All Forum Posts by: Dan Vleck

I suggest reading books on being a landlord to help you prepare for issues that will come up.  Your lease is your contract/policies.  I hope you have a lease for your tenants...

Talk to your insurance agent about this because there is different insurance for rental property.  I suggest talking to an insurance broker.

The local taxing authority should be informed that the house is no longer your homestead, if that is a property tax status where the house is. 

Good luck.

You can definitely make good cashflow with $50,000 houses in rural MN. I spend that on 2 bed houses. You lose out on some appreciation, but then I'm looking for long term hold and passing houses to my son so appreciation doesn't matter to me.

Try for houses built around 1950. Solid homes with a basement. Try to avoid early 1900's houses with crawl space.

A buy and hold investor can buy fixer uppers and leave the equity in the property. Many investors like having the security provided by extra equity in the property. It provides an exit strategy should house values dip and you need to sell for some reason.

I think it is time to talk about this and speculate.  If we understood the implications of these tax proposals, we'd be more apt to get involved politically by contacting our legislators and expressing our interests. 

It might be advantageous to pay off houses rather than buying more if the tax structure changes...

I agree with Deanna, nobody will take care of your property like you will. With the right systems, you should be able to manage the first 20 or so doors while holding a full time job. And, still go on vacations. 

Here's the thing, property management will place a qualified tenant, but you would place someone you can get along with.

With a cell phone you can easily get a repair done by someone and not pay a markup for the phone call.

Just food for thought.

Why put the application before the showing? I do phone screening to check basic information and provide application at the showing if they are interested. Phone screening includes number of people, pets, income, when can they take possession, smokers, and criminal history.

My next lease will have early termination language. Thanks for the examples.

Thanks for the advice @Tim Swierczek and @Jordan Moorhead

I have a tenant in Minnesota that has given 30-days notice.  He informed me on August 8th that he'll be out of the house on Sept 15th because he bought a house.  He is in a lease that goes until April 2018.  Even if he were month-to-month, can a tenant give a 30-day notice that is mid-month?  I'm meeting with him on Tuesday.  Should I threaten to take him to small claims court if he doesn't pay full month rent for September?  I do not collect last month rent and the damage deposit is less than rent and likely not enough to clean up the mess they'll leave.

On another note, it appears my good tenants are moving on to buying houses.  Minutes before this notification, another tenant informed me he is shopping for a house.  Another told me today her credit score has gone from the 400's to 700's and she'll be shopping for a house at some point.  What's coming might be a hard time finding good tenants.

Thanks, starting here before contacting an attorney.

Ok, so it appears vacation rental by owner vrbo, is changing. I bought a house with the vrbo plan and then learned what it takes. Including, $250 for city interim use permit, State dept. of Health inspection and license, taxes to state and city for hotel use tax, city license and annual inspection. My typical rentals in my small town require a license and inspection every 3years, that is all. 

We're wondering if it is worth the hassle since it appears the listing site wont