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timpanihilistic posted:
I'll make good note of this for my next vacancy!
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Sep 3, 2013 23:21
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timpanihilistic posted:A few months ago I started working for a company that runs background searches on tenants applying for rental housing, whether it be through a private landlord or a property management company. In that time I've learned quite a bit about property management in general, so if anyone has questions about tenant screening and selection I can probably shed some light on the topic. Anyway you could provide us with an email for us poor souls without PM's?
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Sep 4, 2013 18:27
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fishhooked posted:Anyway you could provide us with an email for us poor souls without PM's? Sure! info@residentresearch.com. I'll add it to my first post as well. EDIT: I've left the company. Still a great service, I've just edited in the main e-mail address instead of my personal address. timp fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Apr 30, 2014 |
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Sep 4, 2013 18:52
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My parents are looking at building a six to eight unit property as a way to boost income for retirement. They'll be living in one unit, my older brother will live in another unit and assist them, and they'll rent out the rest. Aside from Landlording and various forums mentioned here, does anyone have any suggestions on books to read or other places to go?
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Sep 5, 2013 06:40
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Must Love Dogs posted:My parents are looking at building a six to eight unit property as a way to boost income for retirement. They'll be living in one unit, my older brother will live in another unit and assist them, and they'll rent out the rest. Aside from Landlording and various forums mentioned here, does anyone have any suggestions on books to read or other places to go? What stage are they at in this plan? Do they already own some land they want to use? Once they have a good idea of where they want to do this, they should call the town/city/county planning & development division and ask every question they can think of. Then ask "What else should I be asking?" Once you have a good idea of the local rules/regulations/fees involved, then go searching for a contractor and a real estate agent. Ask each one if they have direct experience building what you want to build in the area you plan to build it in. Don't use an agent that sells houses all the time; find one that has a good grasp of the workflow involved in purchasing land for development. For a contractor you can ask the P&D people for some recommendations, and also call your local contracting board. Vet everyone thoroughly! Also, post more details and progress updates. I'm sure there are plenty of people here that would be interested in watching a project like that come to fruition.
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Sep 5, 2013 16:46
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They've identified the general vicinity where they want the property, but they do not have the land yet. They also aren't wedded to the notion of new construction: if the right building to be renovated opens up, they'll go with it instead. The down payment's all lined up and we're pulling together the business plan next week. In addition, other recommended steps like establishing a trust are being prepared. Are there any other resources I should look at, aside from the planning and development agency locally? Must Love Dogs fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Sep 5, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 22:30
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Must Love Dogs posted:They've identified the general vicinity where they want the property, but they do not have the land yet. They also aren't wedded to the notion of new construction: if the right building to be renovated opens up, they'll go with it instead. The down payment's all lined up and we're pulling together the business plan next week. In addition, other recommended steps like establishing a trust are being prepared. You may want to approach a civil engineer. Most cities will want a full site plan/design documents for multi-unit/family units past 4.
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Sep 5, 2013 22:59
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Must Love Dogs posted:They've identified the general vicinity where they want the property, but they do not have the land yet. They also aren't wedded to the notion of new construction: if the right building to be renovated opens up, they'll go with it instead. The down payment's all lined up and we're pulling together the business plan next week. In addition, other recommended steps like establishing a trust are being prepared. I'm sure there are books and such about the general workflow of building things, but each area has a ton of differing specifics such that you really just need to talk to locally experienced people. The reason that I say go to P&D is that they'll have all the contacts you need for the people who have experience doing these things. Architects, engineers, contractors, lawyers, real estate agents, accountants, etc. Your best bet is to work with people who have done these things in your local area, and are up to date on the current laws/regulations/fees/backdoors.
