All Forum Posts by: Stephen Dee

We have a building that has a lead abatement order placed on it. We are looking at the Portland ME Lead safe Grant/loan which covers Cumberland county. But I'm unsure if it is worth the restrictions and the time it will take to run through the whole process. Therefore, I'm looking for recommendations for lead Abatement contractors in Maine/NH. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with an abatement contractor in Maine? Does anyone have any thoughts on the Lead Safe Grant/Loan process? 

Your input is appreciated! 

Thanks

Steve

@Soh Tanaka - Thanks for the input! 

@Soh Tanaka - I Agree with Calvin, I've used Quickbooks for many years and while it was a little complicated for me to learn, my overall experience has been great. The two issues I have had are first having transactions recorded incorrectly causing issues with reconciliation or account balances differences. Most of this I would chalk up to user error. The other issue, I just ran into was the need to have two subscriptions because I purchased another property and put it in a separate LLC. Two companies require two subscriptions which is starting to get expensive. They also recently changed up the ACH fee for collecting online payments. This is by far my most favorite function of the software. One of my companies still has the old fee structure which is 50 cents per payment. The new company is paying 1% of the rent collected up to 10 dollars per payment. Most of my rents are around the $1,000 mark so it makes this far more expensive than with the old system. In fact because of the cost, I am no looking at Buildium.

@Calvin Ozanick I've grown my portfolio and the cost of quickbooks has increased to a level that Buildium looks pretty attractive. How have you found the accounting part of buildium? Does it work well? Any push back from your accountant? And one last question, I don't have any plans to manage others, but I do have my properties split into two separate companies. The team at Buildium has assured me that their system will work for my needs, but I wanted to get a user's perspective to see if you think there would be any issues with my structure? Any insights or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. 

@Alex Sanfilippo , I don't personally know of an adviser for QBO who could answer that question. When researching a couple years ago Nancy Neville was usually active in the quickbooks forums. Perhaps she knows of a way of doing it. Good luck! 

Alex Sanfilippo you can put each tenant in the system separately and bill them separately under the same unit. But to the best of my knowledge, this isn't going to help their credit because it won't be reported to an credit agency.

@Alex Sanfilippo - I use QuickBooks online essentials. This allows me to set up reoccurring invoices every month. The tenant gets an email requesting payment at the end of the month for the following month. It took me a while to get set up and learn the system. I used my CPA and a bookkeeper from his company to get the accounts set up correctly and linked to a business credit card and bank accounts. But now my accounting is so easy. I now have a much clear view of my rental's preformance. It will help me grow into my next few properties without having any accounting issues. If you work full time and invest on the side, I think it's well worth the cost. And my account has access to the account. He can fix anything I screw up and it makes taxes really easy.

I use Intuit payment network via QuickBooks online. It costs $.50 per transaction. I set up reoccurring invoices to be emailed to my tenants right before the end of the month. I like it because it's one software for bookkeeping and payments. I can record charges during the month and set them to automatically invoice at the end of the month with the regular rent invoice. I also like that there is a date time stamp when they open the invoice email. A few clicks of the mouse a month and all rent collections and bookkeeping is done. The downside is you have to learn QuickBooks and set yourself up. It was a pain in the A$$ to get started. I used a local bookkeeper and my CPA to help set it up. Once up and running, I have run into very few issues. 

Dan, I think it really depends on your area. Here in Maine, a garage is a big deal for a renter. I have a property, which I used to live in myself, which has a garage. I am currently cleaning it out, so I can include it on my next turnover and increase the rent. Up to this point, I needed the storage myself. But every tenant, I have shown the property, asks about access to the garage.  Nobody likes cleaning their car off in the winter. It's a handy place to have them store a lawn mower or other items like kids bikes. You might be able to gleam some insight into price differences by watching craigslist ads in your area. See if other landlords are charging a premium for a garage. 

Thank you all for your responses. 

Good Morning, 

I have a question about late rent notices in Maine. My first lease which was drafted by a lawyer here in Maine, had a late fee after the 6th of the month. From what I've read in a few different sources. Maine has a 15 day grace period. I became aware of this after another lawyer reviewed my lease, for another issue. At this point, I have been told two different things. One said, if you write in a late fee and the tenant signs it, it will hold up. The other said, Maine has a grace period and you can't charge a late fee until the 15th. I have been lucky that I haven't run into many issues with this. But, I realize it is only a matter of time before I have a tenant that starts to abuse this grace period or I end up in court for an eviction. I want to make sure I comply with the law 100%. BUT, it makes me nervous that a tenant could read the law and push his payments to the 14th without any recourse. It seems to be a recipe for the tenant to fall farther and farther behind on rent. Does anyone have any strategies for keeping tenants paying as close to the 1st as possible without causing a legal issue due to the grace period?