All Forum Posts by: Debbie J. Skora

What "other utilities"? Gas, water, trash? If it is a flat rate every month I would pay it. You are responsible if the tenant doesn't pay- it's your credit on the line (and possible liens on the property). It is YOUR responsibility as far as the HOA is concerned. If it's a "metered" utility that the tenant can put in their own name, then they should and should pay it. What if they don't pay and the HOA puts a lien on your title? Some HOAs do include a lot of fees, but unless it can be controlled by the tenant I would just consider it one of your fixed expenses. This has been reasonable and customary in the areas I have owned and managed. However, if you can find a tenant who's willing to pay your HOA fee on top of his rent- okay!

@Michael Mumenthaler a lot of this is probably regionally sensitive, but I have never rented a unit in an HOA and not paid it myself out of the rent. For one thing, I am the member of the HOA, not the tenant. I also pay water because it is appurtenant to the property (deeded). I also pay any yard or pool maintenance, if applicable, because it is not a utility, but part of maintaining my asset. Other than that, the tenant pays their own utilities.

@Carl West your LLC provides several advantages, which are why they are a popular structure for small businesses. Among them are:

1. Liability protection - even if you stand by your work, people can (and will) sue you! This protects your personal assets, and some people will put each property in a separate LLC To avoid a lawsuit on one rental from risking the others.

2. Pass through taxation - this avoids corporate “double taxation” and also allows you to take advantage of the 20% small business exemption if you qualify.

Because they are pass-through, it also means you don't have to file a separate return for each LLC, you just report the income on your personal return. You can also elect to be taxed as an S-Corp if you desire.

Talk to a tax professional about all of this- or maybe even a tax attorney (they will know more about the liability protection in your state). The $300 consultation is more than worth it!

@Kiersten Vogt keep in mind too that if something, septic or otherwise, comes back in an inspection, remind the seller that he then has a responsibility to disclose the defect to any future buyer. Most of the time they would just rather work it out with the deal in hand and get it closed!

@Jon Guy a mortgage on a property is generally recorded with the county as a “deed of trust”

@Mary Mitchell it sounds to me like she is not feeling like she is entitled to their property, she is trying to understand their point of view so that she can know how to work with it. Very professional of her!

@Jane S. None of that has anything to do with how you interact with (prospective) tenants. You asked for advice, and people have responded thoughtfully. Your rationale just sounds like excuses, honestly. Set rules and follow them, or you can only expect tenants to push you around.

Hey @Amy Aziz, I  did some troubleshooting and did just that - removed any ownership criteria from the search and miraculously got over 10,000 results!  My guess is that ListSource's filter is looking for something in the records that specifically says "absentee owner" , and it just isn't there.  Something for everyone to be aware of!

Yes Jordan, that was my thought too, which is why I was so surprised to get only 300 results from a simple search for absentee owners of vacant land in    a county in Texas. I would assume that Core Logic and Black Knight have similar access to data and would yield similar results, plus or minus.

Hi There!  I've been trying out AgentPro247 and ListSource in particular, running a lead list search with the same criteria on both sites and getting 380 results on one and >5000 on the other.  Has anyone else had a similar problem?  Is this indicative of a less comprehensive data source?  Or maybe the larger list includes a truckload of junk?  These are each from major title companies, so how can the results be so different?