Financial Freedom One House At A Time
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…
Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to court we go So your tenant didn’t pay and you sent them a letter of demand stating they had three days to either pay or move. They did neither and you filed for a dispossessory. The sheriff served the papers and seven days later you get a call from magistrate saying your tenant answered and you have to show up for court…
They happen. What, evictions? Sometimes. If you’re a landlord, chances are you’ll have to file for an eviction at some point. I’d like to walk you through what you should do when filing for dispossessory so you won’t feel as unprepared as I did the first time I had to. Start by notifying your tenant that they haven’t paid by giving them a letter of demand. This letter…
As a beginning investor, you’ll find yourself doing all kinds of projects you aren’t equipped for. When you are in one of these situations, make sure it’s because you have to, not because you’re being cheap.
What are your options? When you hear the word option in real estate, you probably think of a lease-option strategy. This is where you lease a house to a tenant buyer with bumpy credit. You call them a tenant buyer because they’re renting your house with the hope of buying it from you in the near future. That’s where the option comes in. You sell them the option…
The four jobs of a tenant Rental property that produces a positive cash flow is the Alpha and Omega of real estate investing. To have positive cash flow, you need to have a tenant that pays well. But is that all that you need them to do? The Answer is an emphatic “No”. When we lease up a tenant, we tell them that we’re hiring them for four…
Rent is due on the first and late after the fifth for most rental properties. See if this scenario sounds familiar. It is 5p.m. on the fifth and you get a frantic call from a tenant. They’re giving you every reason under the sun for paying late. They say things like, “Please, please give me until next Friday.” Next Friday comes. No payment. Before you know it,…
Ashley and I recently took our toddlers to the Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg, Tenn., for the first time. Boy did we have a time. Notice the omission of the word “good” in that last sentence. The time we had was stressful and not fun. My three-year-old decided he wanted nothing to do with the exhibits. Instead, he wanted to plow up and down the halls pushing the “stroller…