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Aug
19

Nigerian Real Estate Scams Continue – Medford Oregon, Be AWARE!

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This was the topic of my last post – they claimed some victoms in Washington in early August and I had heard rumors about them floating around the Rogue Valley since. Well, here is a link to the Medford Mail Tribune article:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100816/NEWS/8160312

They are happening all of the time. If you are not working directly with a local Property Management Company or Realtor, or meet with an Owner in person, then beware. They are disquising themselves as missionaries from out fo the country and are asking for very low rental amounts for property. In the case above, they were asking $600/mo for rent and $200 for the security deposit. This is very low and is a tell tale sign that it is a scam.

Bottom line folks: DON’T send money out of the area without verifying they are the owners, and that they are legit. 99% of the time if it is out of the country it will not be legit. Refer to my last post for how to find the owner of record and make sure you are working with the right person.

Don’t fall victom…due your homework.

Patrick and Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management

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Aug
09

Rental / Property Management Scams – Medford Oregon

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Property Management and Rental scams have been popping up across America, and specifically the Northwest in the past couple months. I believe a couple months ago there was an article in the Medford Oregon Mail Tribune about the very same topic.

Below is a link that discusses the scams and how they have been popping up in the Seattle, Washington area. The bottom line is that an out of area Owner (Landlord, Property Management Company) are offering housing and apartments for rent for unbelievably low prices. Monthly rental amounts that are “too good to be true”. The Landlords are many times in Africa and specifically Nigeria, according to Jessica Bader, author of the following article in The Olympian:

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/06/1328095/craigslist-ad-scam-hitting-house.html

Check out the article and keep your eyes peeled for these disrespecting scamming merchants. You can confirm who owns the property by going to the Jackson County Website, then perform the following:

1. Go to the Jackson County Website: http://www.co.jackson.or.us/
2. Click on “Property Data and Maps” (Front Counter) in the Quick Links section in the top right hand corner of the screen
3. Click on “Property Data Online”
4. Click the blue “Search” tab
5. Click “Adress”
6. Under #3, Enter the street number and street name, then click “Submit”
Be careful here because I entered my home address and at first it did not pick it up. I found out that it was because I entered “drive” along with the name. Once I removed the “drive”, “street”, “way”, from all of the properties they worked just fine and brought up the property owners name.

The query is kind of slow, but delivers great information.

Hopefully this information will help us bust at least 1 of these scammers out there.

Good luck to you all in your Medford Oregon Investing and Landlording, if you ever need a seasoned Professional to help with Property Management Services, feel free to give Shelly or Patrick a call.

Patrick & Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management, Medford Oregon

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Jul
28

Economy Brings On Blood Sucker Lenders – Medford Oregon

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Can’t believe it!…What jerks. You try so hard to do right, average everyday good people and people are still out their trying to predatize on people who need help the most. Makes me (us) sick.

You may or may not have heard, but a company out of California called Ideal Real Estate Solutions has been promising to homeowners (maybe Investors too?) to combine first and second loans, negotiate with the bank to reduce the amount owed, obtain government program compliance, reduce the mortage rate as well as the monthly mortgage amount. A lot of promises. Sounds great!

The only catch…you have to pay them upfront for their services. Sometimes 100% and sometimes in installments. That is all great and good, except for the simple fact that it is 100% illegal!!! So, folks who ahve fallen prey to this fiund out soon that the whole thing is a scam…when they call one day to follow up on the work being done, magically they leave messages and no response.

The bottom line…if someone promises you that they can perform all of this for a fee…run. Call your bank, they can refer you to the proper authorities to help bust them.

The details of all of this can be found in the Mail Tribune article by Chris Conrad :http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100726/NEWS/7260314/-1/rss14

If you need to work something out, call your bank directly. They DO NOT want you to foreclose. Don’t just bury your head in the sand when it gets tough, call them and see what options you might have. Different banks are more flexible than others in these times, but you never know.

Patrick & Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management, Medford Oregon

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Jul
25

Medford Oregon Perfect Storm for Investors – Real Estate Prices Continue to Fall

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Medford Oregon and Jackson County area real estate sales are up over 17.7% for the first half of 2010. However the median price has dropped over 13.2% to $165,000. This is a perfect storm for Investors to buy relatively inexpensive properties and in most cases, have the property rental income pay for the mortgage, insurance and enough to cover the Property Management costs; and in many cases enough for positive cash flow.

