All Forum Posts by: Will Carson

Quote from @Ben Rhodin:

Hey @Will Carson! There is no state statute on this matter, however, refer to your lease and what it says. If it is a pretty standard lease, it should state with advance notice, unless it is constituted an emergency and you need to enter for safety and/or other concerns for the property. This is unfortunately up to your own interpretation, and a court's interpretation if she did choose legal action. If anything I would text them stating the concerns and issues, and if they say no, you then have a record of why you were entering the premise. That way you can show her unruliness. Also, one thing to note. Everything is much more landlord-friendly when you are renting space in your own home. So I wouldn't worry too much.

 Thanks for the reply! My lawyer finally replied (I forgot monday was a holiday for some people) and said I can enter to turn off the lights, and he had already reviewed our lease, so that's that. Lights are now off :)

Quote from @Anthony Salazar:

Yikes. Sounds fun. Was that tenant always like that and what background check/tenant screening did you do? Just curious. 
Whenever I run the idea of renting out rooms, my wife kindly reminds me about stories like this. 

For the first month, she was fine.  It went downhill slowly after that, and at month 6 (last month) things went off the rails.  It's at least partially my fault for being too lax with my screening process.  I thought that since she is in her 30s, in grad school, decent credit, clean record, and steadily employed, it would be fine.  Wrong!  In the future I will most likely require referrals.  I have a strong suspicion this is not the first time she has been in this situation (I recently learned she only lived at her previous place for 4 months).

Quote from @Theresa Harris:

You need her permission.  If the light was on for 3 days last time, and she left it on again-is there anything else plugged in?  You can't turn the breaker off as you mentioned the cat feeder is plugged in and this would result in the cat not being fed.  maybe you will get lucky and the light bulb will burn out!

Actually, my lawyer responded and said I can enter to turn off the lights. I also know that in Colorado it is very illegal to shut off utilities, even if the bill hasn't been paid, so I won't be going there!

Quote from @Troy P.:

https://www.apartments.com/ren...

"Required Notice before Entry: No statute"

This means you can enter at any time, for any reason, with or without an advanced notice.  Since you don't owe this person any type of courtesy, I would say you are safe, but this is not legal advice :)

 I did not know apartments.com had such a resource. Thank you!

I rent out the extra bedrooms in my house.  I have a nightmare tenant who is moving out in 8 days (can't come fast enough!).  

She is not staying here tonight and she has left all of her lights on and her blinds are fully open so you can see into her room from the street.  She has boxes stuffed full of possessions stacked up near the window.  To me, this poses two threats:

1. The lights, especially the lamp, could start a fire since they have been on for 16+ hours and I am the only person in the house and I will be going to sleep.  

2. The well-lit room full of possessions, completely visible from the street, would be a very tempting loot for a 3am passerby.

Recently, she and I have had all sorts of drama about entering her room.  I went in there to feed her cat because he was pawing at the door for hours. Turns out his auto feeder had not been plugged in so he was without food for two days (animal abuse?).  While in there I cleaned up the feces, vomit, and urine on the floor.  More recently, I moved some of her boxes of personal items into her room because she had left them stacked in the common living room for over a week and I had a guest coming over for whom I wanted to tidy up. While I was in there I turned off the light that had been on for three days (I cover utilities).  That was yesterday, and this morning she threatened me with legal action if I go into her room again.

I'd really like to turn off her lights before I go to bed, but I can't give advance notice, and if I ask her for permission she will 100% say no. 

Are the two points mentioned above good enough reason to constitute an 'emergency' or sufficient reason to enter her room? I know this isn't a legal forum but perhaps someone here has dealt with this before.

This is in the Denver, CO area.

Thanks in advance!

Originally posted by @Rick Pozos:

Before worrying about all of the w-2s, business plan, scope of work, and all that jazz, find a deal.

Hard Money or a friend or family member will lend to you if you have a DEAL. Now what makes a deal? A property that is 70-80% of Retail value and then subtract out the repairs. And how are you going to find that deal?? It will take months. It will take months of networking, meeting people at your local REIA, sending out a direct mail campaign, etc.

I dont know how you can do it from SE Asia. Maybe you can. But I would spend some time and effort on marketing to find deals and not worry about w-2 because there is no way you are going to get an FHA loan anyway. Focus on getting a deal.

So what happens if you have a deal and cant get financing? You call or email or text your friends who you have from networking so much and you wholesale it to them for a few thousand $$ and keep looking for the right property for you.

This seems like a great strategy, thanks for sharing.  My main concern here is that I've never been through the process before, and I don't think I'd be confident enough to act quickly on a deal while also making sure to be thorough. Wouldn't a deal like that go quick?  Either way, I like the way you think, and I can implement some of that.

