25. Bad Closing Experience: Buying my Next Property

In this episode I share my latest adventure in real estate with you. Imagine this: I just closed on another property, and let me tell you, it was quite the rollercoaster! From dealing with a title company that seemed to be on its own timeline to the unexpected thrill of signing papers at a McDonald's, this journey was anything but ordinary.

In this episode, I open up about the nerves and excitement of transitioning to self-managing my rental properties. It's a whole new ballgame without a property manager, but luckily, my husband and I make a great team. He's the people person, while I handle the logistics and finances. Together, we're tackling everything from tenant introductions to safety inspections.
I'm also diving into the world of property development. With a duplex on a spacious lot, I'm dreaming big about adding more units and creating a thriving community space. It's all about learning, growing, and embracing the challenges that come with real estate.
Join me as I share the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Whether you're a fellow investor or just curious about the real estate world, I hope my story inspires you to chase your dreams and face challenges head-on.
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Transcript

Lindsay 0:00

She just bought another property and we're gonna talk about it today.

Violeta 0:03

I don't even remember when I put an offer in this this house. Like I feel like it was like 40 days ago. And it's been a process. I think this is was one of the most annoying closings. Uh just because like I just didn't like the title company. They just kind of were like slacking and just I think it was just needlessly long. And then the the seller had some issues too, like providing documents and stuff. So that just kind of prolonged. So like the seller that was dragging feet, and then the title company and the closing was kind of like just um a lot of lack of communication. Like on the on the 25th, I didn't even know I was closing for sure because no like they hadn't even called me or no mebian dicho nada. Like they haven't even like texted me, no email, like, hey, here's your closing time and date or whatever. Like I'm waiting and waiting, and I asked several times, like, hey, you know, are we closing or not? And then it was funny because like I would get an email saying, like, oh, we're not, you know, closing yet, or whatever. And then I'd get an email from like the lender, congratulations on closing, clear to close. And so there was like some miscommunication from there because I'd get an email and then I was like, So am I closing or not? Like, because sometimes they'll be like, Well, we need they wanted some extra statements because they wanted to see where like the funds, because I had to move some funds over, and they're like, Well, we need the statements or that, whatever, because the lender's asking. But then the lender would be like, Oh, clear to close, even till the last day. And the the closing itself, again, I didn't even get told like where to go, what not even the wiring information or like not even the amount I was supposed to wire. So I got that information like at 3 p.m., which is like after I could wire anything. I was like, What? And then the mobile notary called me. Uh it's like, yeah, you know, ready to meet. I was like, what are you talking about? Like, I haven't even been told anything. He's like, Oh, darn. And it's like, well, and for some reason, I um they got a mobile notary that lives northeast of the city uh in San Antonio, it's big, and then I'm like south, and so for both of us was like an hour away to meet, and then we met at a McDonald's. I don't know if you've seen my reel lately, and yeah, I got to clues at a McDonald's because that was kind of like the halfway point. The most interesting place so far where I've closed on a rental property, so just a lot of uh logistics, and then after closing, I closed on the 25th, signed a few days after that. They were still working on the insurance because it was missing one letter for West, and the lender wanted it to be exactly West, which yeah, I get it, but um why wasn't this caught way before? Why is it like you know, the sellers waiting for their funding to be released because the lender didn't want to release the funds until that got fixed, and so then we're all scrambling on a Friday, and I think that got fixed like at 3 p.m. on a Friday. So as far as I know, I sent my my wire information, I got everything taken care of, my insurance and all that. And then I think the last things I have to do is just coordinating with the seller to get the security deposits and the pro rater grant. So that's the the last bit with the seller. So still working on that.

Lindsay 3:29

So, do you how did you feel during this closing? I feel like on the past, because I only done closing for out of state, right? Like I did for my primary. I said, If it's not the same, now you're gonna have to be land or you're moving from to self-managing. This one is like right here. It's is it close to your house?