Surprisingly enough, only 35% of the sales are attributed to foreclosures compared to standard MLS sales. And, there is a significant difference between the prices of foreclosure sales standard real estate sales. The median sales price for standard sales are $200,000. However the median house price for a foreclosure in Jackson County is $135,000. Investors should take note as well that the median house price for short sales are even higher at $160,000. This is noteworthy becuase there are still Investors out there that are trying to invest in short sales. While you may be able to occasionally get a good deal in short sales, your better bet is going straight to the REO and buy from the banks.

Additionally, short sales can take a very long time to actually mature and close. Sometimes short sales can take over 6-8 months. I think that the average short sales close time is probably around 3-4 months. Again, I am not saying to 100% avoid them, keep your eye open, but don’t spend all of your time on them. Get in touch with your local REO Realtors and try to buy straight from the bank. Banks do not want to have that inventory on hand and are very willing to let go at very low rates.

There are other places in the US to buy property, and for very cheap. Medford Oregon is still not the cheapest property in the country, however I feel that when the market comes back, it will come back stronger in the Jackson County area. I won’t go into a ton of detail in this post, but basically, with all of the baby boomers looking to retire, and with the phenomenal amenities the area has, prices will rise sharply in years to come.

So, get your properties now. Whatever it takes to invest now. And, as always, if you need a Property Management Company to look after your assets, we are ready to assist you.

Patrick & Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management, Medford Oregon

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Jul
16

Oregon Joins Class Action Suit Against Country-Wide….Nice!

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It is good and grand to see the likes of Government trying to step in and actually HELP the consumer instead of just hurting us. Although, in this case, they really are not helping us, just going to make the company and system that allowed the meltdown of the housing industry pay a little bit…inflict a little pain so to speak. Even though this topis is not directly related to Property Management in Medford Oregon itself, it is related to those of us who own property and maybe you even owned a Countrywide loan…although I hope not.

We used to wholesale properties all the time and buy “subject to” the existing financing. I can tell you that Countrywide was bar none the biggest pain in our but with respect to us supposedly violating the “Due on sale” clause that accompanied their wonderful financing. Anyways, enough ranting about that.

In short, there is a National Class Action Lawsuit against CountryWide for outright misleading investors into buying very risky mortgage backed securites. Now, the misleading part is where they went bad. They basically reported to numerous Investors, including the State of Oregon’s Investment Fund Managers, that the loans were all “top notch” loans. In fact, Countrywide had not even been evaluating these loans to determine the ratio of loans that were class A and performing well.

Now 90% of the securites that were offered as excellent securites have since been downgraded to junk bond according to the StatesmanJournal article. (link below)

Check out this article in the Statesman Journal about this:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100715/STATE/7150336/1042

I am glad to see that there is a National Class action lawsuit and I hope that withthe government being involved it gains momentum and actually is able to get results. I personally don’t have any benefit, but I know that there are a lot of Medford Investors that might. So if you were involved in transactions like this…take a hard look at finding more information on the lawsuit.

And lastly, it makes me happy to see a giant get slapped, especially one that was basically giving loans to anyone. Kind of strange though….I am a Real Estate Investor and have a fantastic history of taking over loans on properties (subject to) and making ontime payments everytime. We will not get into a deal unless we can make it work well 100% without any epectation of inflation (couple years back) So Countrywide was always calling loans due on us (due on sale), yet they continued to issue new loans to anyone and their Mother. Just doesn’t make sense. But I guess when you are dealing with such a large company it is very easy for A not to be communicating to B.

Patrick and Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management, Medford Oregon

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Jul
14

Medford Oregon Resident Stabs Landlord – Property Managers Be Safe

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Did you see the Mail Tribune yesterday?…ouch! You never know what could happen out there. In this case, a drunk 17 year old punk stabbed his 64 year old Landlord when he was asked to reduce the noise of his party.

http://Mail Tribune Article 7/13/10

So this article brings up a great point that all Property Managers and Landlords in Medford should be very careful when out and about in their properties. Especially any females in the Property Manager or Landlord role.

My wife, Shelly, used to find herself showing properties in somewhat remote locations. We started thinking about it, and the fact is that if someone wanted to take advantage of Shelly, they probably could have gotten away with it. Many properties are 1/2 mile back from the road and don’t have neighbors within yelling distance. This could be a very dangerous situation.

