All Forum Posts by: Colleen F.

I am thinking you are talking about buying into an on mountain condo situation that charges the 33%. This is basically you are part of their rental pool and that is what they charge for that privilege. You could get a local property manager at a third of that cost. You could use a lock box and a cleaning and linen service. You really need to look into the situation and see what works regarding the numbers. Does the onsite rental management company include any other perks? Does it include linen service? I have gone some places where if you rent from someone who is with the onsite property management you get additional access to things like the recreation facilities but if you rent direct from the owner who is not with the onsite management company you can 't use all 5 pools, just the one right on the property. Check out those kinds of differences and see if they matter.

I am sorry for your trouble, Not everyone reacts to bed bug bites so the previous owner could have been someone who had no sensitivity to them. If you want to give him the benefit of the doubt that is. It can also take up to 14 days for someone to react to bed bugs while other people are very sensitive to them or any type of insect bite for that matter. It is intolerable for them. I lean more towards the later so I am sympathetic to the new owners. For exterminators you wish you never need them but you always feel better when they tell you that you it was really needed....

It is the potential for foundation repair and mold if no post flood remediation was done. On what I'll call my Sandy house- mold remediation would have been 3 to have done professionally. We went through about 30 k doing mold, a foundation repair and basic rehab on an 1800 square foot house and its still not done. (need to get a better Project manager but this is just for illustration). If you want to do it you need to know the extent of the damage and I would say the future of the area (if others homes were flooded are they rebuilding?) .

Unless it' more a minor non-recurring flood or the land is worth it on the face of it there seems not to be a good value in the deal. FEMA is also remapping so the flood insurance cost could impact the ability to resell.

We provide yard maintenance to one of our units and unlike when we are going in the unit where we do give notice we do not give notice on coming for yard work. We might knock and the door but we might not if we think they are busy. Figure if we used a lawn service they don't say when they are coming.

It probably depends on what your lease says. Does it mention the yard. Is there anything to suggest you would maintain it if he does not? In a fourplex when you maintain common area and there are also separate yards I would probably have said something that day like since we are in the process of removing a tree we are going to come over and do xyz. If he objected I would have said well they we are going to count on you to do it. In any case he sounds like he was annoyed and said nothing. Now he has been stewing for a while. I would try to clear the air somehow but since he went to the police accusing you albeit indirectly of theft that might be a tough one. What did the police say? I would definitely start addressing the yard in leases.

I suggest you raise the rent, you aren't breaking even. If the long term tenants leave you get short term tenants, but do you need to furnish the house to do so? Can you rent this year round? If you don't need to furnish it is lower cost and you can always maintain the short term rentals while you test the market for sale if that is what you want to do. If you have to buy furniture put that in your calculation for short term rental cost to see if it makes financial sense. Run the numbers on your scenarios and make sure you include maintenance costs.

If you can get what you want for this house and find something with a better ROI ok. If the equity is not all yours selling simplifies things and avoids the potential for future issues.

You also might want to identify some potential areas for investment before you sell this place. Areas that cash flow to get you closer to your goal.

Typically anything she owns goes into the estate. How it is handled depends on the state you live in and whether she has a will. I would say this needs to be covered in the note and you certainly need a lawyer to review. You might get more advice on what to address in the paperwork for the note if you post specifically a question on the note terms in the lending section of BP. They might not see to answer here. In the end you need legal advice but it doesn't hurt to get a better understanding of the issues before you start paying by the 7 minute increment!

Rooming houses tend to have certain populations attracted to them.

This is where many of the patients I have dealt with have lived. They are out on their own but just barely. I recall that for some it came right out of their disability. I can't imagine that is an easy rental pool but I haven't dealt with it from the landlord side.

Students are also strong boarding house candidates if you are in close proximity to a school. A lot of turnover but you might get a more serious student population then the ones sharing houses with their buddies. I don't know. There is a BP contributor Roy N. from Canada who I believe who has a lot of student rentals. He may have some insight but I am not sure if they are rooms/apartments or both.

We always ask the utility be shut off on x date and tell the tenants that. If the tenants don't put it in their name by that date the utility company sometimes does leave the electric on but they have never billed me (but no one has gone 2 months without paying).

As a tenant I once gave a date to shut off the utilities and the utility company did not shut them off as my landlord said to leave them on. I told the utility company I ordered a shut off , bill the landlord if you left it on. I guess they did because I never heard from them.

I am not sure if you said discontinue service how they can keep billing you (except water which is not allowed to be in the tenants name here). Could be some state law. Good luck.

I like leveraging the fence. If the place has a board of directors I would take that to them and mention that you would be happy to return the favor of access should they need to get on your property to maintain theirs. Not allowing you to come on the property for this limited item now will impact them later. You would like to know what conditions they would want to impose to let you accomplish this short term access for maintenance. You are happy to work with them.

It also would help if you know exactly what the issue they have is. You might not be able to pay the director for the extra supervision but if the issue is residents being present while you work and you only need a day or two you may be able to work with them about getting residents off site, or put temporary fences up etc. Alternately , if the issue is knowing who is coming on site and getting clearances , background checks that could be done. If the issue is the contractor forgot to take the ladder down you may need to supervise that. It also depends on what kind of halfway house drugs? , prison? do they think they are following a regulation and the director needs to be informed that it doesn't apply the way she thinks. ? Fax a request to the board of directors maybe?

One thing you need to consider is what is your day job? what other events do you have ? If you have a duplex and nothing else and you have simple taxes otherwise and time on your hands ok. For most people that isn't the case and you could miss something.

For me the missed deductions aren't the biggest issue. My first audit at the IRS (at 17!) left a mark and I am always sure in the thousands of pages of tax code I always miss something. I want to be sure I have the documentation I need should I be audited yet again. I would recommend at least having someone who understands rentals do it or check you. If you only keep this rental and your situation is stable , and the laws don' t change you could just start doing it again. good luck.