Violeta 3:48

I'm not sure if it's like uh it's about 45 minutes away. Yeah. I will say I was kind of like had some nerves, a little bit of fear that as closing was around the corner, I started like stressing out because I don't have the the cushion of a property manager this time is like all me. And so I'm like, man, I need to create my checklist of what I need to get done and stuff because I usually the property manager does all of that for me, and I just get the email, like, hey, we need to get this fixed, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, go, go do it. And then now I'm like, okay, so contacting the tenants, so getting their contact information. And so my husband, which my husband and I are gonna tag team because I'm good with the logistics and I'm good with the like the finances and stuff like that, but I'm not good with the people part, right? Because I don't like confrontation and then I feel bad and blah, blah, blah. But my husband is really good with people, like they they just like they just like him. He's really good. I um every time I hear him with a meeting, he just has a really likable personality, but he could also be firm and you know, be strict when needed, and he's not afraid of confrontation. So I think that's a good team. And so that's gonna be interesting as we manage this first property together. So he's already contacted the tenants and kind of just did a brief introduction, like, hey, we're the new landlords and blah blah blah. And so, and then today he's going to go stop by and just kind of go and create a checklist, uh, a list of things that still need to get done, and then from there we'll prioritize safety first because one of the things that this property has it's missing handrails, which is a big safety issue. It's a big liability issue. They fall, and so yeah, he's gonna stop by and create a to-do list.

Lindsay 5:42

You're putting your hard half back on your quality control experience, and then you're gonna be supervising, which is funny because you would think like you guys are a team, right? But you would he would you would think he's more like into the logistics part of it, and you're like the people person, but it's completely backwards.

Violeta 5:58

Yeah, yeah, I I am not good with with uh the managing of people, the field that I went to, which was safety and stuff. Like I get to be just a little nerd and a little cubicle, like you know, typing away my reports, and yeah, I would go and do inspections, which I I did like doing the inspections, but again, I had to deal with people, and sometimes I had to be a little bit firm because they were not doing what they were supposed to do or whatever. I didn't like that part, but I I did like to be the nerd. Um, I was like, oh, you're not gonna be in my field anymore doing safety stuff and everything, but I get to still use that now as managing these rental properties. One of the things I'm gonna do is like make sure the codes for you know how high the rail can be, the spacing and all that stuff. So, like the degree of the angle of the stairs, like all of that. Um, because I'm not trying to get written up or anything like that of liability for me. So, yeah, definitely a lot of stuff still using that that knowledge.

Lindsay 6:59

Yeah, I think uh Mark just interviewed somebody on their on their lives. He manages out of state as well, managed to start houses, and he has a very systematized way of moving in, you know. I know you inherited tenants and you plan to keep them and all of that, but like from moving forward, like systems of like everything else, um, all of the checklist and not also what whatever the email says in the attendance when they move in, what are things, expectations that they have to have and all those things. So, or how to like how to acquire keys and things like that, because he has like most of his stuff is remote. But we're there. Any software that you want to use, you have a plan to use for this particular house?

Violeta 7:40

So I have two, I'm gonna try the rent ready. Been playing around with it and so far, like kind of like the dashboard. So that's something that I'm gonna look at and use and see how it works. Just seeing all the logistics look good. The only thing is, well, here I get to do the maintenance, so I'll be playing around with that. One of the things that I'm concerned about, because if this goes well and I and I have all the systems, one thing is to then onboard my out of state properties and manage them myself versus the property manager. But the only thing that is like holding me back is the idea of like the the the maintenance of the like scheduled maintenance. Okay, I could find that one, but like the emergencies. Um, because I know last year I had emergencies. I had um Milwaukee had like a 500-year or a thousand-year flood. It was like out of the norm. So then had to scramble for that. So that's an emergency. And then also they had a lot of snow and all that, you know, this year. So just kind of the logistics on that. Everything else, just find a contractor or whatever. So, but I'm just kind of worried like, how am I going to handle emergency situations? Um, so I think that's the only um roadblock for that. And then here, like I said, so I don't know if like rent ready um has something like that for like emergencies, or if I just find like a contractor that I could have for emergency stairs. So that's still I'm figuring that out with Rent Ready. The other thing I s I I am using is uh baseline, which is just a banking. One reason I use that one is because I like that you're able to create like buckets and it could be for this the property, and then also you have like your capex. So it created off the bat like five buckets, one for like operating, so I could pay like the rent and and use it to go like to Home Depot or whatever. Then it has an account, a savings account for CapEx, a savings account for acquiring new property so that's fun, and then for vacancies and stuff like that. So you could create all different types of buckets. So I really like that. And then again, I just started with that one, so but I've been playing around with it, and it looks like it's gonna give some cool reports. You have the ability to collect rent from there, but I kind of want to use rent ready for or the collection of the rent and all that, just because I'm testing it out and see how I'm gonna like it to manage the other properties, so yeah.

Lindsay 10:12

Oh, the other properties. You bought this is kind of like a duplex, right? It has to be and it's like one on one side, one of the other. But you have a lot of land to develop additional lots or additional homes in the back.