So we started thinking, should Shelly carry a gun?….a knife?….mace? Well, we decided to just not have her show properties that are remote by herself. When you start getting out to some of the rural properties in White City, Eagle Point, even Central Point have some that are quite rural, the spacing between neighbors can get pretty big. The bottom line is that if someone were to show up, and while walking around inside the house, forced the gun upon Shelly, she would have no chance. Heck, anyone would not have a chance, man or woman.

We really try to do a couple things in our Property Management Duties:

1. Ensure that we are very familiar with the properties that we are showing (duh) We do not show properties alone if they are remote and one would not be close to other neighbors.
2. When we show a house now, we try to stay close to the front door and allow the prospective Tenants to walk around on their own. (This actually makes for better showmanship, or show-womanship, anyways.) We are perceived as less sales-like when presenting the properties. I think that it should be anyways, what is important to us is not necessarily important to others. So let them guide themselves around the property and keep yourself safe
3. Shelly does carry a small mace can in her purse. Now whether or not she would actually be able to utilize in time while showing a property – that is out for the jury.

The good news is that this punk will probably spend some serious time in jail (or we at least hope…because if he reads my blog he might come looking for me….fat chance) Anyways, and the Landlord ended up on top…literally. Just goes to show that Property Management, even in a smaller town like Medford Oregon can have a few big city challenges.

Anyone following this blog have any “best practices” for how they minimize their risk when showing properties for rent or for sale?

Patrick & Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management

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Jul
12

Property Management in Medford Oregon – Wear and Tear Vs Damage

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Actually, this post is motivated from Buildium Proeprty Management Softwares recent post about Wear and Tear: that can be found here: The Buildium blog briefly discusses a couple points, but I thought it would be beneficial to talk a little more in depth about the difference between the two. It can sometimes be a fine line between what 1 person considers wear and tear and the next determines to be damage, whioch of course then triggers the security deposit use to remedy.

Routine wear and tear is the results of normal, average usage of a rental unit. Tenants cannot be charged for repairs stemming from normal wear and tear. First of all it all comes down to the pre-move in inspection and documentation. If you have not done a thorough pre-inspection and docuemented very thoroughly everything, then you will not be able to hold your Tenants to any potential damage that they could have caused.

Since the Oregon state definition is pretty fuzzy, I thought we would walk through our “best practices” in determining the difference betweent he two. Here are the most common items that we have encountered and our determination of whether it is normal wear and tear in our units or not:

1. Nail holes in a wall. Generally on any given wall we allow for 5-10 nail holes. 5-10, depending on size, seems to be a magic number where it makes fiscal sense to easily spackle and paint each seperately. Any more than that, and it could start looking spotty and generally you might as well paint the entire wall. Besides, normal usage probably shouldn’t require any more than 5 nail hols in the wall anyways. Posters with 100 tac holes: not normal wear and tear, they will ned to pay to have fixed. Larger than reasonably sized nail holes for pictures, they will need to pay for ther rental repairs.

Another item worth mentioning that some Landlords will let slide: If the Tenant paints an entire wall (or more) a new color, then they are responsible for the Landlords cost to return to the original color. You need to protect your investment, while we want to provide a fair living arrangement, we need to be fair to our Owners as well!

2. Carpet: Wear and tear is constituted by minor stains, traffic signs. These are normal wear and tear. Large stains, excessive traffic wear, excessive discoloring, this will need to be corrected from the security deposit. We also require that the Tenant pays for a professional carpet cleaning and provide receipt for proof. Excessive rips that were not present before are definetely a damage event.

3. Generally dirty overall. It all depends on the condition when they move in. If we have to have our cleaning person come by to get back to the condition when they moved in, then this is considered a “damagable event”. To us, general wear and tear is seperate from keeping the property clean. If they fail to upkeep good general housekeeping practices and we have to dust blinds, clean behind refrigerators, clean out refridgerators, cabinets, etc., then we will charge for this. Our Tenants know that they are moving into a pristinely clean rental and that they are expected to leave it that way when they leave.

