All Forum Posts by: Brandon Reiter

Absolutely NOT!!!

I have an up/down house where I live upstairs and rent out the downstairs apartment. To make the rental unit more appealing, I decided to include Century Link high speed internet. Needless to say, I received a letter from a law firm out of Chicago that stated my IP address had illegally downloaded copyrighted materials. My secured internet connection had only two people using the internet: myself and my tenant. My choices were to either pay $1900 and have all charges waived or fight the charges and possibly be liable for up to $250,000. Long story short, my attorney advised that the $1900 payment was the safest approach. Luckily, I talked to my tenant and he agreed to pay the $1900, but this could have been a huge expense. I will never again be including internet under my name.

Keep in mind that each internet provider has their own policies for customers downloading copyrighted material. Century Link passes on the names and charges directly to the subscriber. On the other hand, I have heard that Optimum (formerly Bresnan) will not release any subscriber information to third parties, but will give their customers a 3 strike policy for this exact situation.

I am closing on a duplex after the first of the year and have a few questions for the BP community. Each unit rents for $275/mo, but fair market seems to be more like $600/mo. There are currently NO leases in place with the current property owner.

First of all, is a minimum of 30 days notice required for giving tenants notice of increased rent or notice to vacate? Or should the current property owner be giving notice to the tenants already? It seems that the owner has no real incentive to tell the tenants to move out. Don't get me wrong, I would probably do the same thing if I were in his/her shoes.

Secondly, what if I was planning on occupying one side of the duplex? This isn't the case, but it seems that many buyers would do this and expect to occupy their property on day #1. What do you think?

Dont' worry, I have NO affilliation with this website.

It seems like the real deal. Does anyone currently use it?

I've been hearing a lot about only being able to have 4 mortgages out at a time. Is this true? I guess if you put 25% down (30 yr fixed rate secondary loan), you could potentially refinance and pay one of them off completely. Are there any other strategies for this? Does an LLC allow you to have additional mortgages?

The duplex has vinyl siding (double lap style). Not sure how it would be to try to weave new siding into existing to cover up the window. Not too concerned about how the blue shades of siding would match. Blue is probably the worst for fading/chalking.

Just wanted to get everyone's take on investing in SFH rentals in other states. Does it diversify (within Real Estate) your portfolio? Yes. Does it create more headaches? Maybe?

Below is a list of the top ten places to buy a rental (from CNN):
1. Las Vegas
2. Detroit
3. Daytona Beach
4. Orlando
5. Warren, MI
6. Bakersfield
7. Phoenix
8. Atlanta
9. Reno
10. Tampa

Personally, I live and invest in Billings, Montana. Most people probably wouldn't think it's a great place to invest; however, Billings has one of the best economies in the Rocky Mountain region. Lots of industry: refineries, healthcare, banking, and farming.

What makes your city worth investing in? I'm curious to know what makes your city tick.

Thanks everyone for the input! It seems that I could make an extremely watertight connection between tile and a block window; however, the FRP panel to block window might be a bit trickier. I assume brick masons can install some sort of flange that would overlap my tub surround material. Might have to call a brick mason for input. And Brian has a great point, removing the window might be the simplest approach.

I recently closed on a duplex (2BR, 1BA, 1152 sq. ft. each) that needs some work done in each of the bathrooms. Similar to what David has, the bathrooms have windows in the shower/tub surround. Has anyone found a good solution to this? I am considering having glass block windows installed (after removing the rotted double hung windows) and finishing the tub surround with Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) panels over green sheetrock.

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated!!

I recently closed on a duplex (2BR, 1BA, 1152 sq. ft. each) that needs some work done in each of the bathrooms. Similar to what David has, the bathrooms have windows in the shower/tub surround. Has anyone found a good solution to this? I am considering having glass block windows installed (after removing the rotted double hung windows) and finishing the tub surround with Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) panels over green sheetrock.

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated!!