirable rental history characteristic) to move in.  This law is obviously very landlord unfriendly and quite controversial.  Not too many landlords and tenants are aware of it, but it has the potential of rearing its ugly head in the event of a legal proceeding, with bad consequences for the landlord.   

I would definitely check with a licensed attorney in Florida to ensure that there are no similar laws limiting your ability to restrict occupancy of your properties.  The last thing you want is to be liable for a violation of such a law on top of a difficult tenancy which you are forced to continue.

Hey guys,

Here's my situation. My business partner and I have a great deal on a 6-unit under contract. Cash purchase. Purchase price is $97,000. Expected rehab costs are approximately $130,000. Closing and carrying costs are another $8,000 or so. Total all in cost $235,000. ARV conservatively will be approximately $300,000 (but likely closer to $350,000).

We just had a private lender, with whom I worked in the past, tell us that he is unfortunately not going to be able to fund the deal.  We are under contract to close by 12/31/17.  So, we need to find other financing fast.  The private lender terms were 10% interest, one year term, interest only payments, first position lien, insurance and title insurance, and personal guarantees from myself and my partner.  The lender was going to provide 100% of the purchase price and the rehab costs.  

I would like to find something comparable out there.  Any suggestions?  We don't want to pay hard money lender interest and we can't go to a conventional/commercial bank because the property needs too much work.  

Even if we could get 70%-80% of the deal financed (i.e. 100% of purchase price and part of the rehab), we could come up with the rest of the funds (we will have access to approximately $75,000 once a commercial refinance on another building I own completes in January).  

Has anyone had success with any peer-to-peer lending platforms?  I have previously tried RealtyShares, but the guy who I spoke with said that my deal was too small for them (it was another $200,000+ project).  Has anyone tried to get financed through PeerStreet?  Anything else that's similar? 

All suggestions would be appreciated.  Thank you.

Vitaliy

@Thomas S. I completely agree with your points.  I have been working on training my tenants ever since I started following biggerpockets, reading more on the subject, and treating landlording like a business rather than a hobby.  It is a process and definitely not an easy one, but one I am working on.

The other issue in my post though has to do with the best method of collection.  As I previously mentioned, I would like to establish one method of payment that all of my tenants can follow, even those without bank accounts.  I definitely want to stop going door-to-door to collect.  What method do you use and what would you recommend?  

Thanks, @David Stone.  That's definitely a possibility.  Do you have any concerns about the tenants knowing your bank account number though? 

@Rick S. what is the name of the rent payment service you work for?  What kind of fees do they charge and who pays them tenants or the landlord?

Hey guys!  

I am looking for some advice and suggestions on streamlining my rent collection efforts.  I currently own and manage 9 rental units.  In any given month, 5 out of 9 mail me checks while the others pay me in cash which I end up collecting by physically going to the properties.  Sometimes I end up making several trips to the same building because not all of the tenants pay on the same day or at the same time (I have a 5-day grace period during which I don't charge a late fee).  As I am sure you can all agree, this is extremely inefficient.  (Not to mention, that some of the ones who mail their rent invariably use the check is "in the mail" excuse for why their rent was late).

I remember reading or hearing Brandon Turner talk about companies out there that provide rent payment options to landlords and tenants.  Does anyone have any recommendations based on their own positive experience with such companies?  Ideally, I would like to set up a process where the tenants deposit the rent with the company through some electronic means and the company transfers the funds into my bank account.  One other wrinkle in all of this is that some of my tenants may not even own bank accounts as they have always paid me rent in cash.  Are there solutions for those tenants as well?  

Any advice you can provide will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Vitaliy Volpov