The Service Member Civil Relief Act serves two goals: 1. It protects military tenant from last minute PCS, deployment orders, and in some states, the ability to move on base. 2. It also provides clear guidelines for the landlord on how to enforce it. This creates a very black and white policy for enforcement. As discussed in 3 ways to break a lease with the SCRA, the SCRA can be used more than just PCS orders. Over the past couple of … [Read more...]
Life Lessons From a Jaded Landlord
Building a Real Estate Empire is a crazy, winding road. While you will always know your end goal, the path you take will probably never be the one you ever imagined. I know it certainly hasn't been for us! Three years ago, when we put our first short sale offer down on our first rental property in South Carolina, I NEVER would have imagined where we would be today. While we have been more successful then my wildest imagination, I would … [Read more...]
Why I don’t Allow my Tenants to do Repairs Around the Home
I've heard from a lot of other landlords that they pay their tenants to do repairs instead of hiring a professional. As a wife with a super handy husband (he built a boat from scratch!), and a landlord with six rentals and managing ten, I truly can see both sides. I remember when we rented a home in Texas. Our roommate's room flooded when a $2.00 seal broke in the toilet and the property manager was just awful. We called to let her know … [Read more...]
How We Started Investing in Out of State Real Estate
Are you trying to decide if you should buy local or out of state? Are you worried that your house that you are living in now will become an out of state rental? Owning out of the area, out of state, or even across country is totally doable. Not only are we a military family who knows that local is only as relative as the current set of orders but we took a jump even sooner than we expected. We purposely bought our first investment out … [Read more...]
The One Question to Ask Yourself Before Answering Tenant Inquiries
Do you get the craziest questions from your Applicants or Tenants? "Will you allow chickens?" "Will you hold the home for 2 months?" "Will you reduce the rent $200 a month?" "Will you allow 4 cats?" You know the ones that have you scratching your heading trying to figure out the answer? You are sitting there shaking your head in disbelief or pure bewilderment! I am the biggest advocate of treating your rental like a business. I … [Read more...]
9 Tips for Buying More Than Four Houses
Are you interested in building an empire and want to use conventional mortgages? Under current regulation each person can have up to 10 houses per individual name. The myth of only 4 has been heard over the past couple of years. The difference is after 4 houses or 5+ the rules change. That is not to say you cannot buy more than 4 houses, it just means that things get more complicated. We just bought our 6 and 7th houses. I often times … [Read more...]
How to Leave a Voicemail for Interested Tenant Inquiries
Do you get tongue tied when you are calling regarding a new subject for the first time? I have noticed over the years that for many rentals are scary. They are very much the unknown and therefore for many the whole process can be super stressful. After self managing for almost 3 years, working with over 15 different tenants I have found that calling applicants and answering questions seem to "roll" off of my tongue. On the other hand; … [Read more...]
Why I Strive to Put 0% Down on ALL my Homes
Just in case you weren't aware. - I am an investor! I am a small time investor as we only have 7 houses. I am proud to say that I buy ALL houses with the intent to rent them out. Some are rented out sooner than others if we live in them first but the exit strategy for each purchase is to rent them out. As we have discussed in the exit strategy article, everyone should always have an exit strategy if they buy a home. My exit strategy is that … [Read more...]
Case Study: Renting vs. Buying – House #4
We talked previously about whether or not owning home is "worth it". I gave you all the reasons why this stress inducing, debt increasing, hobby is worth it in words. Well let me give you the numbers. The proof! Here it goes!! I bare it ALL! Here is one of my houses' actual numbers (as close as possible, I am not a perfect, I am an 80%er) I am a transparent investor. You don't have to like me, or respect what I do. I do expect you to … [Read more...]
6 Ways to Reduce the Risk of Rental Ownership
Does owning so many houses bother you? Aren't you worried about your risk of owning so many homes? I get those two questions and many more variations of those same two questions all the time! They are correct. We own soon to be 7 houses. That is A LOT of house with almost 1.2 million dollars of DEBT! How can I happily get myself in so much debt when so many people and websites are doing everything they can to get OUT of debt? There are … [Read more...]