Violeta 10:28

So it's a duplex and it's an older property. I think it's from like the 90s. So it's on one side, it's a two-bedroom, one bath, and one of the bedrooms, it was an addition. So I guess at one point it was like a just a two-bedroom home, and at some point it became a duplex or something. And then the other side is just a one-bedroom, one bath, which I usually like. All my duplexes are like two bedroom, one bath. But the reason I went for this one, even though it wasn't going to cash flow as as much as I would I usually try to go for, is because it's on a 0.34 acre lot inside the city. And I know uh San Antonio approved in 2025 um the ability to have ADUs in the back. So I I'm going to go and um try to put, I'm thinking maybe two one-bedroom, one baths. I'm not sure if I just want to go and do just another two-bedroom, one bath, or just split it and make it another duplex in the back. So I haven't gonna see the logistics and all that, but I know you'll it'll be an easier time to be able to do that. So then I'll have basically a fourplex on one lot. So that's the benefits of that. So that's gonna be another long learning uh curve for me because I've never like built anything like that. So gonna be interesting because I also will be learning because I know my sister wants to do a tiny home, and so I'm gonna be using the knowledge for those two. So it'll be fun.

Lindsay 11:54

Yeah, and thank you, Dylan, to mentioning Jack, Jack that invests in Minnesota. If you haven't checked out Mark's recent, he went live with him yesterday. Uh his channel. Yeah, Ren Verdett sold it. But Janelle, she's saying would possibly encourage tenants are try to meet them during the initial walkthrough. And I think you met them, right? It's just the logistics of of like having their contact information and everything that you're now pretty much uh trying to establish a relationship with them.

Violeta 12:24

Yeah, we were able to, and when I was looking at the property, we met them. They're they're super ecstatic that somebody's taking over because the previous owner, you know, like had some. I think he cut corners for sure, especially with the flooring, because he used like stick-on tile that looks like the LVP. And so that it was already coming apart um in the kitchen and in the living room. So that's definitely one thing that we'll be taking care of. Again, the porches, big say, like, I don't know how he wasn't scared of like that's one of the things, maybe is the safety in me that like I'm scared of all the liability. That soon as I see that, I was like, oh my god, I could get sued, right? But this this previous owner, I guess, didn't care about that because he had like holes in the wall, which I had him repair and then a broken window and stuff like that. But yeah, there's a lot of safety things that I need to take care of first. They're excited. They're like, you know, my husband talked to him briefly, and they're like, Yeah, we're we're super excited because like the porch is dangerous.

Lindsay 13:26

Did you feel like this transaction was easier as opposed to your other transactions, like in terms of negotiating the price, renegotiating the repairs, or negotiating closing costs?

Violeta 13:36

It was kind of like medium because I feel um I think the seller was at expecting a higher sell amount. So then when I dropped them down, it it then it got a little bit more difficult on negotiating some fixes and things like that. But I was able to drop them down from like they had listed at 185, and I dropped them down to 165. So that was a big drop already. I the seller had already been like almost like 200 days. I think it had been at 200 days, so I already had the advantage there. And so when I came and I was like, it's 165, that's it. Like I'm not I'm not negotiating higher. It's like that's that's the max I'm gonna do. And so then they took it, but then they weren't willing to negotiate like repairs. But then I kind of after the appraise uh, no, not not after the appraisal, but after the inspection, then I was like, okay, well, we don't have much repairs, but I'm worried about the appraisal. I was like, so just do the fixes that are going to not make me not appraise, or it's not going to qualify for the DSCR loan because there was some things like there there was a hole through the siding of the house. I don't know what they were doing there, and some and then there was exposed wires from the breaker box and stuff like that because they didn't patch the drywall. They like went in there and left the hole there. Like you have people living in there, and then some other patchwork. I was like, just patch all these things up so that when the appraisal comes in, uh appraiser comes in, like doesn't give me a hard time that it's not livable or whatever. So I was able to squeeze that because we were already under contract, and so he's already like in there. So I used that to my advantage and was able to get him. And he fixed other things that I didn't even say, like the window, like he replaced the window. So so I still snuck in some things there, and so I think I think just the biggest factor was that I was able to drop them so much from their list price. So yeah, and then after that it was kind of just simple. He still played paid uh some closing costs and stuff, so um wasn't too bad. I think what kind of like hindered him was because he he still owed some money, and so he didn't want to go way too low because I know he's waiting on the funding to be able to send me back the security deposit and stuff like that. So I don't know like what's going on with him, but like he was gonna use that some of that to um basically send back to me. I was like, okay.

Lindsay 16:00

Yeah, I totally understand. If you guys wanna keep hearing about us, please don't forget to tune in to our podcast. Real estate cheese men, we come out every week because we have a YouTube video channel also podcast. So if you can subscribe, leave a comment.