All Forum Posts by: JR C.

It is not invoke HOA documents. The board voted on it and decided that the members needed to contribute 10 hours annually on the common areas. I replied back to them and stated our insurance probably didn't cover the liability issues of volunteers working without being bonded and insured themselves. We now have a nice little battle going on. It is another HOA that is out of control and power hungry story. Sad but true.

Hopefully the real estate agents can answer this question. Can an HOA dictate it's members to do physical labor such as working on landscaping? An email was sent out to all HOA members and stated that they expect all members to work 10 hours a year in addition to paying all dues. They said this was to keep the dues low. This association is in Tennessee if that matters. Thanks for any answers.

Here in East Tennessee (Knoxville area), it is not as good. I have two that I have ads on Postlets ( which syndicate to multiple sites) and have yard signs out and I'm lucky if I get a call every other day. The asking rents are what I have been charging for three years now and are in line with comps. I am starting to wonder what is going on here. I may have to break down and try craigslist again and hope my ad doesn't get scammed. I'm glad you all are doing so well. Send some my way!

Wow, there are a lot of East Tennessee folks here. Welcome, Reed.

Chris- One more question on IPN. Is there a way to not allow a tenant to make a deposit to your IPN account? I know they can't adjust the money request amount we send them but what's to stop them from initiating a separate SEND transaction on there own? If they send just a few dollars while in an eviction that could stop it. Can a person deny an incoming payment or does IPN simply process any money sent to you? Thanks.

Chris-

Thanks for the very detailed and informative overview on IPN. I have been using erentpayment for over a year and like the company very much. I do, however, like the speed and cost of IPN much better. I actually have a merchant account at IPN but I have yet to use it for rent collection. I also have a business account at Dwolla and never used it before. I like redundant back-up systems!

I got an email a couple of weeks ago from IPN stating a major upcoming change that worried me a little. It stated that in order to PAY someone going forward that they had to be registered at IPN. It used to be that you could pay anyone through IPN even if they were not members. I know this would not affect me in RECEIVING rent payments but policy changes like that make me a little nervous.

With your good feedback of IPN, I think I will slowly start transitioning over to them if I can get me tenants to comply without kicking up too much of a fuss. If I can save some money and speed things up a bit it will be worth the trouble.

I will add my opinions to your excellent review and list my pro's and con's for the three companies I am registered to:

Erentpayment is a good, solid system but a little on the expensive side ($3.00 per transaction) and a little slow in making deposits compared to the new companies coming out.

Dwolla is dirt cheap (.25 cents per transaction) but I understand they are extremely slow with transfers. 2-3 days for the tenants funds to get to Dwolla and then another 2-3 days for the funds to get you your bank. Throw in weekends and you can be looking at 10 days to get your money.

Intuit Payment Network deserves another look. It is cheap (.50 cents per transaction) and fast but with the policy changes in their payment system makes me wonder if they have more changes in store. Also, they own Spark Rent. Will they continue to keep IPN open to landlords even though it may compete with Spark Rent?

Decisions, decisions!

Does Intuit Payment Network have a way for the landlord to not accept partial payment? If someone using IPN send an email request for rent for say....$850 and the tenant sends only $500 will the payment get denied or will the lesser amount go through? Partial payments are not good for landlords.

Plumber #2 is correct. Better to be safe than sorry. It will be an extreme mess is the pipe cracked ( which is very probable ).

Thanks for the replies. I do see that the IRS labels depreciation as a Capital Expense. The depreciation issue, being a non cash flow expense, was not thought out by the folks in DC ( big surprise) when they did this healthcare reform and will be revisited again I am sure. I can see a day coming when we will get a huge tax bill for counting depreciation as part of the healthcare subsidy when we sell properties, just like we have to do depreciation recapture now to the IRS when we sell. I guess I will just never sell my properties!

I was looking over the health exchange website and one of the income questions was Net Rental Income amount. Does net rental income factor in depreciation? Or is depreciation a different type of expense because you have to pay it back upon selling the property. My Schedule E includes depreciation of the rental as an expense relating to taxes but it doesn't specifically call it Net Rental Income. With depreciation included, my income is much lower. Anyone know for sure?