All Forum Posts by: Bill B.

Find out if repair is/was reasonable. If so, no problem, tenant saved you hassle. 

If not. Figure out why the PM did NOTHING for 3 days after being notified of a gas leak. All they had to do was send someone out to look at the problem and they would have noticed someone working on it. We usually fix “stupid” stuff the same day, we certainly would have had someone look at a gas leak the same day. 

Lastly, if the price is unreasonable talk to the plumber see of there’s any compromise. Show them them multiple quotes that are at least 25% less. (Or don’t bother.) Then ask them if the tenant told them they were the owner or a tenant. ZERO companies should start any job, much less a major job without the owner’s signature/approval. They can argue this but what if the bill was $13k, or $23k? You didn’t agree to pay $1. Maybe the tenant did and they could be forced to pay?

Anyway. Hopefully you find out the quote is/was semi-reasonable so that problem goes away. Then you just have a PM problem. 3 days with no action on a home with either a gas leak or no gas? Not too good. 

Ps. Can you get confirmation from gas company they detected a leak? Hate to think there was never a leak and the guy was just giving his friend a good gig. 

I missed the part about a family transfer. 

If this is a gift, or you are paying way less than it’s worth. Make sure your father in law declares the gift and/or pays his share of the taxes. (The IRS is wary of tax burden shifting.) You will also inherit a very low cost basis (his actual cost basis which could be insanely low, or your artificially low value if you’re lucky.) making any eventual sale a tax landmine. This is the kind of transfer that’s usually done at time of death to avoid all the taxes. Just keep that way smarter than me CPA involved BEFORE you do any transfer, they SHOULD have an idea of the impact on each of you. 

Your brand new $12k ac unit didn’t come with a warranty?

You need a new PM if “they went on vacation”. What if there had been a water leak or some other “emergency”? I’m amazed Tory market lets you ignore heat/ac problems for 5 days. We fix the problem the same day. 

Why are you talking to your tenants at all? This is why you hire a PM.

TLDR: find a new PM, one with a staff that does it for a living, stop talking directly to the tenants, find an HVAC company that sells $5-8k systems with 5-10 year warranties minimum. Good luck. 

You get to deduct 1/27.5th of the value of the structures. (You don’t get to depreciate the land value.)

It took about 7-8 years before I started paying taxes as my rental income went up and my interest expenses went down. You carry forward any “losses” exceeding your income plus an allowance up to $25k depending on your other income. 

1031s are more common than Chris let on. I did one in 2023 and I’m VERY far from an institutional investor. They are a good way to get out of a property you’ve owned for 20+ years, has reached the age where capex starts popping up, has appreciated to the point where ROE is minuscule, or you want to escape a state with income tax. 

Ps. There’s another sweet little 20% income discount I hope people are using but nobody seems to be talking about…

What Is the 20% Qualified Business Income (QBI) Deduction? Pass-through owners who qualify can deduct up to 20% of their net business income from their income taxes, reducing their effective income tax rate by 20%. This deduction is commonly known as the "qualified business income deduction" or "QBI deduction."

Wouldn’t the commercial property be the most expensive loan with the shortest terms? Why would you pay off lower interest, longer term debt with higher interest, shorter term debt? This is exactly how the current commercial debt problem started.  (3-5-7 year loan terms forcing people to find new financing while rates have doubled.) take all the 30 year debt you can while limiting short term debt. 

You’d be better off getting max leverage on your home and the rental home to lower the debt on the commercial property. 

IMHO the cash offer has to be quick close with very few if any contingencies.  I’ve found many cash offers include so many outs they aren’t really even an offer. They plan from day 1 to get you under contract at/near list and then regrade to the price they really want to pay. Assuming they aren’t really wholesalers. 

A 7 day quick close is probably worth a 1% discount over a well qualified 30 day loan purchase. 

Are you saying your plan is to remotely manage your first rental property which will be a STR? If so, I can't think of a worse plan. If you mean remotely manage only while in Europe, then just wait. Starting with a few negative reviews is something you'll never recover from.

I would guess you’re dealing with people who have to work while they are on vacation. Using your stats, most  work at home employees have a spouse that works in an office. Then factor in how many more have school aged kids that go to a brick and mortar school. 

If you had 1bd/1ba small cheap units you could attract the traveling IT guy. Problem is most of them I know have their expenses paid by corporate. So they check in to the most convenient hotel that gives them points. 

Maybe traveling nurses? Though that practice has been scaled back below pre-pandemic levels in cost cutting efforts in my area at least. 

Use Joseph’s plan or get all tenants to agree not to use any water for 5-10 minutes and see if the meter keeps spinning. (On a single family home most water company’s can tell you the last time water stopped flowing to the home. So when they say 4 days, you know there’s a leak. )

If the meter keeps spinning turn off the water valve to all toilets. If it stops turn them back on one at a time. That’s 90% of your leaks, and BY FAR the cheapest. You do want a main line leak.  

That will help. Now maybe someone form Rexas will respond or you’ll have to look it up yourself. Try adding it to your profile. It will help in the future. 

Ps. If you type “@“ and then a user name it will let them you know you responded to them. 

@Alexander Ignacio this is an example.