All Forum Posts by: Daniel Becker

Thank you both for the advice!  Much appreciated 

Hi Everyone,

I am about to close on my first investment property (singe family home) that I plan to hold and rent out.  Very excited.

I have one partner going in on this deal with me and we are planning to set up an LLC to hold the property.

As I understand it, we can move the title of the property over to the LLC and run our rental business through the new LLC -- but what about the mortgage? We are getting the mortgage as an individual, and not through the LLC, to start with. Are we able to move the mortgage over to the LLC at a later date so it's not in one of our individual names?

Thanks for the help and advice.

-Dan

Hi everyone -

I am new to investing in real estate and new to BiggerPockets. It seems like a great community so far and I’m happy to participate!

My question is how best to estimate repairs & maintenance costs:

Everything I read suggests taking 5% to 15% of the annual income, depending on the age and condition of the property, to estimate repairs & maintenance costs.

It seems to be a bad way to estimate costs, specifically when looking at a single-family residence in a location such as California.

For example…

a 2,000 square foot house in California that generates $54,000 in annual rent vs. a 2,000 square foot house in Tennessee that generates $18,000 in annual rent.

The houses are practically identical in size, age and condition, yet if I use 10% to estimate repairs & maintenance we are looking at $5,400 vs. $1,800. I understand that repair costs will vary from location to location, but that’s a $3,600 difference.

Would it be better to use a cost per square foot approach to estimate repairs & maintenance? Something like $2-$4 per sq. ft. depending on the location, age and condition of the property?

Thanks, Dan