All Forum Posts by: Craig Janet

Also keep in mind that if a tenant decides to leave, they don't care what the lease says. There isn't much you can do but sue in small claims court and waste more time and money.

So what I do is a 6 month lease and then month to month after that. If you do M2M at the start someone will take advantage and use it as a cheap short term rental. 

I would inspect the house for leaks especially the toilets. I don't know what kind of construction they are doing but most work doesn't use much water and the bill increase would be negiable. They were probably just washing tools or their hands etc. Unless they had a couple of pressure washers going all day it shouldn't amount to much. 

Gas is almost always cheaper but there nothing wrong with electric heat strips. They are expensive to run but are basically maintence free for decades. Very landlord friendly.  How much is the furnance install and how long will it take to pay for itself? You could just install a cheap mini split that will heat the home very effienctly. 

You don't need to explain or offer anything to the current tenants. It's your house, you tell them what YOU are going to do. 

If your going to pay 50% at least have her go over there and do some "deep cleaning" that may not be included in standard turnovers. Like scrubbing baseboards, nooks and crannies, behind the fridge, stove, etc. 

The short answer is YES! It doesn't matter if it's a mortgage, HELOC, or Mr. Soprano the loan shark down the street. If the loan is used for the business then the interest deductable.

CPA's usually charge by the hour $100-$200. Do you think that one person is working an entire week or two just on your tax return?

What records are you keeping throughout the year?

Unfortunately this is very common with tenants. Most of the time they will move out mid month and you won't find out until the rent isn't paid on the first. When I go to post the eviction notice that's when I find out that the place is empty. 

There isn't really anything the landlord can do. You can waste money suing them but it's best to just clean it up and get it rented again.  

I'm still not understanding the issue. A drain pan is for emergency leaks from the washer, I would bet 90% of households don't have one (I don't). If that is all they did $1000 is outrageous. 

This is an issue for your PM. I don't expect them to drive out to every maintenance issue but they need to communicate with the tenant to get as much information as possible. Many issues could be fixed over the phone or simply denied because it's not a land lord's responsibility.  Instead they get a maintenance request and call an expensive plumber who is unsupervised and pretty much has a blank check to do whatever they want. 

To replace that much income will require lots of work or you will have to hire a full time team that will eat into your margins and will require management. It can be done with enough capital. Just know that you will be trading one job for another.

Real estate is a get rich slow business. I huge advantage is that it's easy to start, cheap, and low risk. After about 15 doors it gets really hard to scale unless you go with a large multifamily. 

What's the process to evict a tenant who doesn't pay their small portion or otherwise trashes the place.