All Forum Posts by: Karen Johnson

I used rentometer and also scoured rental listings to make sure it was providing me reasonable results. Additionally, we used a realtor and when we saw a tenant of a property next door to and similar to what we were interested in, he asked them what they paid in rent. It was useful information to have.

Hi Laura, I live in MontCo. Inventory is available but a bit tougher to find deals on multiplexes. PM me if you're interested in realtor recommendation. He's not an investor agent per se, but I've found him to be pretty good. Wishing you all the best as you start on your journey.

Thank you Deanna McCormick and Jim Adrian . Excellent feedback. I will go out and take a first look at it, then make sure to be present if any repairs are actually needed.

Hello everyone! Tenant informed me one of the rooms in my rental has no heat coming out of the vent. I want to fix this, of course. My question is if I should aim to be onsite for the diagnostics and repair vs. just have the repair company work on scheduling with the tenant directly and then contact me to discuss the needed repairs and cost. It's a single family home, if that's matters at all. I live close by so it's not an issue for me to be there. Just wondering if it gives the tenant more sense of responsibility and it being their home if I am a bit more removed from the process. It certainly buys back some of my time, but again, I'm close and this (seems) like a straightforward issue so it wouldn't take that much time for me either way.

Personally, I would not have been comfortable losing money for the last seven years and I certainly wouldn't want to lose money for one more year. That means I'd either pay off that 73K as fast as I could or (more likely) cut my losses and sell. You can always buy another piece of real estate. I don't see the upside of keeping one that's costing you money on a consistent basis.

We sold our first rental property (and former primary residence) at a loss. It was painful but absolutely worth it. We actually took out a 401-K loan to cover the difference between what we had to pay and what we had saved up. It was that bad. And we are still paying off the loan (which is fine because we are, in essence, paying ourselves) It was a really tough decision to make and if felt really painful at the time. However, by the time the ink dried on the last sheet of paper at settlement, I was convinced it was the best decision we could have made. I still believe that. Sometimes you can hang on and things will recover. Other times it's best to just cut your losses and run, because if you don't, it's going to end up costing you much more than that 13K.

@Prasad J. - I used docusign. If you use ezlandlord forms, they have e-sign capabilities. 

I'm glad you started this thread. I have a property near me that I'm positive is vacant. I would love to purchase it to buy and hold. I'm also hoping for seller financing so I can *hopefully* put less than 20% down. I've been really nervous about reaching out to the owner and also dealing with a bit of analysis paralysis. I think I'm finally ready to make a move, starting with a post card. After all, the worst they can do is say no, right?

Jacob Casarez - closing your oldest line of credit is likely to have a negative effect on your credit. It reduces the average length of your credit history, which can be a negative. I would recommend that you don't make any changes to your credit (other than paying down any balances) until AFTER you go to get your mortgage pre-approval. Your lender will tell you what actions you can reasonably take with your credit between pre-approval and mortgage commitment. You may also want to sign up for Credit Karma (www.creditkarma.com). They let you simulate how your credit score is affected if you make certain changes - close a card, pay down debt, etc. Credit Karma is free and reliable. You may also have a similar service through one of your credit cards (e.g. I noticed my Capital One card allows me to do something similar). Hope this helps.

Hi Edmund Campbell - I like ezlandlordforms.com. There is a fee, but it helps you create a lease that takes your state's landlord tenant laws into account. You can edit and add addendums as needed. For payment, I'm using Cozy and like it so far. In the past, I just used Chase Quickpay (only available if you have a checking or savings account with them). Hope that helps.