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Sep 5, 2013 23:49
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Yeah that's definitely a great suggestion, one I'll be taking. I've already tracked down the phone number and will be giving them a call beginning of next week. Will let everyone know how it goes.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:08
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Ack, totally forgot that I had posted. I brought the court case look up to the management company's attention and made them run each address against the addresses on the credit reports. None of them matched, according to them. The names are not uncommon but not particularly common either, so I'll take their word for it that these are different people. timpanihilistic, I worked for Saferent for 2 years (in sales) from like 2004-2006. I probably know more about background checks than my property managers do 
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Sep 6, 2013 22:18
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Anybody have a good site for lease templates? I can't seem to find any decent ones, and I have to write up a new lease for a tenant. When I have time, I'll talk about what I've recently purchased. edit: Thanks! \/ \/ \/ particle409 fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Sep 14, 2013 |
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Sep 13, 2013 20:47
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particle409 posted:Anybody have a good site for lease templates? I can't seem to find any decent ones, and I have to write up a new lease for a tenant. When I have time, I'll talk about what I've recently purchased. http://www.residentresearch.com/landlord-forms/
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Sep 13, 2013 20:50
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timpanihilistic posted:affordable rates and easy-to-read and easy-to-understand reports that just make a ton of sense. If you're a private landlord or work for a property management company, send me a PM so we can talk about putting a tenant who doesn't suck in your rental property. We work with property management firms with 10,000 units, private landlords with one unit, and everyone in between. Do you require an inspection of the landlord's office or home office before reports can be ordered? Thanks.
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Sep 15, 2013 20:14
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socketwrencher posted:Do you require an inspection of the landlord's office or home office before reports can be ordered? Thanks. If you want to see the trade lines of a credit report, then we would need to schedule a site inspection. We hire a third party company to basically just check that you keep your files locked up. It's a requirement by Transunion. But if you don't want a site inspection you can still order reports, and you'll still get the credit score, full criminal background search including all counties of all 50 states, all sex offender lists and the national terrorist list, and an eviction record. We can also do employment and resident verifications.  EDIT: I always recommend private landlords just forego the site inspection. Without it, you still get to see the credit score, PLUS we'll read their trade lines for you and tell you about any bankruptcies, charge-offs, collections, and whether they owe money to another property, be it a management company, apartment complex, landlord, whatever. That saves you having to pay the $60.00 and you still get all the important info you really need to know about their credit history. Trade lines, frankly, are usually really boring. Just opt for the highlight reel.
timp fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Oct 16, 2013 |
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Sep 15, 2013 20:30
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timpanihilistic posted:If you want to see the trade lines of a credit report, then we would need to schedule a site inspection. We hire a third party company to basically just check that you keep your files locked up. It's a requirement by Transunion. But if you don't want a site inspection you can still order reports, and you'll still get the credit score, full criminal background search including all counties of all 50 states, all sex offender lists and the national terrorist list, and an eviction record. We can also do employment and resident verifications. Great- thanks. I'm sure it varies but what's the general fee for a site inspection?
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Sep 15, 2013 20:40
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socketwrencher posted:Great- thanks. I'm sure it varies but what's the general fee for a site inspection? It's a flat fee actually, and it's $60.00. There are a instances in which we can waive the fee, but they're very specific.
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Sep 15, 2013 21:05
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timpanihilistic posted:It's a flat fee actually, and it's $60.00. There are a instances in which we can waive the fee, but they're very specific. Got it- thanks.
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Sep 15, 2013 21:11
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I got a ticket for being in a park after 11pm taking the shortcut home after a 16 hour day on the office (really cop? I'm dressed in business casual hurrying my rear end home and you write me a $160 ticket). I am now in the state database available online if you search my name and birthdate. Will this sort of stuff show up in your reports?
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Sep 15, 2013 21:30
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kansas posted:I got a ticket for being in a park after 11pm taking the shortcut home after a 16 hour day on the office (really cop? I'm dressed in business casual hurrying my rear end home and you write me a $160 ticket). I am now in the state database available online if you search my name and birthdate. Will this sort of stuff show up in your reports? Yup. But don't worry, nobody cares. We have a default set of criteria in which we judge all aspects of the reports as "Pass", "Fail", or "Conditional", which means a higher or double deposit required. Our default criteria ignores any misdemeanors that are not sex, theft, violence, or drug related, and even those are typically Conditional. And even our clients with the strictest of criteria wouldn't fail you for a charge like that. Your example is a perfect case of a harmless misdemeanor, along with most traffic violations. Now felonies, on the other hand...
