All Forum Posts by: Jean Leite

Dear BP community, 

I've bought a condo last year in Downtown Miami, and this is my second year of property tax assessment. 

I bought it for $240K and the assessed value then for tax purposes was $163K. 

This year's assessed value is now $195K, a 20% increase over last year's. Zillow tells me that property prices in that zip code have moved up 0.5%, nowhere near 20%. How could this be? Any suggestions of how to appeal it, or if it's even worth the hassle?

All the best!

JS

Thanks a million everyone. I had never heard of wave accounting and they're amazing! Power of BiggerPockets!!

@Account Closed undefined - I will go for a combination of RentTec & Wave Accounting. 

best of luck to you!

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

@Jean Leite 

What software did you decide to go with?

 Hi Daira. I've downloaded quickbooks but honestly need some mentoring. Hope to try one of the free versions online (spark rent) to see if it helps out. I've only got one property so I just need to learn the bookkeeping ropes before signing up for something costly. 

kind regards, 

JS

Fantastic, thank you everyone! I'll definitely check them out and come back with feedback!

Hi guys, We often hear in the podcasts folks with large portfolios using property management software to offload on bookkeeping and admin tasks. How about packages for 1-5 units? Is there anything out there affordable for that small of a portfolio? I'd really just love to get paid online and do all my bookkeeping. Huge thanks! JS

Dear BP, 

I'm an international investor and I've closed my first deal this July in Downtown Miami. It's a 2-bed, 2-bath on the top floor of a very nice property Downtown. I'm asking a price right in the range of neighbouring units of same size and amenities.

The buying agent in the transaction is also the agent taking care of showings and listings. I have given her 6 months exclusivity and I'm struggling to find a decent applicant. I must've gone through 20 applications by now and it's always people with poor credit, very low hourly wages on part-time jobs, and parking seems to be a deal-breaker sometimes (1 spot for a 2-bedroom). Our listing is obviously on MLS, Trulia, and Zillow. But is there anything else I could try? Are there specialised tenant-hunters in the area? I'm not anywhere near the end of my exclusivity period with the agent, and honestly I don't believe she's the problem, but I definitely need to get this rented out to a nice tenant so that I can stop worrying about the empty condo. Any suggestions or pointers are sincerely appreciated!!

JS

Wow, thank you all for the info!

To claify, I'm a foreign investor who'll use the LLC mainly for tax and estate purposes. Since it's already hard to obtain conventional financing given that I do not have a FICO score in the US, I wanted to show my US bank that my LLC is sufficiently capitalized. I do have a DE LLC, but my targets right now are in FL and IL. Is there anything extra there I should be careful about?

Hello BP community,

I have opened a Delaware LLC early this year where I plan on registering 3-5 rental properties I plan on acquiring in the next 5 years. It is a single member-managed LLC. My question comes from its Operating Agreement: what is the ideal (industry-standard) capitalization I should leave in my LLC to facilitate bank borrowing and shielding against veil piercing in the future? At this moment I'm considering $5,000. Is that too little? Is there a magical formula out there?

Thank you!