Posted in Real Estate
|
I wanted to give a quick update to touch base with my friends. It has been a busy week. In addition to homeschooling and keeping a home I have been working on a website for our real estate business. I don't know html but found a place, IX webhosting whose site includes a free tool that works something like a wizard to develop one's site. I have things up and running, but need a bunch more photos on the site. For anyone interested it is www.visionstoneproperties.com. But over the next week or so I hope to add lots of photos so it will look better. Trouble is this is all very time consuming. We also have 3 properties that are emptying out the end of Nov. No matter how hard we try to avoid this kind of situation, since Nov. isn't prime time to rent a property, things still happen. We have found new tenants for one property but we have 2 to go. Appreciate any prayers in that regard, as Nov. will be really tight if we have 2 empty places. We still have a month to go so I am trying not to worry and trust God instead. Always a challenge though. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
For anyone interested I thought it was time to give a real estate update on our new property. This was the one that the old man stayed in two weeks after we bought it. Well all of July dh has been working hard at this house and has hired a carpenter to help him. They put a powder room in the first floor and put electricity in the attic. They also put railings on the front and back porch and painted. So now comes the scramble, because the work isn't quite done but we have a tenant. We advertised 3 days and got about 10 calls, but the first person who looked at the place took it. She came up with the money for the credit check, got a financial backer because her credit wasn't good, and then the next day brought us a month's security deposit. But then the best part was that she decided to pay us a whole year's rent up front. We didn't ask for that, but since this is a divorce situation where she and the 3 boys are moving and the house was sold, she has money from the house sale I guess. And she doesn't have a job right now so she used her money wisely enough to pay in advance. Now she doesn't have rent to worry about for awhile. That is good for us, because we have a cash flow crunch fixing up this property. The biggest challenge in being full time in real estate is cash flow. We have plenty of equity but not often enough cash flow. So this helps us get over the hump. God provides in interesting ways. And I am looking forward to things slowing down a bit once this house is put back together. That has to happen this week as the tenant is moving in. Never a dull moment. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
We came up with an name for our real estate business finally!!! Yesterday when our friends were visiting we started discussing a name for our business. Although we have been full time in real estate for 3 years now we never have given ourselves a name. VisionStone Properties was the name my son of 6 years old came up with listening and responding to others comments and we think it will stick. My husband wants to add VisionStone Properties, A Place for Tomorrow. Vision communicate that we are moving forward and looking to build multi-generationally. Stone communicates that we are building on the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, and building in the ancient paths and with ancient boudary stones. So what do you think? |
Posted in Real Estate
|
Well, doing the habits of bloggers inspired me to try to figure out seven habits of effective landlords. I guess we can qualify as effective landlords as we have now been fulltime in real estate for 3 years. The statistics are such that most landlords give up after 2 years because of bad experiences and lack of preparation for the job. So to encourage those of you starting out (Homeschooling6 and ReneeM)here is my list. Please anyone else with experience (cyndiegirl72) post a list too and link it over to mine.