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Sep 16, 2013 16:27
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Whelp, the renters already broke the washer and dryer (on the same day, no less!) and haven't paid October's rent yet. Winning!
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Oct 7, 2013 23:16
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TheLizard posted:Whelp, the renters already broke the washer and dryer (on the same day, no less!) and haven't paid October's rent yet. Winning! I have been following this thread for a while, so not completely out of the blue response. What did you enter in the contract about these appliances? I have a similar situation where I rent out my apartment until the market for selling it moves up, but I explicitly said that the appliances present in the house are there on a as-is base, the tenant is granted free use while they function properly and I am not responsible for repairing or replacing them when they break down and the tenant is free to swap them for nicer things if they want. Exactly this last thing happened as he replaced the microwave and dishwasher with a better model and asked me to remove the old ones. These I then parked on the curb with a "FREE" sign on them, can't be bothered with that poo poo. In fact, put them on the curb, went back inside to change into running gear (I live in the same building) and when I came back outside, the microwave was already gone, the dishwasher was gone when I came back from my run.
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Oct 8, 2013 10:13
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I have to double check the lease but I'm pretty sure it's a "you break it, you fix it" situation. Unfortunately, it might not be possible to prove that they broke it. I suspect they overloaded them (because I also suspect they have 10 people living there) but I'm waiting from a response on the maintenance guy who actually examined them.
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Oct 8, 2013 11:58
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Any advice from someone who's did it on how to buy and rent out trailer homes?
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Oct 13, 2013 01:17
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I've rented trailer homes and read about the subject. The major difference is that you have the home and you have the land, and those are two entirely separate things. One common arrangement is for someone to purchase the home and rent the land. Buying homes and renting them out to others without owning the land may be difficult, and you might need the consent of the landowner to do that. The laws regarding mobile home tenancy are often entirely separate from those that cover other dwellings, so you need real estate professionals that are experienced in this specific field.
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Oct 13, 2013 05:30
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I'll nth the "cashflow is king" as a former reluctant landlord - I was unable to sell my underwater property without declaring bankruptcy basically and wound up renting out during the height of the recession where similar units went for another $300 / mo just before (I asked renters nearby). There's a few things you can use as deductions to help make your tax bills easier such as amortization and deducting HOA fees, but none of this makes a real difference if you're clearing only 4% on your mortgage & taxes because you'll hit an expense and wipe out whatever tax offsets you made via deductions. There are very few things that look positive going forward long term as a condo owner if you're not clearing easily from the beginning because enough other expenses will rise that your margins will all disappear. So it becomes a hilariously bad investment with all the downsides of being an active asset manager.Aquatic Giraffe posted:A bunch of warnings about litigation So this basically means that you should consider your HOA's stability / cashflow as an extension of your own property's value when buying. When HOA dues go up, it will depress your property's gains. When your HOA isn't meeting its financial obligations, it'll probably mean that it's going to raise them in mass judgements against the owners or just start fining people left and right. It's a terrible situation in the US now for owning most condos and the amount of rather unregulated power they have upon you as a property owner is well documented just from random google searches. Owning a condo for me became the worst of renting and the worst of ownership to where I've lost basically every desire to own a home again. Now, if you own a condo and can easily clear the monthly expenses with your rent, you're probably in ok shape, but you'll have the threat of not just random crap breaking in your place but the whims of your HOA.
