All Forum Posts by: Brendan L.

So, I've got myself into a situation. I am in the final weeks of a contract to buy a single family house in my current town. I own 2 duplexes and this was intended to be my own place. However, now I may have a job opportunity 1.5 hours away, and I'm not going to commute that. Do I back out and loose $4000 in sunk deposit and closing costs, or do I stick with it and rent it out? Problem is, the numbers aren't that attractive.

It's a 15 year loan $950/mo PITI. I could see myself getting $1200/mo in rent. Monthly expenses, self-managed, $200-$300/mo. So I would be breaking even, conservatively down $100/mo not including the principal paydown aspect. If it was a 30 year loan, I would be looking at making maybe $100/mo after taxes not including the principal paydown.

I like the house, it would be a nice place to live when I'm financially independent, so the only saving grace is that it would be paid off in 15 years at the tenants' expense. I have 2 duplexes netting me about $1k/mo after taxes and expenses.

So coming at this not so much from an investor stand point, more of a practical small time investor/financial independence stand point, what advice do you have?

What's the liability landscape look like when, for example, grandparents have their grandchildren under 6 visit and sleep over in a non-deleaded apartment? Or what about cases where a tenant doesn't tell the landlord they have children under 6 staying for extended periods, or even living there? The laws seem to require you to delead if children under 6 live there, but is there a legal definition of what "live" means? 

Thank you!

This is a low cost of living area, purchase price is 140k, 6/4 duplex built in 1900, buy and hold, B+ neighborhood. I have an ACV quote for 200k coverage at $712/yr. I have a RC quote for 470k coverage at $1,150/yr. Difference of $438/yr, or $36.50/mo. 

This is a 1.7% minimum rental, and difference in premiums would represent a 6% difference in total monthly PITI payment. So, I'm not thin on margin and can afford the extra in premium. Big picture, RC about an extra $4,400 per 10 years.

Would that difference make you go with ACV over RC? What would make you choose one or the other? I'm leaning toward RC for this property because my margins are fine and if something happened once, it would likely pay for itself. But I want to get others' opinions about how they might make this kind of business decision.

I max a 403b and traditional IRA...is there a way for me to add my duplex rental income to a pretax retirement account without treating myself as an employee?

That wasn't the issue, it was that the last tenant left a week early and had them shut off, and the electric company requires a technician to go out to turn them back on, and they couldn't get there in time for move in. I've since set it up so it automatically goes into my name so they don't get shut off so there won't be this lag time.

Novice landlord who just took on my first set of tenants. The electric company shut off the electricity after the previous tenant had left and so new tenants had no electricity and no heat moving in yesterday. Legally, I have to provide heat. They weren't happy but were able to move in and find other accommodations. I offered for them to take 23% off next months rent to refund the 2 days without utilities and pay for a hotel room (that they didn't end up needing). This made them happy, but now I'm wondering how to not over extend my kindness, because I'm a naturally appeasing person. I'm also living next to these people in a duplex. 

If/when the heat goes out in the winter, what are my obligations besides calling for a technician to come out (who might not be able to make it over for a couple days)? All I can find is that I have to repair, but there don't seem to be requirements about refunding or even providing space heaters during the time that its down. Are tenants on their own if something breaks down? 

When starting out with a house hack, how does one ensure that the property is managed and emergencies can be dealt with while they're away for a day, up to a week? 

What are some non-obvious ways that you limit your landlord liability risks? Or how bout the obvious ways, too..

No applications yet. Just initial interest gathering and showing scheduling to follow. Thank you