All Forum Posts by: Bill Ward

I usually provide the contact number of the tenant (with their approval) to the repair man. They can coordinate a time that works for them. My current tenants prefer to be home and with as little of my contact as possible. My previous tenants never cared when I needed to go there. 

Are there tenants currently in there that had a working water dispenser when they moved in? Do they care? I would want it fixed if I was the tenant but maybe not everyone uses it. I use mine all the time and really missed it when not having one.

Mine has the washer and dryer in it, mainly because of it's location it's very difficult to get one in an out of the laundry room/half bath. Anyways, I put a stipulation in the lease stating that they can use my washer and dryer if they want. If it breaks- they can pay to have it fixed or I will remove them for free and they can buy their own. This takes my responsibility off of it, and also allows them to use it and not have to purchase a set. Basically they get to use it for free in exchange I'm not going to repair it for them. My set is 11 years old and going strong. 

I have one rental I could pull roughly $70k out of. One thing I'm not sure how works is if I pulled that out (or sold it) and the next step is to buy more property using that as a down payment, so buying a $300k ish property (60k as 20% down)...how does that work when you don't make a lot of income. I know I couldn't qualify or even attempt to make the payments on my own house and on a second house of even higher value. Single person making $50k a year. Do they figure in the qualifications differently when it's an investment property, assuming you'll receive rental income for it, or am I just not making enough money to upgrade?

Not looking to do this right now just curious.
Thanks,

Bill

I'm no expert, if I was going to the effort of relocating it outside...I'd make it a tankless water heater mounted to the side of the house. It's designed for that and then endless hot showers!

I've lived my whole life in Zone A, and my parents have as well for the last 45 years. Their house only flooded one time. It was a pain and the house was raised afterwards. The actual costs still came out about $30k higher than what insurance paid (Hurricane Isabelle 2003). Insurance costs are based on elevation level of your first floor. Can cost a few hundred dollars to get an elevation certificate if you need one. Need to have FEMA approved flood vents in the foundation and sometimes they (FEMA) are a pain to deal with. The yard floods obviously more often than the house. Here, about 5-6 times a year in hurricane season people drive and park their cars at the highest local area so they won't flood. My garage is about 3-4 ft. lower than my house. So the garage can flood from extra high tides. So you learn when you have to move lawn mowers and grills and tools etc. off the lowest level.

I have a single rental. I have no desire to expand, and I don't make much money off it monthly. But it's getting paid down for free. 10 more years and it will be paid off if I keep it that long. At that point it will pay my crrent mortgage. So I'm looking at it as 10 years until I'm mortgage free, for the cost of minor maintenance. 

Search youtube for replacing whatever piece is broken, should be able to find a good video in a couple minutes. 

Am I the only one who would add a washer and dryer in there for that price? Couple hundred bucks get a nice used set so renters don't have to expect to buy a set. 

@Joseph Agins So I refinanced my home to a 15 when I was living it, then turned it into a rental the following year. I'm now in year 4 of the 15. I have debated refinancing to a 30 yr to increase the cash flow where it basically just breaks even now. Most people on here would say yes refinance to a 30 yr to maximize cash flow, use the cash to buy other properties etc.....here's why I'm not and it's fairly specific to my situation:

I don't need the cash flow, I'm content with it breaking even for now.

I want it paid off to maximize cash flow in 10 years when I'm eligible to retire.

I don't plan to purchase any other rentals.

If I had extra cash flow from refinancing now I don't have any other investments to put it back into, so it would sit in my savings making nothing.

If something does pop up in the future I still have the chance to cash out refinance the property and the longer I wait the more I can take out when I need it.