Authentic You posted:

Since it was a 'remodel', he essentially got to follow 1900 building code

Gringo Heisenberg posted:

The way I loosely understand it, they get the rent and maybe repairs come out of that and they pocket what's left over?

KaiserBen posted:

Sounds like you want a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_tenant_lease. Hope you've got *deep* pockets.

Zero VGS posted:

Do the HELOC and cash. It's way less trouble. You don't have to suck an underwriter's dick with mountains of paperwork to get a mortgage, you save a few thousand on closing fees, and you can usually negotiate a slightly better price because the sellers and bank know how much less of a hassle it will be. I just did the same thing to buy my second apartment, I closed a week ago and started renting yesterday. Now I'm getting a HELOC on this one that can almost pay for the next. I'm just daisy-chaining HELOCs to keep buying apartments in this building if it keeps working out.

Bloody Queef posted:

The point of making the LLC the beneficiary is that if you do get sued for something not negligence related, it still limits your liability to that which is inside the LLC.

And yes, 1 LLC per property is absolutely key. You want to keep your assets as separate as possible.

None of this will do a thing if you're actually sued! This prevents people from thinking you have a lot of assets so it won't be worth their time to take a case suing you. To protect you if you're actually sued, you need an umbrella policy, but I thought that kind of went without saying.

lostleaf posted:

LLCs are still a very useful tool for any landlord even if they provide minimal asset hiding. They still provide great asset protection in terms of limiting liability. If your LLC is sued and the jury awards over the limit of your insurance, the LLC will limit the liability to the property in question.

timp posted:

Hey everybody!

Earlier in the thread I posted info on a tenant screening company called Resident Research. I went back to those posts and edited out my personal e-mail address because, well, I don't work there anymore! The company is still there and still offering very thorough reports at an extremely reasonable price...the only difference now is that you won't have a goon taking care of you if you sign up, that's all. PM me if you have any specific questions, I can still put you in touch with someone who can take good care of you.

LogisticEarth posted:

Is the expansion taking place in the right-of-way? If so I don't think you can get anything. As I understand it the compensation was already paid out when the initial RoW was put in place.

fishhooked posted:

Sounds very speculative. You can double check some of his claims by researching with your states DOT. The project should be listed in their program of improvements which typically plans out 2 to 5 years. That said, I think he's full of it. No way a state would straight up say they'll pay him whatever he wants for the land. Especially in these "government is bad lets cut everything" times.

Its not uncommon for land speculators to hold onto pieces of land adjacent to planned roadways. However, this really isn't for selling parts for ROW. Its mostly for the development opportunities it brings in the future

FrozenVent posted:

Sounds like a scam to me.

-Need money ASAP
-It's a sure thing!
-You're gonna make a lot of money for doing basically nothing!

I'd stay away.

Zero VGS posted:

I kind of really want to use Home Depot though... I have thousands in store credit and recently found out I can apparently use the store credit to pay for any contractor I get through them.

poopinmymouth posted:

poopinmymouth posted:

Yes it is very common here. We still have to be vetted to take over.


At the beginning, we will just be breaking even. However just like on our primary house, we intend to make extreme payments (budgeting around 5k USD a month as well are rolling in their rental payments) which will quickly bring down the mortgage below the rental income level. We are using this as a long term saving vehicle, because we lack access to other things an american might sink these extra payments into.

update

She made a counter offer higher than we are willing to go, so we made a counter counter offer halfway between our original, and her counter. It expires tomorrow, but feeling like she will take it. (realtor hinted she had gotten lots of offers, but all lower than our initial one)

Dial M for MURDER posted:

I've started to look at owning rental property, and in IMO you should be looking for a property that is making you money right off the bat. Betting on making large payments to bring your mortgage down and thus your payment seems risky. I don't know your market, but in general a rental property should be making money day 1, encase of vacancy, repair, etc.

poopinmymouth posted:

I'm male.

llamaperl2 posted:

In May I put in an offer on a 2 unit house I planned to rent. The owner of the house had lived in the city and moved away to New York city; she was tired of maintaining the unit and the two tenants were leaving in May and June.

I went to do the closing walk through an hour before closing and found someone had gone through while the house had been empty for about 1 month and cut out all of the copper pipe in the basement.

gently caress them posted:

http://imgur.com/qWXUj88,ahbELuN

I'm a renter, not a owner, but uh: wtf?