1. Screen tenants carefully, beginning with the phone. Have a list of questions available to ask to avoid people coming who won't really be good candidates. Let them know there will be a credit check and they will have to pay for it. Figure out your pet policy and communicate it. (If you do take pets charge them more for that; pets do damage!!!) Have a written list of your criteria so you can tell a person if don't meet it. It must be within the confines of the law, but can include things like pet policy, income qualifications (we use 1/3 of income going toward rent as a rule of thumb), smoking policy, credit score. 2. Have them fill out a rental application and charge them $25 or so for the credit check/application fee. These can be downloaded from a credit screening company or a real estate site online such as The Landlord Protection Agency. Make sure you do at least a credit check as a result of the application but don't do it until you have gotten their application fee. (Many people never find the money for this-you don't want to rent to them). You may want to also check an eviction history and employment history as well. 3. Call the previous landlord and ask some questions (you got this info on your application). Ask what the tenant paid per month and how long they were there to see if info matches up and to help filter out if this is a real landlord or just a friend masquerading as the landlord. 4.. Set your appointments to do showings but have the prospective tenant call before they leave their home to come over. In the beginning we wasted much time with no-shows who didn't have the courtesy to call. Common courtesy is no longer common. 5. Use a comprehensive landlord friendly lease. You don't have to enforce everything in the lease but then you are making the choice about what you enforce not them. Most states have a standard lease available through a realtor. If you have a real estate group in your state sometimes folks there can direct you to a good lease. That is how we got ours, through a landlord many years in the business in PA. 6. Get a copy of the landlord tenant act for your state and read it though. This can be found on the internet. He who knows the rules wins. 7. Treat your tenants with respect but set firm boundaries from the beginning. If you can't say no, this is probably not the business for you. If a tenant is late on rent, charge a late fee. If there is no payment by the 10th day of the month begin to pursue eviction. Don't let empty words drain you dry and suck you under. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
I have been asked this question so I will try to answer. To be honest we haven't read that many. Most of what we know comes from seminars and from personal experience. But that said there are few I can recommend and some that others have suggested I read so I will put those down too. 1. Investing in Lease Options and Subject To Deals by Wendy Patton. She has a good seciton on explaining subject to Deals that made sense to me. Her ideas sound good, but may not be as easy to implement as she implies. 2. David Lindahl He has an expensive course for $600 which might be very good. I just heard him on a tape and he was worth listening too. I don't know that I would spend the money on his course and I don't think he has a separate book, but anyway he has much info on apartment buildings. 3. Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad, Poor Dad was the book I read. He has many others. He is worth reading to understand the value of making assets work for you when you are not working and the idea of leverage. 4. These are recommended by someone in our investing group. 1. Investing in Real Estate (Third Edition)
by Andrew James McLean, Gary W. Eldred (available on Amazon for $9.90) 2. Landlording: A Handy Manual for Scrupulous Landlords and Landladies Who Do It Themselves (Landlording, 9th Ed)
by Leigh Robinson, et al (Paperback)
5. These are recommended by someone else in our group who is a very successful landlord. 5 Magic Paths to Making a Fortune in Real Estate - James Lumley Okay, that ought to keep us all busy. It looks like I have some more reading to do too..
| |||
Posted in Real Estate
|
I had a chance to encourage a want to be investor tonight. It was kind of fun, as I love encouraging people in the things I know. We have been working with a number of different insurance agents trying to find someone who will insure the property we are currently working on purchasing. It seems the regulations have tightenend up considerably and it is tough to find someone who will insure a less than perfect house, but still very liveable. But this one woman knowing that this was an investment property asked if she could call us this evening and ask some questions about investing. I said sure and so she did and we had a nice conversation. She has been researching real estate but has yet to make a purchase. I think I was able to give her some helpful advice, which makes me feel good. So many people with more experience than us have helped us along the way and that is still happening. So it is nice when I can do the same for someone else. The same thing happens these days with homeschooling too. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
Saturday was a great day for us. My dh and I had the opportunity to go to a financial seminar for real estate investors put on by our mortgage broker. This guy is a gifted teacher and he knows his stuff. He is also an investor and has 80 units that he owns and manages. What was really nice about the setting was that it was a small group of about 10 people and so was a discussion format. We could break in with questions at any point and we also learned from some of the other folks who were there. I was the only woman there which was okay because I was with my husband. I think if I had been there alone it would have felt really strange. It was a man's world that day but being under my husband made the difference. We took the baby with us and no one seemed to have a big problem with that either, but she was fairly quiet and didn't cause any trouble. And the other kids stayed with a friend of ours who has 5 kids. They had a great time. Thanks Francette. The things that were most helpful to me were the following points. 1. Always keep a 6 month supply of funds available or know where to get those funds in the next 6 months. 2. When you get into commercial real estate be aware that you are swimming with the sharks and there are bigger returns and bigger risks. 3. In commercial real estate there are no financing rules, unlike residential real estate. So anything can be worked out if it is agreeable to buyer and seller and not breaking laws. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
