All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Low

Quote from @Garrett Ramela:

I’ve been using Baselane for roughly three years now and think it’s great! If you’re looking to get off Excel and don’t want to pay a bunch of money for a tool like Buildium, it’s great! I have three addresses with 12 units and it handles everything well! I’m happy to even hop on the phone with you and give you a walk through if it makes sense. You can also join the Baselane User Group on Facebook to get more insights.

I agree with Garrett. It wasn't difficult at all to make the switch the Baselane. It was pretty easy to import past transactions and get myself caught up. I was previously using a bookkeeper and she used Quickbooks, which was too much for me to manage myself and it was costing me a fortune to have her do it for me. I was a little hesitant to make the transition because I was worried it would be chaotic, but it was pretty much seamless. 

Quote from @Ghizal Miri:

I have 4 rental homes. Just started getting serious and diving in full time doing real estate investing. I came across Baselane to scale my rental properties. I am looking for a good software or website that can show me an accurate accounting of cash flow/profits, and money coming in and out. Do you have any recommendations? 

Hi, Ghizal. I have a combination of LTR, MTR and one STR and I use Baselane for all my properties. I have used a variety of methods over the years but have settled on Baselane. I just think it's a great platform specifically for real estate investing. The UI is great and it's very intuitive. It's easy to have accounts set up for each property as well as sub-accounts for things like security deposits. I love the virtual credit cards option, too. I just find that it's making it so easy to categorize transactions and have it ready to go for tax season. It's a great option.

Quote from @Blake Dials:

If I am renting a property of mine just under my personal name do I need to set up a separate bank account and pay the property loan, taxes, insurance etc out of that separate account? Or can i just pay everything out of my personal accounts. Asking for tax purposes. 

Thank you!

 There are two separate issues here: one is combining your personal and business banking which can complicate filing your taxes and is generally frowned upon. The other issue is that you want to protect your personal assets from liability caused by your rental property. If you're co-mingling your finances, you will have negated any liability protection a proper corporate entity structure could provide. Bottom line, if you're operating as a business you should be keeping business and personal completely separate.

It isn't necessary to have your lease agreements notarized. I don't know anyone who does. That said, I strongly recommend you use a service like Avail.co or Turbo Tenant to draft a state-specific lease agreement. It is imperative that you protect yourself (and your guests) by using the legal language and requirements of the state you're operating in. These programs are roughly equivalent and similar in price. I've used both. You can easily send the out for e-signatures, which are legal and binding as I understand it but always check that with your attorney. Using a notary is added expense and time. It also sounds like you're trying to get all of the tenants to sign the same lease. If these are individuals and not members of the same family I would want invidual leases with each person. 

Quote from @Jamie Banks:

This is very possible but as mentioned, very market specific. 

I operate in a few markets and two of them are Philadelphia, PA and Reston, VA. In Philly, my current tenant is paying 3x the long term rent through CRS (a temporary housing provider) because he lost his home due to a fire.

However, in Reston, long term rental rates are a lot higher and the MTR rates are closer to 1.5 - 2x long term rent. 

I've been on the LL diaries podcast and am not knocking other hosts but keep in mind that a lot of hosts entered into the market in 2020 or earlier where rental rates in the Sunbelt markets like Nashville, Austin, Houston, Charlotte, etc. had very low rent rates. I can see the rates they're advertising being possible BUT I doubt that they'd had the same spread if they were signing leases in today's market. 

 Great point, Jamie, about hosts who bought in years prior. The underlying metrics were so different then and it does affect cash flow and profitability. I wish podcast hosts were better about getting the guests to disclose important details like that. I don't anyone is doing it to be intentionally misleading, but it is a very important part of the conversation. Especially for new investors.

Quote from @Jonathan Klemm:

Hey @Bonnie Low - Just curious...how many MTR operators do you have in the group out of Chicago? 

I have one MTR here in Chicago and curious to see how it's working for other people in the area?

I honestly can't remember where everyone is from, Jonathan. But we've got members from CA, Maine, Detroit, Philly, Cheyenne, Iowa, New Orleans, Cleveland, DC, Virginia, Texas, Las Vegas, Annapolis, KC....so pretty much all over. If you need to specifically connect with someone in Chicago I'd be happy to ask around for you. Just message me. 

If you haven't already read it, I'd recommend you pick up the book 30 Day Stay by Zeona McIntyre and Sarah D. Weaver. They literally wrote the book on midterm rentals and cover how to analyze markets. You also need to have a thorough understanding of who is traveling to your area and why so you can make sure your property is suitable for travelers.

Without knowing how many bedrooms & bathrooms, who your target guest is and what your strategy is (rent-by-room, entire place, etc) it's impossible to answer. Generally speaking, families want at least one bath tub for bathing small children and for relaxing. Having the bathroom in the master suite makes both of these things possible so I don't think it's a drawback if you don't also have a tub in another bathroom. If you're renting by room, most travelers don't require a bath tub and definitely not if it's a shared bathroom. It's just not a deal killer in most situations so if you like everything else about it, I'd pull the trigger!

Some people will list their property as 'coming soon' on some of the local MTR specific pages or pages like Travel Nurse Gypsy Housing. However, I don't see them getting a lot of traction if they have no photos unless they have other properties they can at least reference. People are very wary of being scammed so they're reluctant to put down a deposit when they can't even see what the furnished unit is going to look like. 3/1's can be hard to rent as MTRs. Just keep that in mind. Hard, but not impossible.

House hacking is a great way to get started and it's even an option at any point in your life (take it from me - life happens!) You don't necessarily need a multi-family property to house hack, particularly in your situation. Some people absolutely don't want others in their personal home, but if that's not an issue for you you could also consider renting out your primary as an MTR when you and your wife are traveling. That's what I'm doing with mine now. I have a primary home in CA, but I'm traveling for the next couple of months so I'm renting it out. It takes a little work to move your personal belongings out (paperwork, photos, special items), but it's worth it to have someone covering my mortgage and then some while I travel. In my case, I have a 4/2. I've put all my belongings in one of the bedrooms, locked it up, and rent the house out as a 3/2. It's working out great. Just something for you to consider if MF is more than you can bite off to begin with. Good luck to you!