All Forum Posts by: Zach Davis

Don't know about your local laws, but its commonplace in OR. A lot of tenants don't like it, get offended or even mad. Don't get too worked up over it as long as you've checked your local landlord tenant laws and know you are on the right side. Some requirements of the screening process upset our perspective tenants. They're usually not worthwhile tenants if they can't accept responsibility for what their own credit looks like. 

My wife and I both worked full time. We do value add small multi so it can be hectic rehabbing units in addition to working 60 hours a week. My wife will be dropping her day job in the next couple years and I will likely be scaling back the w-2 income soon to start shifting focus to our business. But for now we still have full time jobs. I always suggest to people looking to get into REI that they find a related field to be employed in. Something that can teach them an aspect of the investing world prior to diving in. For me it was construction and then plumbing. I also take accounting, book keeping and business theory courses whenever time allows. My wife used to be an office manager for a management company, so she could keep up on landlord tennant law. Anything you can do to increase your intellegence on the subject can't hurt.

Not really worth it in most cases. I do like engineered strand bamboo if you are going for the hardwood floor look. Its relatively inexpensive ($2-$5 a foot), tough, looks nice and comes in variety of finishes. My rentals are all more or less Class B, so I use wood look vinyl tile (LVT). I get the 5mm, click lock Teak from Lumber Liquidators. It usually runs me around $2 a foot, is basically waterproof, easy to install, and according to the literature, has a 50 year warranty. I typically run it through the entire unit except for the bedrooms. Its been in some units for close to 5 years and shows no signs of wear whatsoever.

My properties would be considered B/B- but were easily D class when I first purchased them. We like to find the worst ones in decent lower middle income areas and reposition them. The last set I bought had a meth lab in one unit, convicted fellons in 2 units and 3 of them were getting subsidized housing. It takes time but they will turn around if you know how to deal with that type of person and know how to get the bad ones out as clean as possible. After that, there are good people in all socio-economic classes, it can be difficult to find them but they are there. I personally wouldn't want to take on a D class property in a D class neighborhood but thats mostly because I'm a part time investor and those types of properties would have to be babysat. 

@Alex R.

You're very welcome. As far as the review goes, I have no idea. I would imagine it gives you the option to right a review in when you do the star rating...

@Bill S.

There is case law to support it. The tenant would also be subject to all the other provisions of the lease, such as maintaining his or her residence in a sanitary manner. "Unsanitary conditions and noxious smells that interfere with neighbors peaceful enjoyment of the premises" sounds much better in an eviction filing than "failure to pick up dog $%!#...

Sorry Neal, that manager is wrong. Federal ADA guidelines define service animals as dogs or rarely miniature horses. Emotional support animals can be pretty much anything and is governed by the FHA. While you are not allowed to ask what the disability is that they need the animal for, you can ask for documentation from a physician stating that it is indeed a support animal. Unfortunately, this isn't as difficult for them as it used to be... It doesn't matter if you have species or breed restrictions, have size restrictions, or don't allow pets as a whole, they have to be allowed if documented. They are not considered pets and so cannot be restricted. You also can't charge a pet rent or pet deposits... again, they're not "pets." Even counties or municipalities like Denver that have Pit Bull restrictions still have to allow Pits In if they are "support animals."

That being said, you can keep them to the terms of your pet agreement, if the animal is aggressive or destructive or if the owner doesn't pick up after it you can evict or charge for damage caused by the animal just like you would any other pet damage.

Reference:, 1993 WL 268293. The court found there that the landlord did not fail to properly accommodate a tenant's disability after the tenant was evicted for his demonstrated inability to comply with the plaintiff's pet policy," which included cleaning up after the dog and toileting the dog in a designated area.

Back when I managed properties with 1 beds or studios in them we never had any trouble renting them. Only thing I will say is that in our instance, the tenants typically only stayed for the one year lease. They usually moved on to something with more room like the 2-3 beds. The 2-3 beds we rented on the other hand usually stayed 2+ years.

Unless you've got friends with deep pockets, I'd start with a job first. Choose one that will help you with real estate down the road. Work a job and dip your toe into the rei world. Once you've learned the ins and outs of what you want to do, start working yourself out of the job and into your business. I had the same question not that long ago. I became a plumber because it applies directly to what I do in real estate, that being small multi rentals and the occasional flip. Thinking of transitioning to electrician now for the same reason. 5-10 years from now I'll get out of whatever job and be full time in my business. Just my .02.

Hey Marcus, good question. In my market I typically don't have an issue pre leasing units. We take very detailed move in pictures for legal purposes and when we are given notice that a tenant will be leaving and what date that will be on, we list it and show people the move in pics and the stats of the the unit, along with any planned upgrades. I usually have a pretty good idea of the state the apartment will be in when it's vacated and judge from that how long the turnover process will be. They can literally be same day or can be up to a month since I have a more than full time job. Mostly depends on if I inherited the tenant or if it's one I screened... The important part is to run your numbers with a vacancy rate, if you have less or none then it's just gravy. If you don't plan for it, a month long rehab can sink you.