All Forum Posts by: Brandon Knudtson

@Julie Belton Here is a meetup you may be interested in checking out.

@Jacob Breazile I just purchased my first multi-family in mid September. Depending on what part of the country you are in, I would hire a pest company to come through and do a thorough inspection of the property. We didn't do this during the due diligence period, but did about 2 weeks after we got the keys. Long story short, they found existing bed bugs hiding in the outlets and that's a nice $800 unexpected expense I encountered. If we would have paid the $40 for an inspection during the DD period, we could have potentially had this expense covered by the seller. Good luck on the purchase of your first property!

Brandon

@Jeb Brilliant I recently just purchased a property and have been keeping track of all my income/expenses on Stessa. Free and pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. You can also allow access to other people if you want (owner access so they can add/change things, or just viewable access so they can't change anything but see your numbers.

Brandon

@Sandy S. I don't know NJ law specifically as that is not the market I am in. But I recently purchased my first property and just googled 'landlord/tenant laws in Arizona' and found the 'Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act' that I could download for free. I'm sure if you did a quick google search you could find something similar for NJ. It isn't the most exciting read but it does provide answers to all the questions you asked in this post. I spent one weekend reading the Arizona landlord/tenant laws cover to cover and definitely think it was well worth my time. Sorry I can't be more help to you specifically in NJ and good luck.

Brandon

@Luke Carl Let me ask you this question, if you are renting the other side out for $600/month then why would you keep the tenant who is paying only $520/month (hopefully they sent the full $570 "in the mail" though)? You are missing out on potentially $80 extra per month. With them living there for 8 years, it might take quite a bit of money to get that side up to the same condition as the $600/month unit but if it wouldn't take too much time/money to get the $570 side up to the same condition, then I don't really see a reason to keep the current tenants who are extremely unhappy already with you. Easier said than done but I would give them their notice you won't be renewing their month to month lease, get them out of there and get it rented for $600 like the other side. I'm also a new owner and have read some horror stories about inherited tenants. Good luck!

Brandon

@Michael Kistner Thank you for the advice. I asked them for references and am following up with homeowners of their previous projects to see what they have to say about the work done.

Brandon

@Robert Sapienza I am fairly new to landlording as well (just purchased in mid-September) but my thoughts on why you should always make a copy of the actual check is to protect yourself if you have ANY type of rent dispute with a tenant down the road. Should you need to go to court, you have actual pictures of things to show a judge instead of just a spreadsheet that you record on. I don't know if that would ever happen, as I am new and haven't personally experienced any crazy rent stories yet, but I feel it is safer to OVER protect myself vs being under-protected for any type of dispute with a tenant.

Hello BP community,

So I just bought my first rental property recently and would really like the exterior painted since the previous owner painted half of the back, and left the other half unpainted (an eye sore currently). I know painting exterior can get pretty pricey. A person on a buy/sell/trade site in my market just posted an add on facebook saying they are a union painter (has pictures of their union certs) with 20 years experience but was recently laid off and needs to pay their bills still so is  looking for side work. They are willing to power wash, repair/fill in any cracks in our stucco (which we have a decent amount), and paint the entire exterior for a very reasonable/almost borderline too cheap of a price (half up front and half when the job is complete).

My dilemma being a brand new property owner is, do I trust their sob story (she did send me before and after pics of jobs they have recently worked on) and get the exterior painted for a steal of a price? or do I run as far away from this person as I can? I like to think that people will live up to their word and could be helping them out in a time of need but have read too many contractor horror stories that currently have me very hesitant to hire this person. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Brandon

@Scot Sorenson I just purchased my first rental property and have been tracking income/expenses with Stessa. So far so good for me and like someone else said, I think it will work well for a smaller portfolio. I have my home depot card linked (as this is where I buy most of my materials) and haven't had any issues thus far. Yes, you can link different cards/bank accounts and you can also manually upload transactions yourself if you choose not to link anything Stessa. I have only been using Stessa for 3 weeks but it has been very easy to use so far.

@Will Kirkendoll I just purchased my first house hack also. I mailed an introduction letter (written by myself) to the current tenant stating I'm the new owner, when I expect rent (by the 1st of every month) to avoid any issues, where they can send it to, and my contact information if they need to get a hold of me or have any questions about the transition of ownership. I also sent them a $20 gift card, with the letter, as a nice gesture to hopefully ease any fears they may have about me as the new landlord of their home. Also, I made sure that I did some minor exterior improvements on the duplex the very first weekend that I had the keys to be visible to them and show them that I will be making an effort to hopefully make their home a nicer place to live over time.