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Oct 14, 2013 20:58
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Sounds like renting condos can have a number of problems a single detached house wouldn't. Sounds like you went through an absolute nightmare. Something I've noticed in the immediate area I live in is the number of rental properties are much higher than I realized. There's been quite a few foreclosures over the last 5 or 6 years so I'm guessing people are losing their homes and they're being bought up by landlords. Even homes that were empty for years and in less than great shape (one had a large tree limb fall through the roof in the middle of winter and sat that way for days before someone put a tarp up) have sold and are now occupied. Right now within a block of me are 3 empty, foreclosed houses not for sale, 3 empty houses for sale (I think were foreclosed on before) and maybe 2 or 3 that are empty with rental signs up front. The available rentals usually only stay empty for maybe a month or two before they have tenants. Granted I'm in a pretty old part of town with homes built in the 1950s and 1960s and prices for some of the properties are below $90k. It's interesting to watch this all happening around me.
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Oct 15, 2013 14:11
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I would caution very much about hearing stories from people buying up properties and renting them for profit as if any random person with $n thousand dollars in cash could be successful - it's extremely dependent upon market for starters, like I said. On the flipside, I would also caution against reading too much into my scenario as "do never rent properties" - it's about as bad as possible aside from being sued by tenants, which is what happened to some friends of mine (it was a frivolous lawsuit trying to extract money out of my friends, which was really shady especially with the tenant's lawyer father getting involved as a scare tactic, which I've heard is considered unethical). But cautious optimism is the attitude I'd take with anything that you'd expect to make money off of (read: investments). But my god, $90k for a house that's not condemned? That's barely a 20% down payment in my mind being around nothing but expensive metro areas.
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Oct 15, 2013 16:58
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necrobobsledder posted:But my god, $90k for a house that's not condemned? That's barely a 20% down payment in my mind being around nothing but expensive metro areas. edit: my grandpa was telling me about a 5 bedroom, 3 bath 3000sq foot house built in 1980 that he passed on last year because it was too expensive, at $125k.
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Oct 15, 2013 23:45
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adorai posted:I could pick up a 50 year old 2 bed/1 bath 1200sq foot house in my town for under $50k. It would need work, but not a tremendous amount. The tear down just around the block from me went for $800,000. It was literally torn down a month after it sold. Note, its not even in the 'good' school district, its one block too far south. Even making six figures, I literally do not know how I'll ever afford a house around here. San Francisco
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Oct 16, 2013 03:53
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What happens if you don't pay HOA dues in the US? Does it vary by state? They can't evict you from a property you own, right? That'd be crazy.
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Oct 16, 2013 04:37
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Bloodnose posted:What happens if you don't pay HOA dues in the US? Does it vary by state? They can't evict you from a property you own, right? That'd be crazy. It's a lien that has to be paid off when you sell the house. Not sure if it subordinates bank debt like a mechanic's lien or is subordinate to the bank debt though.
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Oct 16, 2013 05:06
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HOAs can record a lien and foreclose if you are behind on dues. There are often stories of people ending up losing their homes over a couple grand in back dues, if their HOA board is a bunch of dicks and actually decides to follow through with a foreclosure rather than just a lien. On one hand I think foreclosing based on back dues is just plain vindictive and pointless behavior, but I hate HOAs that make absolutely zero effort to collect what's owed, too. I rent out a townhouse in a larger development that has freestanding single family houses in it. There's an HOA for the street of townhouses and the whole development has its own master HOA. Both are represented by the same inept management company; I half wonder if they are some board member's cousin or something. Apparently the master HOA had something like $80K worth of receivables on the books, and since the dues are $225/year that means that there were some people who never paid a dime of dues since the houses were sold in 2005-2006. They were going to try to offer these folks a payment plan first, under the threat of a lien if the homeowner doesn't hold up their end of the deal. When I asked why they won't just file a lien first to protect our interests the board president said they "wanted to be nice." It's not your fiduciary duty to be nice, it's your duty to protect the interests of those of us who actually pay the bills. If my current tenant moves out I am really tempted to just list this place for a song to get out from under this HOA.
