I got called a four-letter word Last night, I was taken aback. I had a tenant call me a four-letter word. Now, I’m used to being called some four-letter words, and I’m OK with that. You see, not all of them are bad. I’m used to being called “boss.” Ashley calls me “cute,” and sometimes bumps it up to a full-fledged “hunk.” Of course, I have to be doing…
They just aren’t cutting the mustard I learned a great tactic from one of my landlord teachers named David Tilney when I took his course called “Hassle Free Property Management.” In the course, David said that all his leases end in either June or July of the year. The reason for this is multifaceted. You see, June and July is when kids are out of school. This makes…
Be on the watch out We found out someone was running a scam on one of our properties this week, and I wanted to tell you about it. The house where the scam occurred was a nice, two-bedroom, 1 1/2-bathroom mobile home in a country setting in Gordon County. It was being offered for rent, and it is one of our most affordable units. Now, we use…
Disposable income The other day, I took my road bike to my local bike shop to get it looked at. It had something weird going on. On my previous ride, I started hearing a ticking sound in my wheel. Prior to the ticking sound, I was averaging over 18 mph. But when the tick sound started, it was all I could do to hit 15 1/2 mph, and it…
Why buy rentals? Boy, we’ve had a week — maybe more than a week. You see, it really started when Ashley’s water broke last Thursday. When that happened, I spent the following Friday trying to finish everything I possibly could. I knew our fourth baby would be here soon, and I wanted to get as much done as possible in final preparation for that impending event. And I wanted…
Death in a rental I was talking to a real good friend named Nicole recently, and she had something happen in one of her houses that she wasn’t sure how to handle. It’s a very delicate situation that you as a landlord may run into at some point. And I thought I would share her story, what she learned and what she plans to do in case you ever…
Termination of lease I would like to start off this week’s column by apologizing for missing you last week. But we had an unforeseen event take place that kept me from being able to get it done. You see, Ashley went into preterm labor. It had been a busy morning for me. I was in and out of meetings, coordinating rehabs, getting things lined up for a lease-up…
Is a master lease a good strategy? The very first rental property Ashley and I ever managed was a little three-bedroom, two-bath house on Kids Drive up in Dalton. At the time, we lived in Villanow, and Dalton was a place we frequented. It was also a place that we did a lot of door knocking trying to find deals, which is how we found the house on Kids…
Why rentals are better than assignment fees I read a great social media post this morning. It was from an investor who was writing to explain why long-term rentals are something wholesalers need to consider when they get houses under contract. And to support his position, he went through the numbers on a recent deal. (Now, I went back to try find you the post so that I…
Time is money more than money When I was first exposed to real estate investing, I was working for an investor down in Atlanta on his rehab crew. The guy’s name was Andy, and he had two of my friends and me doing everything on his rehabs that didn’t require a license, along with some stuff that probably should have. It was great for me. I was getting to…