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Peoria house 99% rented

My current tenant told me that they were leaving at the end of August on last Wednesday.  I put a very simple ad on craigslist on Thursday. 

I got a call from a couple who has 5 kids and 2 dogs right away.  The reason they are moving is because they came home to find a foreclosure notice attached to the door of the house that they are currently renting.  The auction is set for August 28th.  They had been renting their current home for 3 years.

(BTW, I did a records check on their current residence and their landlord had 26 foreclosure notices in the past 2 months!  Must be a real estate investor who just gave up.)

I also got a call from a woman who was looking for a home for her daughter.  The house that her daughter is living in is also getting foreclosed on!  I see a trend coming with good tenants looking for new homes.

My tenant had agreed to do all the showings, which is great because I live 35 miles away from the house. 

The couple went over to look at the home on Friday and filled out an application on Saturday.  I approved them today and we are meeting to sign the lease today.  The new tenants do not have good credit (not many do) but he faxed me copies of his paycheck stubs and I had his mother co-sign the lease.

I’m so glad that the home was rented so quick!  There was no way I would have been able to sell this house at a decent price.  I know, it’s not done until the lease is signed and I get a check, but I’m about 99% certain that it will go through.  And another bonus, I was able to raise the rent by $125.

I was worried about my current tenants in that house.  Last year it took me 2.5 months to rent the home out and I was getting desperate and would have accepted anyone.  My current tenant is a single mom with 4 kids and her parents are the ones on the lease.  I have not been to the house since and was just worried that it would be trashed.   In fact, Friday was the first time I’ve spoken to my tenant since before she moved in.  I still haven’t seen the house but due to the fact that the new tenants wanted to rent it after seeing it leads me to believe that the house is in pretty good shape.

Posted in Real Estate | 2 Comments »

Peoria house tenant is leaving

I got a call from my tenant today at my Peoria rental home telling me that they will be moving out at the end of August.  My tenant was on a 6 month lease that ended in April and have been going month to month until now.  They found a house with a pool that is doing a rent to own.  I have to remind myself to tell you a tenant story.  I didn’t want to tell it until they moved out.

Now I have that decision again, re-rent or sell?

I haven’t followed the market up there in the past few months, but I’m going to guess that it’s not any better and its probably worse than last October when I was trying to rent it.  This home has a large negative cashflow and is worth barely what I paid for it.  The good news is that the loan is a 30yr fixed at 6.xx%.  I need to decide on whether I want to keep this for the long haul or dump it at a loss.  I don’t feel there is an in between for this home.

I’m going to toss a few craigslist ads up and see what the response is like.

Posted in Real Estate | 6 Comments »

Back from vacation

After spending a week in 75-80 degree weather, I’m back in the heat in Phoenix.   So what’s new?

SLC Townhomes

The new tenants of SLC Townhome #2 moved in and found out that the AC unit was not working.  My PM had someone go take a look at it.  I assumed that it’s fixed and I haven’t received the bill yet.

Apartments

Got the monthly report for the Houston Apartments.  My last update was in late April and the rental income of Houston Apartment #1 had dropped to $62,000/mo.  In the month of June, management was able to raise it to over $68,000.  This is its highest yet.

We have had Houston Apartment #2 for one month.  So far its occupancy was 93% for June.  Although the report did not include our first mortgage payment by my approximate calculations it should cashflow around $84,000 a month.

Ebiz1

I have to get off my butt and get another one up and running.  It has almost been a year since I started Ebiz1.  Ebiz1 officially went live in October but it was in August when I started putting the pieces together.  Time flies!

I’ve finally spent some money on some offline marketing.  I had 50 t-shirts made and will be sending them out to customers who place large orders.

Ebiz2

The big question is still “what do I sell?”  I have an empty storefront, all I need to do is stock it with something…

Posted in Apartments, Making Money Online, Real Estate | 5 Comments »

Riding in Sun Valley

No posts this week:  Here’s a photoshopped picture of our trail from yesterday.

It wasn’t dark and gloomy but we rode through a forest of burned trees.  The photo just looked much creepier with the dark sky.

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Vacation time again

Tomorrow I leave for Sun Valley Idaho for a week of mountain biking.  The high in Sun Valley with be only 70 degrees.  It’s going to be 40 degrees colder than the heat that I’m used to here in Phoenix.  See you all in a week!

Below is a picture I took from the last time I was there in 2004.

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Today was a good day…

Some days things just turn out well…  Today (actually it will be yesterday by the time you read this) just reminded me of the 1993 Ice Cube song “It was a good day (Youtube link)”.

Good news from my PM.  My SLC townhome#2 is rented at $1150/mo!  That’s a $50 increase in rent.  No fridge, washer or dryer needed.  The tenants move in on Saturday.  Now we need to get the bathroom flooring put in.

The quote from the contractor came back at $400 to tile 3 bathrooms!!!  I asked them to double check because it seems way too low.  They are putting in 12″ porcelain tiles that are on sale for $1/sq. ft.

Ebiz#1 had a record day with over $2,600 in sales.

Today was a good day.

Posted in Ebiz1, Real Estate | 1 Comment »

Kudos to My Property Manager

I used berate my PM alot on here.  In fact, since I’ve posted about my PM back in 2006 and 2007 they have improved greatly.  When I first hired them, they were a small 2 person mom and son operation.  In the past 2 years they have expanded to as far as I can tell at least 7 employees.  I don’t have communication problems anymore, I get my rent through direct deposit, I get monthly statements emailed to me, emails are answered quickly and most of all, I get regular updates.  

The amount of work they’ve done for me in the past year makes me the monthly fee seem like a bargain.

One of my SLC townhomes was rented starting July 2nd.  It was rented at $1250/mo which includes the $100/mo for installing a fridge, washer and dryer.  The cost for the appliances came out to $1,080 including taxes, delivery and install.  So in about 11 months the appliance will be paid for. I gave my PM a price range for all appliances and she went out and purchased them, had them delivered and installed.

On my 2nd SLC townhome there was a leak where the toilet attaches to the floor.  Unfortunately, the bathrooms are carpeted!  Yes, the builder offered carpeted bathrooms as standard and when I bought these I couldn’t change these options.  The toilet leak made it necessary for me to replace the carpet in the bathrooms.  I am going to replace it with either vinyl flooring or tile depending on the price.  My PM has is getting bids on both options.

Just imagine how much time that would have taken me to coordinate.  I know that this is what a PM is supposed to do.  But how often is it that smooth?  It’s been going this way for over a year now.  So kudos to my Salt Lake City property managers - CDA Properties.  Notice the beneficial anchor text? ;)

In the meantime, the 2nd SLC townhome has a rental application on it so I’m hoping to get it filled this month.

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