All Forum Posts by: Bryan O.

Everyone talks to their friends about being excited... Ask my friends and wife and they'll tell you I don't shut up. More importantly, How many OWNERS have you talked to? Maybe you can do some owner carry. Perhaps find distressed properties and fix them with hard money and flip one or two to get your savings up. You could go the route of trying to wholesale.

You are absolutely right: Passion and motivation aren't enough. ACTION and INTELLIGENCE are. You are building your intelligence, but ignoring the action. Quit staring at the closed doors and use the open ones   ;)

 *snicker*

I don't know how pet friendly Seattle is, but it may be hard to find anyone to rent to you with that many pets. You may also find that it is much harder to find a job once you don't have one. I'd really concentrate on trying to get a job prior to moving up there.

Best of luck with your move, and if you run out of food at least you have plenty of stew meat  ;)

(kidding on the stew meat)

Cozy.co is a service many people use. I just started it for one of my units where the roommates want to split their rent. It aggregates their payment and once they've all paid it transfers to your account. This way they don't have your account information and you don't have to care about who is paying how much.

Cozy gets their money when you use them for credit checks and such, so their payment processing does not cost.

You should have an estoppel statement from every tenant as part of your due diligence before purchasing. This is how you verify that what the seller is providing is what they actually agreed with the tenant. It also precludes any "but they said my rent would be 50% off for the first year after a sale" scenarios.

Unless otherwise stated in their lease, you are buying their agreement and must honor it. Start building your own lease and other documentation now because you may need it sooner rather than later and will want it ready.

Also keep in mind that you may be required to have your real estate license if you plan to manage any properties that you do not own.

Thanks @Bill S.! Once I figured out what the form I needed was called I found that exact form and modified it a bit to fit my preferred look and feel.

Thanks for the help and the link! I'm hoping they just do it, but as they say, "Hope for the best; prepare for the worst."

Thank you again.

Hello landlords,
I require Renter's Insurance for my properties and I have a new tenant that is about to breach their lease agreement. I have yet to have a tenant do something like this and want to know how to do handle this the right way. They aren't behind on rent, but violating the lease. What is the proper way to notify them that they must have the insurance? Pay or Quit notice doesn't seem to fit...
Here is the verbiage from the lease:
Tenant agrees that all personal property kept on the premise shall be at the risk of the Tenant. Tenant also agrees to maintain at Tenant's sole expense a Renter's Insurance policy, or its equivalent, issued by a licensed insurance company of Tenant's selection which provides limits of liability of at least $100,000 personal liability. Tenant shall list Landlord as Additional Interest on the policy. Proof of insurance is required within 1 month of the date of this agreement or Tenant shall be considered in violation of this Lease.
I contacted them at the 15-day mark via e-mail with no response. I text messaged both of them at the 7-day mark with no response. I will attempt to speak to them in person today or tomorrow, but if not they are in violation in 3 days and I'm not quite sure what paperwork is necessary.

Just to add more words, ditto the above.

What they mean by "pass through" is that when you put money into your LLC, it is adding owner contributions, which isn't a loss or a gain. When you remove money from your LLC, it is an owner draw, which isn't a loss or a gain. Regardless of what accounts the funds are in, if the LLC makes money it doesn't matter if it stays in the account or moves to yours, it is looked at the same.

Here are a few layers you can use for asset protection. Every time you add a layer you increase your workload, costs, and flexibility. I recommend finding wherever fits your needs:

No protection: you own things, no LLC, minimum levels of insurance

Another layer: require Renter's Insurance for tenants. Their expense, helps CYA for things that are their issue

Another layer: umbrella policy. Very cheap, easy to set up, easy to maintain

Another layer (assuming you manage your own properties): LLC for management. Now if a tenant sues you, they are suing the management company that manages the property but doesn't own them to lose them. More bookkeeping intensive.

Another layer: LLC(s) own the properties. This is good, but you lose financing options. Like those super low interest 30-year fixed APR? Good luck getting one for your LLC.

There are all kinds of other things that can be done with trusts and so on, but really you should be "doing the thing" before you get paralyzed analyzing how to protect the thing you don't even have ;)

Best of luck!