All Forum Posts by: Douglas B.

I'm having trouble inviting you all as colleagues. I've sent numerous requests but now it's giving me warnings about spam messages. From this point on, if anyone wants to join our little network group, either follow me or invite me to be a colleague and just put "sub 30k" as the message.

alright folks, thanks for the replies! I'll start trying to add those who wanted to network as colleagues here on BP. I'd like to throw out a new pertinent topic of discussion every few days and we can riff on it for a while and share ideas and learn from each other. I'll continue to monitor this thread and add people who trickle in later.

If you're interested, another way to join this network is to follow me here on BP.

I'm excited to get this going. Welcome everyone!

I'm looking to form a networking group of people who specialize in under 30k properties for cash flow. I propose we share ideas to help each other maximize our success!

Anyone out there from the Buffalo New York area or Western New York WNY?

If a tenant does damage to my unit but can't or won't pay for the repairs, can I document the damage and file a claim against his renters insurance?

What things do you fellow landlords do to make your units more resistant to damage and tenant abuse without compromising the quality of the unit? I'll be renting in low income areas and want to provide nice units but still have them very sturdy to withstand potential tenant abuse.

How do you go about finding the contact information for these individuals?

I see even more great advice overnight. This is great. Thanks!

I see the point about HEAVILY SCREENING low income tenants. Good point. Let me clarify: I intend on screening to find the best of the available tenants. My goal is to find quality PEOPLE. I know good and bad people with and without money. I hope to find people who will...

1. Take care of the property. My plan is to find someone who claims to take good care of her current unit. Then, I'll "drop by" their current residence to drop off some paperwork early in the application process. I'll ask to come in and see their place. If it's not well maintained, then I'll pass.

2. I'll call all prior landlords for last 5 years. I'll track the owners down on my own through county tax assessors office (it's easy!) and I'll throw a few questions in to make sure I'm talking to the real landlord and not a fake that the tenant is using to give a good reference. Prior evictions or history of late payments will mean automatic rejection. I'll only accept people with a track record of on time payments. This will be weighted more heavily than credit score.

3. I'll run a criminal background and credit check. Credit may not be great but I'll be looking for charge offs, late payments, evictions etc and taking into a big picture snapshot of the risk of the tenant.

4. I'll be checking the applicants work and personal references. I'll be looking for job stability, longevity. I'll be asking the personal references if the person will take good care of the property.

5. Lastly, I'll be using a little "feel" in terms of how the applicant handles my screening process. Some people are detail oriented and a little more independent and will cooperate with the process without missing details, making excuses, being late, etc. Some people will be obviously trouble. I'll weed them out early.

Any of those things individually might be insufficient but I believe there will be a benefit in redundancy. I suspect those things will likely filter out the vast majority of bad apples. After that, I know I'm playing a numbers game where the odds are overwhelmingly in my favor. Most of the time I'll make steady money off of each tenant. Sometimes I won't. When I don't, I'll get them out in the fastest amount of time possible. You win some and lose some. I plan to do both...

...only winning more than losing. And I build the loss into my financial business plan. It'll be expected as the cost of doing business.

Thanks to everyone here for such helpful advice. This process has been exciting and a little scary too. We are nervous that perhaps we've overlooked something important. We believe that careful planning will make up for a lot of lack of actual experience. We really want to make our first property very successful so we can ride that surge of success and excitement into the next one and next one and next one...

I have to say, BP has been a very welcoming place. It's nice to be able to talk so openly with like minded people. I promise that we will pay it forward and help others once we have something to share.

Another question: does anyone see any obvious flaws in our business plan? Has anyone tried buying and renting low cost units to lower income tenants?

I'd really like to hear your stories.