All Forum Posts by: Adam Lippa

@Brian Kantor what town is this in?

Thanks for the info @Dakota Wilde . It is getting me almost to where I want to be with it, so I may give it a shot and see if its better than Excel. 

Thanks for the insight @David Campbell! Are you using anything for leases or electronic payments or just doing paper copies and cash/checks? What service are you using for background/credit checks? 

Hello,

I did a bit of research on here (and other websites) and decided that I wanted to give TenantCloud.com a shot for rental/tenant management. I opened a free account the other day and started playing around with it (currently renting both sides of a duplex and if all goes well will be closing on a 3 unit apartment next week). 

It certainly has some less than positive reviews on the web for its ease of use, especially on the tenant end, but my hope is it is improving and I'm sure nothing is perfect (especially at the $0-9/month price range). 

It seems like the system requires every expense to be billed to a tenant. Has anyone found if there is a way to track expenses such as owner paid utilities, taxes, general maintenance without showing them as being billed to a tenant?

Anyone using a free/low cost program they like? I currently have a somewhat large excel sheet, but I would love something that let me take pictures of receipts and track them automatically. 

Thanks!

I bought solar panels for my primary residence. We intend to stay there for 20+ years. The panels will pay for themselves in about 10 years at the current cost of power. Apparently power has gone up about 3% a year on average over the last 15 years, with the expectation that power costs continue to go up 3% a year the payback period is closer to 8 years. The panels are warrantied to be 90something% as efficient in 25 years as when they are installed. We figure in 10 years they have paid for themselves and anything else is gravy. On the off chance we sell before 10 years we assume there is some additional value to the house of having them.

With all that said, we were not impressed with any of the lease options. They all seem to get a little shady with some of the numbers. I believe the leased panels may also make it trickier to sell the property down the road, but not positive about that. 

If you intend to own the property for a while and continue paying the power bill (instead of a LTR) it may be worth speaking with a bank about them financing them (a few different banks will do that around here) if you don't want to invest in the total cost of them upfront now. Also that would allow you to benefit from the federal credit now that you don't really get with a lease. 

Good luck. 

Just a quick thought on the lawn.... Not sure how big it is but the downstairs tenant in one of my rentals agreed to mow the lawn if I left him access to a mower. I was trying out a battery powered one (smaller lot) and left it. It seems to work well as there is no gas/oil and less on going maintenance for the machine. The cut isn't quite as nice, IMO, but the reduced headache is worth it. Tenants are not only mowing the lawn but also keep some plants/landscaping with the place looking nice!

Welcome! 

I'm over in southern Franklin county, looking for a 3-4 unit property around St. Albans. 

Hi All,

I'm new to posting on BP but have read a bit. It looks like there is a small crew from in/around VT so I'm curious to get some advice from you guys...

My wife and I own one duplex in Winooski (where I used to live) and now we live in Georgia, VT. We are looking to purchase another rental in St. Albans/Swanton area. Initially we were looking only in St. Albans but it looks like there may be a slightly larger, more reasonably priced selection in Swanton (we foresee rents being lower there, but still may be a worthwhile trade-off). 

I'm wondering if anyone has any information on off market sellers. If not, have you used a realtor or represented yourself when purchasing properties? We feel comfortable representing ourselves (we bought our current house and sold our previous townhouse without a realtor), however are not sure it's worthwhile as we won't get a lower price on the house by representing ourselves since the 3% commission will likely just be 6% for the seller. We have spoke with the folks at one real estate company which give a small rebate to buyer's from from the 3% commission they receive (I believe they keep $3,500 and the rest goes to the buyer). This seems like it might be a good middle ground to save a few bucks, however they have not had great (or good) communication with us but seem to be the only company with the model. 

So with all that said, have you had good luck with certain real estate agents or companies or other methods?

Thanks!

Adam