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Oct 16, 2013 06:05
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I lived in a townhome with an HOA for a couple of years and couldn't get out fast enough. There's a wide range of how HOAs are operated, from really great to complete rear end in a top hat, but I wouldn't want to a own a rental property that fell under an HOA. The level of trouble they can cause for really dumb stuff is insane and, unfortunately, perfectly legal. For folks located in major metropolitan areas (like kansas in San Fran) I don't know how you would get into being a landlord let alone owning your own home. The wad of cash you would need to even think about owning a second property blows my mind. One of the many benefits of living in flyover country I guess. edit: Looks like landlord problems are the same everywhere, even Croatia. TouchyMcFeely fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Oct 16, 2013 |
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Oct 16, 2013 13:12
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Bloodnose posted:What happens if you don't pay HOA dues in the US? Does it vary by state? They can't evict you from a property you own, right? That'd be crazy. HOAs can evict in Illinois. Assuming the mortgage continues to be paid (or that there isn't one) the owner still owns it, he just can't live there. The HOA then rents the property out to pay their lien.
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Oct 16, 2013 18:11
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I wasn't really happy with one of my posts earlier in this thread because I made it seem like it costs $60 to sign up to see credit, so I've edited my original post with an addendum of sorts. Quoting the edit below:timp posted:EDIT: I always recommend private landlords just forego the site inspection. Without it, you still get to see the credit score, PLUS we'll read their trade lines for you and tell you about any bankruptcies, charge-offs, collections, and whether they owe money to another property, be it a management company, apartment complex, landlord, whatever. That saves you having to pay the $60.00 and you still get all the important info you really need to know about their credit history. Trade lines, frankly, are usually really boring. Just opt for the highlight reel. VVV EDIT: Thank you, sir! Happy to hear that you're liking it! VVV timp fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 16, 2013 |
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Oct 16, 2013 22:23
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Just wanted to follow up and say that I have signed up with timp's company for tenant screening and it really is easy to use and produces clear reports. I was previously using a broker to run credit checks but this is much better. The reports are run immediately after I input the information and I have access to all the reports online so I can print them anywhere. I think it is a great service and I am happy to talk with anyone in more detail about my experience.
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Oct 16, 2013 23:09
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Bloodnose posted:What happens if you don't pay HOA dues in the US? Does it vary by state? They can't evict you from a property you own, right? That'd be crazy. Typically when you buy a house that's covered by an HOA, part of the purchase contract is joining the HOA and signing the contracts that give them power over you. You basically can't buy a house but opt out of its HOA unless the rules say you can. Which does happen but it's rare. So yeah if you fail to pay dues or fines from violations you can be kicked out of your own house.
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Oct 18, 2013 21:38
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Generally, renting the place with furnishing like a washer or a fridge for the increased rent, or having the place completely bare and the tenants supply their own poo poo (to break).. which makes more sense from the cash flow perspective? I have some things that I could leave in a rental, or I could take them and sell them and get some money straight away. I guess it depends on the tenant, if they're decent (which is a result of the property you're renting) then it's a long term earner. If they're dumb kids then they'll break poo poo and quickly.
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Oct 19, 2013 14:57
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Tony Montana posted:Generally, renting the place with furnishing like a washer or a fridge for the increased rent, or having the place completely bare and the tenants supply their own poo poo (to break).. which makes more sense from the cash flow perspective? That heavily depends on your local market. EG: Here in the DC area, there are very few rentals (at least in the <$2500/mo markets) that don't provide most appliances. Higher end places are always down to what you work out with the tenant, but IME, most tenants expect a fridge, stove, washer and dryer (if the unit has hookups for one) or laundry in basement, etc.
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Oct 19, 2013 15:21
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I think specifically in southern California you may not get a refrigerator I think but as you go up market there will always be more provided across the world. My sister had to keep buying refrigerators when she moved around in the not-so-great parts of LA, but I don't think she'd have to do it if she was in some $10k / mo mansion.
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Oct 19, 2013 17:25
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