All Forum Posts by: Marcus Auerbach

@Kelly G. - good to hear and congrats. I am with you on Zillow vs CL, however CL seems to work better with lower price tags. Be sure to do a good background check, especially with tenants who are ready to move in today and care more about getting a YES than what the home looks like. I use mysmartmove.com (Transunion) and let the applicants pay for the service - doesnt get much better than that.

The property you have on the marketplace is listed on MLS #1507379 by Jennifer Hupke from Coldwell Banker and is available on HUDSTORE.COM or through any licensed agent in Wisconsin.

The property is listed by Jennifer Hupke with Coldwell Bankers on MLS (#1507379). Please contact your Real Estate Agent for details, showings or to write an offer.

@Wes Brand and @Lawson Ott - interesting debate you guys. I did not know, so I looked it up. HUD has the details. Here is a great summary from unmarried.org

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The (National) Federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of ‘familial status’, which pertains to the presence of children under age 18, but is silent on marital status. About half of U.S. states explicitly prohibit marital status discrimination in housing, but about half the states are silent on it. In these states (unless there are stronger local laws), a landlord can legally refuse to rent to an unmarried couple. In these states, a town can decree that unmarried families, roommates or extended families cannot live certain neighborhoods.

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So, next is State level: in Wisconsin for example we have also Marital Status as a protected class (and some more like the Source of Income - interestingly does not seem to include Section 8).

And then there is County level: Dane County (Madison) for example does not allow to discriminate against Physical Appearance!  And they have a few other interesting ones like Political Believes, Section 8 (specifically!) or Student Status. Milwaukee County protects Domestic Partnership and Gender Identity. 

Bottom line - it's worth to google local fair housing laws.

Just like @Dan C. said. The advantage is that they are boiler plate froms and most tenats have seen them before and are familiar with them. Even if they are not I'll point out the fact, that these are just standard forms from Wisconsin Legal Blanks (sounds sofficial) and are commonly used and it puts them at ease vs siging 20 pages that someone typed up on his computer and is potentially unreasonable. 

I would imagine that it would also be benefitial to go with these docs to an eviction court as opposed to something the judge has never seen before. 

Be sure you also order the lead based paint pamphlet, which you legally have to hand out when they sign the lead based paint disclosure from (required for every property buildt before 1978. Also order some Five Day Notice forms, so you have them at hand when you (hopefully never) need them. I am always quick to issue a Five Day Notice, especially with new tenants, even if we work out a friendly solution with them for a late payment it a., protects my interests and  b., it sends a strong message, that we will enforce a zero tolerance policy on late payments.

Protection against what exactly? It would have to exceed a 1M umbrella policy or the circunstances would have to be that your insurance does not cover because of negligence. Should not be an issue if you run a solid business. If someone gets insured and its not you fault that's what insurance is for. Most cases will be small claims court. An LLC can best case act as a firewall to contain the damage. The bigger your investments and the more equity you have the more likely you will become a traget.

Those are questions for your CPA. If you dont have a good one who knows REI I am sure someone on BP can give you a great local recommendation. Your depreciation will be calculated off your purchase price on the closing statement. Maybe there is a work around in particular cases to use a different method, abest sk your CPA. not much to consider with your bank, but you will need to change your insurance policy from a homeowners policy to landlord insurance. Not sure about the tax exclusion but I tend to believe that once you have satisfied the requirement you are good and can rent it. Why would you sell it in 2019? As long as the rent covers PITI it's probably best to hang on to it until it's paid off. You can always tap into the equity with the refi or Heloc. Selling is relly the last option. Good luck!

@Benjamin can you be a little more specific? I usually rent out my own SFR within a week, in the winter it may take two. It's usually slow between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it picks right up after Jan 1.

I have noticed you have an agent renting the place. This could be the problem as most agnets are focused on selling homes not renting. You may have to look for an agent that can get the job done and be sure to pay him well. You are also isolated from the market and it's hard to tell if your agent is not doing the job or if something else is wrong. So maybe just do it yourself.

I would live to see how you advertise. You can PM me if you don't want to post a link here. If it's only on MLS you should definitely get it on Zillow Rent or if it's low income also on craigslist.

I usually get about 10 emails on the first day I post a new property. If the price is to high I get only one or two. If you are 5% over market rent you will be almost ignored, 10% you are out of the game. Consider to lower the price in about 5-10% increments until you get responses. But you should really know what market rent is.

Post awesome pictures!!! You can hire a pro for $50-80 to take Realtor quality pictures. Ask your agent.

If your place is a dump and that's the reason nobody wants to live there, well sorry you will have to fix it. Good luck and free to PM me.

Depends on your level of experience and how much you want to be involved.

Active: buy a distressed SFR, fix it up, rent it, refinance to pull your 150k out again, rinse and repeat, repeat, repeat Look up BRRRR Startegy on BP.

Less active: buy 6 newer or completley rehabed properties with 25k down and rent them for $3000/mo or 36k/year cash flow (before PM).

@Neil Hauger, my gut feeling is that it will cost you a bit more to rehab the farm. Homes built prior 1950 are usually a can of worms to fix. Can you divide - sell the fixed up house and keep the land? Also you may want to consider at least an environmental 1 to see what treatures you might find burried in the ground. Any underground storage tanks?