To finish this post because this topic is pretty exhaustive, how about a quick list of what we consider wear and tear and damage:

    Normal Rental Wear and Tear:

- Faded Paint
- <10 reasonable sized nail holes in walls
- Normal traffic signs in carpet

    Damage:

- Broken / missing blinds
- Large holes in walls / doors, etc.
- >10 holes of any size in walls
- Large carpet stains / rips
- Excessive carpet wear
- Holes in laminate, hardwood flooring, etc.
- Landscaping not upkept
- “Dirty House”
- Clogged drains
- Water leak not reported that resulted in damaged undersurface
- Shelving in fridge that is broken
- Excessive dirt / mold in refridgerator and/or stove

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Jul
08

Medford Oregon Notice To Pay Rent or Quit – Property Management Tips

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Property Management and Landlording has enough challenges of it’s own, you don’t need any more headaches than necessary. Even when doing all of the right things and being within the Oregon state landlord tenant laws, you could still find yourself in “non-compliance” without proper documentation and follow up with Tenants.

Creating a proper paperwork trail is crucial in property management and landlording. If you have a verbal conversation with a Tenant and fail to document the agreements and/or crucial information, then you could still be hung to dry in a court of law. Certain items are very important to document to cover your base and create a paper trail verifying that you are following state guidelines. Also, proper documentation is also very important because if a Tenant fails to follow up with prior agreements, you need to be able to have an excellent paper trail to prove that the Tenant has failed to comply with your requests and/or agreements.

A Tenant Failing to Pay Rent is a Touchy Subject and Needs to Have Proper Documentation:

1. If a Tenant has fallen behind in rent and are struggling, but promising to pay, you definetely need to capture your conversation, date and agreement to resolve. If they are less than 2 days late in delviering the full amount of rent, we document with a letter and the expected date of complete payment. If you do not do this and just accept the partial payment, then when they fail to pay the remainder, you legally will not be able to evict them….trick hah?

If a Tenant is 2 or more days late in payment of rent, we also issue the standard 72 Hour Notice to Pay Rent or Quit documentation. We also document any conversation and agreement that we may resolve with them. Now we have complete documentation of the event and if they fail to pay within our timeline, we can evict them in a very short period of time. If you wait to give them the 72 Hour Notice, then when they fail to pay you, you could be another 3 days away from even being able to file the Notice.

Additionally, if you don’t file the Notice, our experience is that they really don’t take you serious. When you post this notice, 99% of the time things will start happening. The money that they could not come up with before somehow magically appears!

A Tenants failure to pay the full amunt of rent on time is a touchy subject. Be sure to adhere to all of the Tenant-Landlord guidelines and Property Management Laws.

Patrick & Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management, Medford Oregon

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Jul
04

Medford Oregon Foreclosures Still on Rise – Effects Property Management

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As everyone has been assuming, the foreclosure numbers are still on the rise. In fact, as Jeff Manning said in the Oregonian, the Oregon foreclosures figures are up 20% from this time last year. This effects the investing and property management platform because of the increased numbers of rentals that will result.

These are definetely troubling times for most people. For those that are willing and able to, these times also offer a significant opportunity to invest in real estate at very low prices. Notably, when you can buy a property and the rental amount is the same as, if not more than the mortgage and insurance combined, that is a good deal. We are trying to buy as much as we can for our personal investments.

With the increased foreclosure rates in Oregon, we have been pushed into top rankings in the US. We are now the 3rd highest foreclosure rated state, behind Florida and Nevada. I am personally a little surprised that California was not in the top 3, but I think that most of Californians hit their big foreclosure boom in the last 2 years.

Oregon has always kind of “been the last leg of the race” when an economic crisis is abound. We follow California in waves and the more North you go, ie. the further from California you are, the more protected and delayed you are to the economic housing crisis. The recent figures justifies what we have all thought, that we are no wheres near the end of the storm, in fact getting worse for the Oreogn area. We will be sure to see more foreclosures and continued reductions in housing prices, albeit I personally think that you should not wait to buy a home if the rental amount pays for itself.

For Jackson county, 7% of the houses are currently in foreclosure. This as of the end of the first quarter, 2010. Pretty staggering when you think about it….1 out of every 14 houses that you drive by in Jackson County is in foreclosure, on average. This is not a summary of the number of houses that already foreclosued, rather it is a current figure as of March, 2010.