I have never seen a rat, or a sign of a rat. My dog and cat also seem oblivious to any rat existence.
The screens ARE hosed up and the door to the building IS in dire need of some weather stripping, but I don't care too much.
The tub is not cracked. The vent fan in the bathroom is very drafty (and the almost 70 year old windows are, uh, slightly) but meh.

Do I have to do anything here?

particle409 posted:

I use a management company, but they're doing a subpar job.

Question: What's the best system to mail self-addressed envelopes to my tenants, telling them what they owe?

BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:

This is my shuddering nightmare, I have no idea what I would even do if a tenant absconded and left my house in such a mess. Are there companies that will clean this poo poo up for you?

Dragyn posted:

Thanks for the input, everyone. I just want to clarify on this one. You're saying that we tell her no and she decides not to move in at all (the tenant, that is)? I assumed that since a leased is signed and security collected, that it is too late to break the original lease.

dhrusis posted:

hey guys, I own a house outright that I'm renting. I just started renting it last year so this will be the first year of taxes. What special stuff do I get to do this year... do I get to take any cool writeoffs?

Bloody Queef posted:

I missed this back when it was posted, but the Turbo tax version that includes Schedule E income has excellent tools for rental income. It couldn't be easier and does a thorough job of walking you through what to examine. It also tracks depreciation year to year, so once you've entered the asset you're depreciating in, you don't have to worry about it anymore.

The only reason you should hire someone to do taxes for rental properties is if they were in a C corp.

I'm also a tax accountant so you probably shouldn't take my advice. But I do use Turbo Tax because I'd gladly pay the $80 per year to reduce my tax prep time in half during my busiest part of the year.

tentish klown posted:

My family own property in London, most of which is rented out to my friends and on Airbnb that I manage.
I've got about £100k in liquid savings - I want to get another buy-to-let, but a) London property is mega expensive and including a mortgage I would probably only be able to buy something worth like £300k max, which is a 1-bed flat if not a studio apartment, and also it means that I'm super heavily exposed to the London property market.
My current pipe-dream plan is to get a buy-to-let in NYC that I could then let out on Airbnb, and use this as a holiday pad for me and my family. £300k translates to just short of $0.5m which is enough for a 1-bed somewhere not-poo poo in Manhattan.
I earn about £50k/year including the rental yield from my share of the rental properties, hence the crappy mortgage amount. My income should go up shortly though as the startup I work for should be completing a funding round soon.
Now, am I being totally stupid and/or unrealistic? Should I just keep my savings in stocks as they are at the moment? I have no big ticket expenses and don't plan on having kids in the next 5 years, and what I'm after is something that will make me some money after mortgage costs, and will appreciate in value. I don't know a huge amount about New York real estate, so I'm treating it similarly to London which I'ma lot more familiar with.

Bloody Queef posted:

What? Are you seriously referring to airbnb as a criminal enterprise.

As to the poster, investing in a real estate market that you have no knowledge of is a terrible idea. Also scroll up a little bit to see my analysis on having a management company do everything for you, this gets even pricier when they know you're international.

Bloody Queef posted:

AirBnB isn't always illegal in NYC. I can't remember the qualifications, but I think it was a week or more and a whole apartment didn't qualify as an illegal hotel.

There's also a possibility for legislation that would make it clearer.

Either way, AirBnB being illegal or not is not why this is a horrible idea. Seriously stick to a location you know.

Beefeater1980 posted:

I'm coming into ownership of a place in a green belt village near London (about 15 minutes out). It's not really a practical place to live unless you're a driver. I live overseas. We already own and rent a house in London proper. Thoughts on whether to sell, keep or why?

Ribsauce posted:

A tree fell one of my properties and it cost about 450 to fix the roof. So the guy fixed it, I pay him, and while I am paying him he tells me I should have the entire roof replaced for ~2,200. Which is fine, it probably is getting close to needing to be replaced, except he told me after I paid 450 to fix the roof. He said the 2,200 cost would have been the same if he did not do the $450 work.

Why would he not call me and just tell me I should have the entire roof replaced before starting the work? To me that is a mistake by him. Basically if I decide to replace the entire roof I lit 20% of the price on fire. I feel like if I use him I should expect a discount based on this. How would you guys handle this?

If he would have called me and said "Look, it is going to be $450 to fix this, but for $2,200 I will replace the whole thing" I would have probably replaced it right then, but now I will probably wait for problems. The bright side is this tenant is good at calling me if there is any problem so there won't be a slow leak for like 5 months before they bother informing me, which makes me lean towards waiting now that I already paid the $450.

I have never used this guy before. He was recommended to me by someone else.