All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

From everything I have read. everyone on this thread seems to be confusing "service" animal with "support" animal.  Service animals definitely have documentation. They are uniquely trained to provide  a specific function for a particular disability, and are easy to verify medically.  It's the "support" animal that is vague, confusing, undocumented and highly abused. People try to claim "emotional support" for their pit bull.  

just an ad on Craigslist and a sign in the front yard seems to do it for me.

your worries are exactly in the area you should be concerned with.  I have a similar rooming house setup.  It does just fine (actually, very very nicely) in a similar C area, with the tenants of my choosing. You don't need to take on the extra baggage of parolees (trust me, there will be "stuff"}   Also, I have a no visitor policy for the same reason you suggested, for the safety of all involved I don't want strangers in and out of the place.  What I tell all of my tenants is that when they step out of their room, they should never see anyone they don't already know.  One more thing- with the quality of the average room renter, if you don't have the skills to pick good ones (they are out there), you might as well just take the parolees and the easy automatic $$.  Hope this helps.  

The seller sounds like a bozo.  Personally, I wouldn't trust the integrity of the tenant selection process that resulted in the selection of these particular tenants.  Watch yourself.

What could possibly be illegal about someone asking if they can come over to visit your place???

Inform your tenant that it's not her decision to allow the boyfriend to move in, it's yours (per the contract she signed with you).  If you get no blowback from her on  this point, and if she really is a good tenant, give her the courtesy of checking out the boyfriend as you would have  had applied together as a couple a year ago.  Meet him in person, if he seems alright, take an application and check it out.  If he passes, it's then your decision to add him on the lease as an occupant, or another leaseholder.  Also, your decision what to do about the rent, although I doubt you would have charged more rent to a couple over a single a year ago when she applied. If you do get blowback from her decision to violate her lease, is she really a "good" tenant after all? Let her walk.

it's a good idea to check out there car- If you are renting them a car.  You are turning over the keys to an expensive piece of real estate.  Get real. The difference between my everyday car (work related vehicle) and my wife's car is like night and day.  Which car do we take to church- hers. Which car would we take to your open house? I have no idea.

Ryan- I am currently operating my LLC as follows:

All income gets deposited into the LLC checking account

All business expenses get paid out of that same checking account (online bill pay)

Since it is a credit union, I can create sub accounts ("share"accounts- individually numbered savings accts) under the main account

At the beginning of the month, I online transfer set amounts out of the chkng acct into the "tax", "insurance","heat/misc" share sub accounts

Since chkng accts are vulnerable to outside influence (counterfeit check, invalid ACH withdraws), I sweep excess funds into a separate share acct 

I do an ACH transfer of my monthly draw into my personal chkng acct

Thruout the month, i'll reverse sweep funds back into the main chkng acct for bill paying as needed.

When the "funds sweep" holding acct gets too large, I transfer funds out of the LLC into a personal savings acct (the thought here is that my rental activities are far more susceptible to a lawsuit than my personal life. Any movement of money AFTER a lawsuit is filed may be reversed by a court as an attempt to hide company assets- I don't know this to be true but, why risk it).

When a large bill (tax, insurance...) comes due, the money is waiting to be transferred into the chkng acct.

Personally, I would never write a chk out of my business acct to my wife or kids- it just raises questions about "that line"..... do that out of your personal acct.  Keep it totally transparent.

Hope that helps. 

The Stobo neighborhood

Same thing here- I bought a 23 unit, right after purchase I started hearing old stories from the tenants about having come home  to find "maintenance  people in their apartment.  Hired by the owner, given the master key, then the same day labor coconut heads could be found hanging out on the street corner that evening.  No one knew who had keys to the building or units.  Week 1 I found myself re-keying the entire building. I wasn't anticipating the up front expense, but it had to be done for everyone's peace of mind.