A couple weeks ago, I was looking at rehab properties with an investor in Coon Rapids. I walked in the front door and was about to go up the stairs when I had to do a double take on this one. I just stood there and tried to figure out what the installer’s motivation was.

It seems that this person (tenant I assume) was able to borrow/find some old Lunds entry carpets and proceeded to use them as runners on the stairs. I could almost understand if the rug had some cool name or logo on it like: BMW, TAG Heuer, or Summit Brewing, but come on, it is Lund’s grocery (nothing against Lunds as they are very nice stores). Then I had to wonder how much traffic and how dirty these stairs must get if they need a dark green commercial carpet to cover them!

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Have you always wanted to buy investment property, but never knew where to start? Don’t Wait! Get Started now.

Real Estate Investing 201 Seminar – Wednesday, June 25, 6:30-8:00 pm

For a real estate investor, finding good tenants is almost as important as finding good properties. Having good tenants makes the property management part of real estate investing easy. Having bad tenants can make you frustrated and leave you with a hole in your bank account. We will be discussing how to screen tenants. What to look for on their credit report, how to confirm they don’t have evictions or criminal records from other states, all while staying within the credit information laws.

Unfortunately, every real estate investor will need to do an eviction some time in their career. The hardest part of an eviction is simply making a decision to do it. We will discuss when it is time to file the eviction and how the legal process works. Also, we will show you how you can streamline the work, minimize your time involvement, and insure it is done properly so that you can take your property back as soon as possible.

This seminar is geared for both the newer investor or the investor that feels like they need some help in these areas. And much more! Future seminar dates are: Aug 26, Oct 28

Send an email to scott@Ficekinvestments.com or call at 612-281-5419 to register.

Back in November, I came across an article that talked about how this writer saw an ad on Craig’s list for a property that was 50% below the market price for the neighborhood. It had him intrigued. He proceeded to check out the upcoming open house only to find out that it appeared to be some sort of bait and switch program going on with an unlicensed agent to sell this house.

I originally called this How to Sell Your House in 5 Days a Scam. Recently, I was doing some geek work on this blog and noticed that I get many searches from Google about How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days. It got me wondering why this post off all my posts would be popular, especially 8 months later.

It turns out there is actually a book written on how to sell your home in five days! It outlines how you advertise your house for 50% of the desired price, have an open house, and then start an auction and bidding war to get the sale price up to where you want it. All in five days. The writer claims he has sold 150,000 houses this way (yeah, right). Amazing.

Upon further review, I would not necessarily call this program a scam, but it is definitely on the strange side of real estate sales. I imagine it could work in the right neighborhood, with the right owner pushing the process, in the right market, with the right house, at the right price point, but I can’t imagine it working more than 10% of the time. I suppose it ranks up there with hiring a clown to entertain the children during an open house, so the parent can tour the house in peace.

Most of the content for this blog comes from questions from my customers.  They feed me topics that I think many of you would like to hear.  Back in November, I had posted a request for investment property questions and had great response.  So, I am opening my ears for another round.

Send me your investment property or real estate questions.  Give me the hard ones, give me the ugly ones.  Just simply comment on this post and I will answer your questions on future posts.

Give me your best shot!

Scott

I have not been posting much lately as I have been buried with multiple apartment turnovers. As I mentioned previously, several years ago, I moved many of my lease end dates to May 31. Subsequently this can be a busy time of year for me.
While I was helping my handyman on a overhaul that we are doing to one of my units (new carpet, paint (ceilings, walls, and trim), new doors, and every last maintenance issue), I thought about some maintenance tips and tricks that I use to make my life easier and make my investment properties more bullet proof. Below is a list of ones that I do during an apartment turnover.

• I am not sure why, but I always find the door knobs in my units are loose when we do a turnover. I bought a small tube of Loc-Tite”, which most mechanics use, that will almost glue the screw into the knob (do not buy the permanent product as you will never get the knob off!).
• The only locks in the entire unit are the deadbolts on the doors. I do not like keyed knobs anywhere in the unit or on the front doors as it is just asking for someone to lock themselves out of their apartment or room. I confirm we do not have any stray locking knobs.
• I always run drain cleaner down each drain to insure they are operating correctly. I bought a product called “Thrift” at the plumbing supply store. It is extra strong and used by most of the drain cleaning experts.
• If the toilet is not working correctly or is more than 5 years old, I replace it. Yes, the parts only cost $8, but I don’t trust them as I had an $800 water bill on a single family house after my plumber just replaced the parts. I could have bought 8 complete toilets that month for the cost of that water bill!
• I leave a box of cheap furnace filters during the turnover to help the tenants know to change the filter occasionally.
• Even if the tenants have never complained about mice, I put a few fresh mouse bait pouches in the basement and under the stove. This insures we are ready if any of the critters gets into the building.
• Remember to replace batteries in the smoke detectors.

Most of these items are inexpensive, but they can save you taking a maintenance call later. Find your small repair items and do them at the turnover.