All Forum Posts by: Zain B.

@Chris Mason I purchased this property through a real estate agent who was the real estate agent for my best friend who lived in that area when I purchased the property. He was a really good real estate agent and offered to remotely manage the property for me without any property management fee. He said that he does that for all of his out of state investors. He was really helpful initially, went above an beyond throughout the renovation process, always responded if I had any requests or needed a contact info for a handyman or an insurance broker or.... I reached out to him for this issue and he has gone radio silent on me. Maybe he is travelling or I guess he is tired of helping out with no return for his efforts in sight. Yea, I self manage this property remotely. I really hope that it does not get to the point where I have to evict this guy. As I mentioned earlier, he has always paid on time with the one exception when he fell sick and his father proactively reached out and paid the rent due the next day. 

@Cara Lonsdale I have served the 5 day notice. Checked my lease and it allowed me to provide notices electronically as well as through mail. Sent an email and following up with a certified mail. He only provided his contact number and his wife's contact number which is not working anymore. He provided his dad's email address which I have sent the 5 day notice as well. I will stalk him on facebook and see what he is upto. He is married with 2 children and seems to be a hard working guy from the conversations that I have had with him. Thanks for all of the advice. Really appreciate it

@Johnny Hastings thanks for the pointed guidance. I really hope that this issue gets resolved fairly quickly without a 4.5 hour trip down to Virginia to find out whether he is still living in the property. My tenant has been good so I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt but wanted to check in with experienced investor like yourself to make sure I follow due process here. Thanks for your advice and will keep you updated as to the progress. 

Hello BP community, 

I have an out of state tenant who has rented my property for almost two years. He generally pays on time (some times before time) and I have never had an issue with collecting rent. Today is 6th of the month and I have not received the rent check. I called and left numerous voicemails and text messages (no response). Last year around November, we had a minor hiccup and his father proactively emailed me and apologized for the delay and said that my tenant feel sick and the father would deposit the check the next day which he did. I followed up with the father also and there was no response. Property is in Virginia and I live in New Jersey. I wanted to connect with experienced landlords to see what my next course of action should be. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. 

Happy Investing.

@Ruth Lyons you mention in the above thread that there is a state licensing board which you went through to file a complaint against a contractor that was not licensed. Can you please share the name of the licensing entity? Thanks

@Matt K. solid advise and I have learned my lesson the hard way. Going forward, everything will be in writing with a defined timeline and draw schedule. 

@Ingrid J. yea it got worse. I guess he was just double booked yet wanted my business too. He thought he could come to my property after his 3pm shift and work for 2-3 hours and bang out the project in two weeks. At that rate, it would be more than 3 months before I would see any sight of completion. 

@Manolo D. I guess I misspoke when I said he was a contractor. He is probably just a all around handyman / foreman and is probably capable of plugging and playing employees from one job site to another. Unfortunately, I realized that he got a big $27,000 contract including materials just a day after he accepted my project which is why his priorities changed. 

@Matt K. couldn't agree more. Lesson learned. No unlicensed contractors without insurance if I want to take this business seriously. The pain and drama is not worth it. 

@Chris Purcell I wonder what you decided to do as it relates to hiring contractor from Cragslist. My experience has been a miss. These contractors from Craigslist are not insured and usually are on the site looking for a second job. Usually you have to baby sit more of these guys which means you really need to know what they are doing or else they will take advantage of you or perform sub par jobs. Just my experience.

@Brit Foshee amazing amazing work. The efficiency from start to close was amazing. One question that I have, how long did it take for you to get this efficient with your project? 1 month of reno is absolutely amazing, how hard was it to line up sub contractors and how did you line them up so quickly. Also, was there a quite a lot of demo involved, if so, how did you work around ordering your materials (say cabinets and such) without the demo work completed. I am on my second flip and my last flip too 3 months to complete once project started plus a month or so lining up a good contractor. I sub contracted the roof and vinyl siding. I liked your idea of prepping and purchasing materials while you are waiting in the closing phase but what if you are unable to close for one reason or another? 

@Account Closed Thanks for sharing... Any recommendation on tiles? 

I am looking to purchase 1,000 sqft of Travertine tiles for a project in Columbia, MD. Any advice on good local verndors? Also will be looking to purchase granite. I heard that there are some quarries in the Ellicott city area that might be good. Any recommendation or experiences you could share? Thanks in advance for your feedback