All Forum Posts by: Dana Dunford

@Cody Wakefield,

I love the BP resources, so definitely become well read with everything offered on BP.

Also, one point of caution --> real estate investing is not always as easy and as low risk as people make it out to be. You want to invest at the right time in the right properties. I recommend two other very important considerations when purchasing your first properties:

1. Macroeconomic Trends: Know what's going on in the economy (and projected outlook in the next couple of years) and how it will affect your RE purchases.
2. Local Knowledge: You should find local brokers who focus on multi-family investment clients. I recommend working with only the best (figure out who are the top sales guys in the area). Ask other investors how satisfied they are with their purchases. Good brokers will make sure you're getting a good investment property, because they'll want you to come back and buy from them again.

Good luck and welcome to the investing world!

Dana

@Earl McFarland,

I use SVB, but there are many banks out there with free checking accounts. As far as the autopay, I was fortunate to get access to Stripe's limited ACH (they're currently not accepting new users). I invite my tenants to signup, and then they can auto-pay direct to my LLC, without getting my bank information. I can also control how much money they send to me, which is a definite plus. I'm happy to share this ACH with you in 3 weeks when it's open. I'll ping you.

@Jason Houde - BofA is also a good one to use! 

Hi Jason,

Happy New Year! From a liability and an accounting perspective, you'll want the rent checks made out to the LLC. It's much easier to say "here's all of the income and expenses associated with my property" than to mix personal and business money. You will get a much better picture of the profitability of your rental with everything under the LLC.

Now a question for you -- why are you having the tenants write checks rather than pay online? Online payment is a much easier and consistent way to make sure that you get paid on-time, every time. We do online rent payment (happy to show you how) and it makes rent collection a lot easier.

Best,
Dana