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Be aware that you will have a difficult time keeping an AC unit in the "hood". The AC units contain copper pipe and your meth head neighbors, or even your own tenant, will tear up or steal a $5,000 AC unit just to get $5 worth of copper.
Be aware that you will have a difficult time keeping an AC unit in the "hood". The AC units contain copper pipe and your meth head neighbors, or even your own tenant, will tear up or steal a $5,000 AC unit just to get $5 worth of copper.
First of all if you put in window units your expense is nowhere near $5K ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by tworent
I have not lost one yet
... and window units are likewise easily protected from theft and vandalism. I lived in a 'hood for 16 years and with iron "cages" supporting and surrounding two big ground floor window A/C units there was never a problem with them.
with sec 8 as non sec 8 you have good and bad. we have only had problems with 1 sec 8 tenet , and they have been our best they keep the places clean, and have been long term.
Now to answer the other question buying low income houses. On a cash flow they will be the highest return of most any house you buy. With that said they will not be the most work, as many people will tell you. After you get a system and learn you will be fine. What I have found is find a lower working class area stay away from the war zone until you have been doing it for sometime. I buy by the 2% rule if you do the same you will be fine. The 2% means that my total cost to buy the property and get it ready to rent I need to rent it for 2% of that price. So a house that I have 50K in needs to rent for 1K its that simple. People will say no way, I just bought a house last week for 40k and 1k to close 8-10k to clean it up and it will rent for an easy 1100.
We calculate it another way. We look for 20% return on investment, meaning that if the property cost 100K to buy and renovate, and the annual rent (minus maintenance, utilities, taxes, insurance) is 20K, it will pay the building off in five years. Our best investment properties meet this, but prices are rising, so now we're getting more like 15% return on investment. Still a good deal.
We ordered similar ones for a couple of owners. They cost a couple of hundred dollars but are way cheaper than when the unit gets stolen. We always left the keys with the A/C company so they had them in case of service needed.
with sec 8 as non sec 8 you have good and bad. we have only had problems with 1 sec 8 tenet , and they have been our best they keep the places clean, and have been long term.
We had a huge issue with a section 8 landlord who had 17 units and we took HER to court! We did find out she had been caught for trying to bribe sectio 8 inspectors by giving them gift cards, etc. and there was a big article in the news papers about her but we never checked on her until we managed her properties and we started to see that she was a big scammer.
We won in court and she tried to get her lawyers cost to be paid by us even though she lost and it was small claims court... that was very funny. She hired the most expensive lawyer in town and I went with 2 witnesses without any lawyer and won.
Since it is all about proof, that was all had to bring.
But that entire ordeal made me realize that section 8 is not worth it to manage any homes since the tenants were just as much of a mess and scamming the system as the landlord was. Only one section 8 tenant was one who really needed it and was a nice person who tried her best...out of all 17 units.
I liked Section 8 the way it was 30 years ago and even 15 years ago...
Originally, the idea was for Housing to contract with local owners to house eligible families in neighborhoods instead of projects.
Housing did everything... screen tenants, make repairs, collect rents and cover damages.
Every change since then has shifted more of the burden to the property owner.
The biggest change that affected me is when Housing got out of the Security Deposit Business... in other words the Landlord was left to attempt collecting damages from people with little to no income.
Most recently, Housing uses almost all contract inspectors... they do not work for Housing and there is little continuity...
The old system had a "Case Worker" that would track everything from family income, size, eligibility, rent payments and how the family took care of the rental...
I liked Section 8 the way it was 30 years ago and even 15 years ago...
Originally, the idea was for Housing to contract with local owners to house eligible families in neighborhoods instead of projects.
Housing did everything... screen tenants, make repairs, collect rents and cover damages.
Every change since then has shifted more of the burden to the property owner.
The biggest change that affected me is when Housing got out of the Security Deposit Business... in other words the Landlord was left to attempt collecting damages from people with little to no income.
Most recently, Housing uses almost all contract inspectors... they do not work for Housing and there is little continuity...
The old system had a "Case Worker" that would track everything from family income, size, eligibility, rent payments and how the family took care of the rental...
Big mistake now this link has been broken...
The problem is that the program has grown and grown but funding has stayed stagnant, and in the latest year, been drastically cut.
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