We signed an agreement of sale today for another property- a single family house in fairly good shape going for a good price. It has been quite busy for me the past two days as I have been hunting around for financing. The last few properties we bought were with money from the sale of a house in Philadelphia on which we made a nice profit. The money is now all reinvested through a 1031 tax exchange. That is where you reinvest money into more real estate under very specific rules and conditions and can defer capital gains taxes until the reinvested property is sold. But that money is all gone now so we have to get creative, as we have very little cash to work with. One of the challenges of being full time in real estate is that although we have assets, none of them are liquid. So sometimes I feel like I am playing 3 level chess trying to access money to grow our business. I did have an good conversation with a real estate broker who is part of the real estate investment group we belong too (an excellent group by the way for anyone in real estate in PA, NJ, or DE. Info is at www.digonline.org.) He was really helpful and he can find us funding if we put 10% down, which we will manage as that is probably the best we can do. The critical part for us is that we have to still be able to have cash flow on this property and it looks like that will be able to happen. One of the important things we are seeing in this business is that we need good people to work with who are trustworthy and knowledgeable in their fields and the longer we do this the more we are finding such people. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
We bought a property today- the nicest one we have ever bought. It is an old schoolhouse (yes, I am for real) that someone bought and converted into 4 apartments. He did a beautiful job and it is a very attractive building. My husband pursued this building because we had money from a previous sale of a house in Philadelphia that we needed to invest. He saw that there was a sign up advertising an apartment for rent and when he got through to the real estate agent and asked if the owner was interested in selling she said yes. That was November. It has taken us about 6 weeks to get the contract in place and work out the details. Perhaps some of that was because the owner wasn't finished with the project and so wasn't quite prepared to sell so we caught him a bit early. Today's closing went smoothly perhaps because all the details were worked out earlier. And the best part is the apartments are all rented so we get March rent checks right away and there really is no work needed to any apartments. There is a bit needed to the laundry room that is available for tenants but it is manageable. This is the first time we have bought something that didn't need any work. Quite exciting. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
I love my Canon MP 3 in 1 printer/fax/copier/scanner. It has had my life so much easier both for real estate and for homeschooling. No more running around to copy things I need for buying/selling a property or running to send a fax. With 4 children that isn't easy to do. When we decided to buy this a year ago I did some research and came up with this particular machine highly recommended. Ours is a Canon MP 390. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
We have an applicant for an apartment we are trying to rent. But he has to pass through our screening process. We have found that since we got involved in real estate 10 years ago that if we put our prospective tenants through a screening process we can often screen out the problems. So far we have not had to evict a tenant and by God's grace that will continue to be true. So the tenant fills our an application form that asks for info about job, past rental history, social security number, etc. Then we do a credit check. After that we call the previous landlord and sometimes call to check that the job info they gave us is really true. Then if they pass through all that we ask for one month's security deposit and sometimes a last month's rent and of course a first month's rent to move in and we have them sign our lease, which is 12 pages long. Because of this screening process sometimes people get weeded out without us saying no, as many folks with really poor credit histories often don't follow through to even apply. We have taken tenants with poor credit but usually it is because they have a co-signer or because we have chosen to work with them anyway based on other things about them we like or based on their particular story.. |
Posted in Real Estate
|
Good news today. A tenant we have had for two years told us they are planning to stay at least another year. They are good tenants and easy to get along with and pay on time. One of the keys to making money in real estate rentals is keeping good tenants and not having vacancies. We have one empty apartment right now in the house we bought and we are advertising for a tenant for that apartment. Hopefully it won't take us too long, but this county is not a hot area to live. It is rather depressed economically. We advertise in the paper and also sometimes put up notices in some public places. We try to screen people very closely to avoid problem tenants and so far it has worked. We have had some problems, but no evictions yet. By God's grace we will continue to have that record. We check landlord references and also credit. It amazes me how bad the average person's credit is. It is actually very discouraging to see the average person who calls for a place for rent - usually either divorcing or breaking up a relationship or else two people not married with children from each individual. It gives one a very skewed view of our culture, although perhaps no more skewed than just interacting with the Christian homeschool community.
|