All Forum Posts by: David Lee Hall, III

Quote from @William Bowers:

Good Evening, I am 21 years old in upstate NY. I own 2 rental properties. 3 are long term units and 1 is an Airbnb. I am working on my third deal now! Anyway I am looking for some advice/ opinions on how to track my expenses. What are some good platforms/applications to track basically everything. I am currently looking at Stessa and Quickbooks. Does anyone have experience with either of these or maybe something better? Any input would be greatly appreciated!! 

I have QBO and honestly am seriously looking at Stessa. If you had an accountant keeping your books they would want such a tool, but honestly I don’t use 90% of the features and the cost just seems over the top when you can get good daTA from Stessa or landlord tools like Rentec or Avail.

You could lock them up as one contract and double close or wholetail them out 1 by 1 but the issue is you eliminate assignment as an option to move anything less than the portfolio. You could put in a clause that says properties may be closed on independent of each other and/or properties may be individually assigned but it would be easier just to go with 1 contract per property as something you “personally require” (this is not a legal requirement in PA).

Generally speaking, yes, but you need to check on your state specific laws. I am in PA. In PA, if you are not a broker or working under a broker you cannot manage the properties of others. One strategy of protection is separating properties in to one entity and management into another. 

I am in the process of doing this transition currently and should be done by the end of the year. The LLC that is the PM company will have 5% stake in the holding company so that there are no issues with PA law. The positive is separation of duties and protection the downside is more paperwork, two sets of bank accounts etc. However, a positive in addition to this is that I am also undertaking management of some friend's units with the new PM LLC. They are providing a small equity stake in properties I take over at no cost in exchange for discounted PM service. As I scale, with the idea of bringing on a partner or two and extracting myself from day-to-day PM work long term to focus on acquisition, parsing out these business functions makes even more sense.

Inspections and a lease that includes a hefty animal deposit, monthly pet rent, and upon discovery of a non approved animal will result in the deposit, a penalty equal to the deposit, and monthly rent to the beginning of the lease for the pet.

The back two look like old grounding rods. The from looks like rebar in a casing - so that one is a little baffling. Have an electrician check to make sure your house is properly grounded since those are disconnected.

$3.50-$4 a sqft is around what I have had quoted end of last year. (Ended up painting myself in the end.) I am on the other side of the state though but probably similar. 

Quote from @Marcus Auerbach:

The musty smell can be taken care of with an ozone treatment, you can rent an ozone generator or hire a service. 

Just don't do this with people in the unit. Ideally it will be vacant for a couple days and allowed to run. 

Honestly I almost always pick up a $100 dehumidifier for my places and drain them into a floor drain prior to leasing. I check it on annual inspections for functionality. Good preemptive move to keep mold at bay IMO. I would not test air quality with a tenant in the house. I would only do that between tenants when they wouldn’t potentially be contributing to the issue. You may also want to clean your ductwork. 

Given state laws I can only PM for myself or if I have equity in a property UNLESS I am working under a broker. So at least here in PA you are going to be a broker or be affiliated with one to be able to be a legal PM. 

For my friends I get 5% equity in the property with no cash input or capital calls and I manage at 5% per unit of gross rents flat (minimum $40/unit as they have a few sub $800/mo units). This is the same structure I am setting up for myself as I reorganize my business affairs following some of John Hyre's advice about separating holdings and management for protection and tax benefits. 

 Sounds like that ship sailed!

If you end up closing with him in, based on the terms of the lease and the laws in your state, notify the tenant of the rent increase as @Laura Marks stated. If he can't pay he will need to vacate. You could offer cash for keys in lieu of eviction, but I wouldn't bring that up unless you are able to convince him to leave otherwise. In this case I would highly recommend delaying closing depending on the local eviction laws. Put that pain on your seller OR use it as a negotiation point if the house was supposed to be delivered broom swept and vacant - $10k off at closing could make the eviction worthwhile. 

Your actions are going to largely depend on a combination of your purchase agreement and the lease (which transfers with the sale).