Writ of possession I meet with a tired landlord recently at a property where they’d just finished the eviction process. And this person said multiple times during our meeting that they never wanted to be a landlord ever again. The reason for this was the tenants owed the landlord quit a bit of money. Months prior to the eviction, one of the tenants had moved out. Because of…
Friends, family and business I was talking to a landlord recently who had been put through the wringer by her tenants. You see, she had bought a freshly remodeled, four bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 2,000-square-foot home and paid retail price for it. Now, this landlord was not a hedge fund, and she was not a high roller looking to put lazy money to work. She was just…
A lose-lose situation We try as real estate investors to create win-win situations when constructing our deals. This endeavor takes a lot of practice and a lot of training to accomplish. We spend countless hours reading books about negotiating and creative deal structuring, and we regularly attend seminars on the subject. We do this so we can be prepared to help as many people as possible solve their real…
Holidays, vacancies and late payees I got a call recently from someone needing advice about their landlord/ tenant relationship. This caller was the tenant, rather than the landlord. This tenant was upset that they had just received — and I quote — “a nasty letter” from their landlord. The letter said the tenant either needed to pay what was owed in full or move from the property. …
Start the ball rolling Does this scenario sounds familiar? Rent is due on the first and late after the fifth. After 5p.m. on the fifth, you send a letter of demand via email and a text that says the tenant needs to pay or move from the property by the ninth. If not, you’ll have to file dispossessory at court. On the morning of the ninth you…
What can an in-home tell you? I’m sure you have all heard the horror stories of some poor landlord who took the first person with money who came along and rented to them their nice, newly renovated rental home only to have it destroyed in a matter of months, right? While that does happen, there’s something you can do as a landlord to limit and pretty much prevent…
Our first occupied sit-out We recently had to do one of the most uncomfortable things I feel like a person has to do as a landlord. It’s called a sit-out. If you don’t know what that is, a sit-out is the culmination of the dispossessory proceedings. It’s where the landlord has to go in and physically remove all of someone’s personal possessions from the interior of their property…
I had an interesting time with contractors last week. We have five rehabs going right now, which means we are dealing with lots of contractors and many different schedules. And last week’ workflow was, well, inefficient at best. I had one contractor go MIA. I chose that term because we didn’t know he was gone. He normally goes out, works and sends us his invoice when he is…
The other day I was reading a forum discussing myths in real estate investing. One of the contributors said the phrase “it doesn’t take money to make money” is the biggest myth in real estate investing today. I disagreed with the contributor from the standpoint of personal experience; Ashley and I had no money when we started. We were broke kids, straight out of college, with a ton…
You often hear tired landlords complaining of midnight calls from their tenants about leaky toilets. We’ve never experienced those calls. That’s because our tenants know that if they call after 5 p.m., they’ll get a response the next day- unless it’s an emergency of course. We’ve received a couple of those late-night calls for things like busted water mains, but they’ve been few and far between. The issue…