All Forum Posts by: Alex Varner

Hi Lakota,

Congrats on the new property! When do their lease agreements go until? It may be a nightmare to get them out, but you could always offer cash for keys, or see if they are willing to move if you help them find a new location.

@Paul Leason @Dan Farkas After looking at the PA it looks like there was an adjustment made for unpaid taxes by the seller. I'm not seeing where the check box is for the proration. I used Title ReSource Agency (as recommended by my realtor). Since the Summer '18 tax bill is now past due I have to pay it at the treasurers office so I will get more info on dates for taxes. Thanks for all of the help!

@Dan Farkas the title company is just saying that they did not set money aside in escrow so that is why it didn’t get paid. Since this is my first property I’ve ever owned I’m not familiar with property taxes. It would make sense in my mind that you would pay taxes for the months you’ve already gone through, but is that not the case?

Property tax question for here in Michigan (Grand Rapids area specifically). 

From what I've gathered summer taxes cover you from July 1st (current year) - June 30th (upcoming year) and winter taxes cover you from December 1st (current year) - November 31st (upcoming year).

Therefore, if I paid my Summer 2018 tax bill in August 2018 this would cover my summer taxes from July 1st, 2018 - June 30th, 2019, and I would not be paying for the days previous to June 30th, 2018?

Title company and closer forgot to hold cash for taxes and now I'm getting a bill for unpaid  summer taxes (closed on the property June 22nd, 2018). So I'm making sure I'm not getting stuck with the taxes from before I owned the property! 

My parents have used the same tax guy for years and this is my first time filing independently from them.

I was under the impression that I could write off items/tools purchased to rehab my duplex I’m house hacking, but I am being told otherwise.

Can anyone shed some light on this for a tax newbie?

Thanks!

@Judson Thornton Tucker JR

I really like your idea to “incentivize”. That’s definitely a good way to approach the situation that I will keep in mind granted I run into this in the future

@Stephen Gallagher

I think you’ve said it best so far.

To clarify to everyone (as I now realize I was very vague in my post) this is for a job from a handyman <$3K.

@Jason Staine

It’s not a big job and is the 2nd contractor I worked with. The first contractor didn’t ask for any and this one asked for 50%, so I wanted to see everyone’s take on it.

From what I’m gathering in all of the responses the larger the job = the smaller the initial down payment (but this is also dependent on the type of job being done).

@Shawn M. Thanks Shawn!

Hello,

I have a contractor that is requesting 50% of what he quoted the job up front. It isn’t a super large sum of money, but I’m curious on what type of things I should do/look for to protect myself. As of now all I have for information on the guy is his phone number.

Thank you!