3 Questions for a new Real Estate Investor

[Daniel Lang]

Still getting my start in investing and I have some questions:

1) If you are buying a multifamily property and it already has tenants, is the current landlord required to turn them over to you, 2) How do you hold security deposits during the life of the lease?  Do they go into a specific bank account? 

3) As you expand your portfolio (getting a bit ahead of myself but I'll ask anyway) does every building require a separate bank account? 

4) Also a 4th question I've thought of, what books would you all recommend?  I've read Brandon Turner's books, I've read David Greene's book on long-distance management.  Anything else to recommend? 

[Patrick Menefee]

Where are you at in the process so far? Have you identified any properties or figured out your initial strategy?

1. Whatever lease the seller has in place with tenants will carry over to you. So if the lease is through end of 2023, you can't ask them to move out or change anything until that lease term is up

2. Security deposits need to be kept in a separate account. Check your state laws for specifics, but a property manager will take care of this for you if you hire one

3. Not required, how you set it up is up to you. There are multiple considerations here - legal implications for your protection, accounting implications for tax purposes, and general convenience vs. headache considerations of managing tons of bank accounts. You'll have to weigh all of these options