In summary, if you are not investing….start. Now is the time. Even if you don’t have $50,000 in your back pocket, or even $20,000 to spend on real estate in Medford and surrounding areas, you can still invest. (I will blog mroe about this later) Even though the figures look like doom and gloom, they are a prince disguissed as a frog. Remember that once you do buy your Medford Oregon Property, you want to ensure that you properly take care of your investment with an intown Property Management Company. Landlording from a distance is a pain in the bahookie, give us a call if we can be of service.

Patrick Rogers
New Foundations Property Management

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Jun
30

Nightmare Tenant in Medford Oregon – Property Management Pet Policy Lessons Learned

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We went through a little bit of a learning curve when we first starting managing properties with respect to pet policies. When we first started, we used to allow all kinds of dogs. We always placed a restriction on the number of dogs allowed, , always less than 2, and even a weight limit for smaller apartments and condos. However with breed, we were convinced at the time that all dogs were in general good family dogs. Well, we were wrong.

One rental that we had was in southwest Medford, 3br/2ba 1,300 square foot home with a nice sized backyard. We rented to a Lady in her 50′s and she had moved in around June 15. She did not have any pets at the time, so we did not have a pet deposit, nor a pet addendum.

During our initial 3rd month drive by inspection, we noticed that there were 4 legged, black feet running around behind the fence and the occasional bark coming from behind the fence. Upon further inspection we found that the Tenant had gotten not 1, but 2 Rottweillers. Oh boy!

Well, we immediately called the Tenant and asked what the deal was. She said said that she had to watch her son’s dog for her for a couple days as he was travelling…. OK, looking back, this should have been warning flag number 1. So we allowed her 3 days to hold the dog and if it is not gone after that, then they will be required to pay a pet deposit and fill out the pet addendum.

Ont he fourth day, as agreed, we are onsite to inspect and ensure that the dogs were gone. They were still there. She gave us some excuse now that her son had to travel again. We were not buying it an insisted that she paid or we woulc evict her. She then said that she didn’t have the money so she couldn’t. ($200 pet deposit at the time) So then we give her to hte next day to come up with the money. Miraculously she did, we completed the paperwork and all is well….right? Nope.

2 weeks later we perform an interior inspection, as anyone should do after allowing a new pet into their rental. All was well so far.

The story continues 3 weeks later when we received the rent check from her son, not her. We just brushed it off as she just probably needed him to pay for her that month, something of the sort. The month goes on quietly with no issues. So then again we receive the rent check from her son and not her. OK, now something is fishy.

We immediately call the Tenant on record and have a real hard time getting ahold of her. We show up at the rental and cannot get someone to come to the door. We call her that night again and finally get ahold of her. We question her about receiving the rent check from the Son. She sais that she ran into money problems and needed to have her son take over the rental. Being new in the Property Management role, we allowed it. Why not? He was paying rent and it was on time…no harm, no foul, right?

OK, so about 2 weeks after this event we get a call from the neighbor to the rental who tells us that one of the rotweillers next door had chewed a whole in the wooden fence big enough for it to fir through. (by the way the home next door is also a child care facility) Then the rotweiller proceeded to chase down her dog whom was in the backyard, and mangled it close to death…..come on…really? This is really not happening!

So it doesn’t end there either. The female rotweiller was pregnant and just had a litter of pups. Long story short, we
finally evicted them with a for cause eviction that I won’t get into…I have been rambling on long enough in this blog as it is.

Moral of this terrible experience:
1. When you receive a rent check from anyone else besides a person on the application….get to the bottom fast.
2. Don’t allow Rotweillers or Pitbulls in your Medford Oregon Rentals. We have had more problems (and this is the experience and opinion of most other Landlords we know) with these 2 breeds than any others.
3. If someone brings a pet onsite without an agreement prior…..think very hard about evisting them right away. Here ist he deal, if they are willing to lie to you about this, then will be equally as willing to lie to you about other things. And guess what, all of the things that they will want to lie to you about will be related to them not taking good care of your Property Owners property.
4. Don’t believe the “stories”. Medford has their fair share of folks that will not care about you or the property.
5. Our rule of thumb: When we catch a Tenant in a lie (even if it is a white lies and not even related to rental issues), we keep a real close eye on them….real close.

If this post helps one Proeprty Owner avoid a potential issue I will be a happy camper. Property Management in Medford is not for the faint hearted. We learned this lesson early on, over 2 years ago, and I wouldn’t wish this Tenant on my worst enemy.

Patrick & Shelly Rogers
New Foundations Property Management, Medford Oregon

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