I know I won't be very attractive to mainstream banks, so I'm looking for other options to obtain financing for my first property. I make between 30k-36k per year, with a DTI of about 30%. I have 15k saved for a down payment, and my down payment account grows by $800 per month. My biggest downfall is income history. I lived abroad until about a year ago, and my income varies wildly (some months I make 1k, some months I make 5k) - and I know the banks won't like that. Still, I'm determined to buy my first property in 2020.

My greatest strengths in this situation are my flexibility and credit.  I don't need a fancy house, and I am willing to move almost anywhere in the western half of the US if the numbers are right.  The numbers:  I need a 2+ br 2+ ba house or apartment for under 200k.  It can be a bit beat up, as I can handle painting and some minor carpentry myself. My credit score is over 770 and rising. I plan on living in one br while renting out the other(s) and adding value to the property over 1-3 years, after which I will try and repeat the process with another property, while renting out my br in the first property.  I do have some other criteria I'd like to meet (within 60 min drive of major airport, growing economy, etc.) but for right now, I just need help getting some viable strategies on my radar.

Any specific podcast episodes I should listen to?  Specific lenders that are friendlier towards people in my situation?  Unconventional but legit methods?  General strategies or advice?  All are appreciated; thank you!

Hey all,

I'm completely new to this, so please feel free to point out any mistakes I make.

I've been super excited for the past few months at the possibility of breaking into real estate, specifically rentals, and more specifically House Hacking + BRRRR.

I have identified 'capital' as my critical path to making this happen. I've actually been living in SEAsia for the past 2 years, so I have no W2 income to show, which makes me nervous about getting an FHA loan for my first house hack. I also have little money saved, since I have been living on a SEAsia salary. Currently, I'm doing freelance work and some odd jobs since I've been back in the states for about 3 weeks. (I have about 3k liquid cash, and a 10k Roth IRA, no debts, monthly expense to income ratio of ~.31)

I can either go the slow route, get a W2 job, get some decent W2 income, save as much as possible and continue learning for the next year before 'starting' or, I can seek private lenders to accelerate this plan.  

I've learned a lot already, and feel like I'm about to the point where I need to just get started, go for it, and trust I will fill in the cracks along the way.

My question to you is:

What's all the information that you, as a potential private lender, would like to see from someone seeking capital?  

For some reason, I have the idea of putting together a detailed binder of my plan, markets I'm eyeing, different number projections and scenarios, etc. and understanding that binder backwards and forwards and pitching the plan to potential lenders.

Is there some kind of 'checklist' of documents, figures, etc. that I can refer to in order to make sure I have everything on hand that I might need when addressing lenders' concerns and questions, in order to convince them on my plan?

Hey there.  I'm new to all of this, but trying to learn as much as possible and position myself to find that first deal ASAP.

Bear with me here.

I'm looking for a robust program which will allow me to enter a smattering of criteria and parameters, then will allow me to view a ranked list of results.  For example, I want to be able to select things like:

• Within 15 minute walk of university
• No violent crime
• Average income level
• Average education
• Within 1 hour drive of international airport
• Public transportation options
• Flood plains
• Other natural disaster risk
• Nearby restaurants/chains
• etc.
• etc.
• etc.

Then, I want to be able to see the counties in the state that offer the most matches, then I want to be able to view individual towns and neighborhoods that meet the criteria, and have them ranked.

Then, my plan is to set up alerts on Zillow, Trulia, etc. and ask my agent friends to keep an eye out for properties becoming available in these specific areas.  Of course, then I will look at each one individually and begin the process of analyzing the property itself.

Now, in college, about 6 years ago, I took an intro to GIS course.  I haven't touched GIS since then, and would need to relearn all of it.  If memory serves, it's a very complicated and robust software that is difficult and time consuming to learn.  However, it almost certainly can perform everything I mentioned above when operated by a knowledgeable person.

I'm wondering if:

1. Have any of you used GIS in such a way?  
   1. How hard would it be to learn?
   2. How much of an advantage do you think GIS offers?
2. Is there another software or website option that could perform the tasks I mentioned above? 

The filters on Trulia, Zillow, etc. aren't robust or customizable enough to meet all these requirements, from what I can tell.

Your input would be greatly appreciated!

-Will

Yea, now that I’ve read my post a few times, it’s obvious that Area A would be a much better starting area. I can practically walk into a situation I’m sure a lot of people work hard for. Plus, if I start in area A, it would likely expedite my journey to area B, but not the other way around. I like where I grew up, anyways. Perhaps I’m a bit intimated by the much larger financial barriers to entry, but I’m sure I can figure out ways to solve that riddle. Thanks for the input, everyone.