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…
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…