All Forum Posts by: Angel Peng

Currently in contract to close on my first duplex but the Landlord insurance cost took me by surprise. The highest quote I got for my duplex was $2600 annually and the lowest was $1300. The mid range is around $1950. I want to go for the lowest but I also want to make sure that I am appropriately protected. With all the specifics being the equal, how could the range be so wide? Utica National Insurance Group is the one going for $1300. Any with good or bad experiences with them that you can share. Thank you so much!

Hi!

I am trying to get the best affordable quote for Landlord insurance. Wondering if anyone finds the "Equipment Breakdown" coverage to be important and necessary. Thank you so much.

Sorry I forgot to add that we would like to manage on our own rather than hiring property manager. My spouse is trying to meet real estate professional status with the goal of offsetting my W2 income tax. Spouse currently not working. 

Hi all,

I'm trying to create some anonymity between me and the tenants. I want to present myself as the property manager rather than the owner. I am thinking of creating a DBA with a virtual business address through iPostal1. Was also looking into Regus but it was more expensive.

I don't want to do LLC yet because I'm just starting and have only one duplex. I still need to get more properties by using conventional loans and develop a more stable business credit before doing LLC.

Anyone can share their experience with using DBA and are you using virtual addresses for your DBA? If so, which company did you go with for virtual addresses. Thank you all!

I just got my first rental property so I am very new to all of this. New York recently passed the “Good Cause Eviction” which protects tenants from eviction without legitimate reason. I initially planned on doing month to month lease for incoming tenants just in case I need to let them go if they end up not being the right fit. But with this new law in place , is there even a benefit for month to month lease since I cannot do much anyway in terms of getting the tenant to move out. Thank you for your help. 

Can you share your experiences on inheriting less than ideal long-term tenants after purchasing a property and how you got through it or resolved it? Thank you for your help.

I am losing on offers that are often inspection waived. I am not looking to waive the inspection but what other options can I present that people have used which makes the offer competitive. I've read there are pass/failed inspections that let you walk out of the deal but you don't get to ask the seller to make any changes or credits. I've also read there are options where you agree to pay the first $7000 of repairs and the seller cover the rest. Just wondering what others have tried that made you land the deal? Thanks for your help!

Thank you so much for the responses so far. 

Mitch Messer - Thank you for point that out. I have used the analysis calculator and have come up with 480k as the lowest COC return I would be happy with. Any price under that will yield me even better results.

Russell Brazil - That is a great point that you made. Can you advise on how much escalation you think is a reasonable escalation to lock in the deal? $5K, 10K? Would really appreciate your input. 

I found a quadplex for $390k. It has so much traffic and popularity just 2 hours of being placed on Zillow. This is my first investment property. I will be doing a conventional 20% down. I am willing to go as high as $480k for this place. How should I make this offer? Should I offer starting at asking price with an escalation clause of $3000 higher than the highest bidder until $480k? And I would require that they show the price of the 2nd highest bidder. 

Another offer would be that I start at $420k with the same escalation. 

Or should I just start at $430-450k to begin with. 

I am willing to go as high as $480k but obviously would like to avoid it if I could do it for much lower. 

Thank you all for your expertise. 

I’ve read Brandon Turner’s The Book on Managing Rental Properties and Mike Butlers Landlording on Autopilot. Are there other great landlording books out there? Recommendations will be greatly appreciated.