All Forum Posts by: Frank M.

Kenny, I've seen 3 family houses that were contingent on the new owner occupying the house. One broke my heart as it was beautiful, the renovation almost 100%, but somehow was bank owned. You are in a great position to snag such a house, and have the tenants pay the entire mortgage and then some. Good luck to you. 

Sort of. You are not supposed to contact a FSBO to solicit their business, but you are not acting as an agent, you are looking to buy a house. I'd be clear and identify yourself as a real estate agent, but that said, you can tell them you'd like to make an offer on their property.

Ok, so 

Property Taxes, Insurance, PM Fees, any Utility bills, Interest paid. 

That looks like the whole list, I hope. The place was pretty gutted, new bathrooms went in, etc, along with separate heating systems. (I learned here, better to pay for extra systems than to hope to get it back in rent, so two new heaters were installed as wel as two more hot water tanks.) The insurance was high for a vacant house, so that's a write off. 

I guess I have until April to decide whether to tally the heaters/hot water, fridge, etc to put on their own depreciation schedule or just have one 27.5yr schedule to watch.

My 3 family purchase is almost ready to rent, just over 6 months renovating. 

I understand "Make-rent-ready costs are not deductible." My question is what expenses along the way are a deduction this year? Property taxes? Utilities? For sake of simplicity, let's assume I list the property to rent on January 1, 2015, so that's the "in-service date." 

I'm just trying to understand what actually gets written off this year. One last point - there's no mortgage yet. I wrote a check from my home equity line. I'm expecting that the interest there gets treated as tapping that line for anything, and is a deduction on my own Schedule A, and doesn't hit Schedule E at all. 

Looking forward to getting this one rented and seeing where the numbers fall after the first few months.

Forgive me, I wasn't referring to you. By "The David" I meant Ramsey. The David believes there is no responsible use of credit cards, and quotes mythical studies that 'prove' people spend 10% more on cards than if they use cash. For him, there is no middle, no one just using the card as a budgeting tool, paying in full, etc.

The David is very far to the right. The folk who are over leveraged and on the extreme end of he risk curve are far to the left.

If you are buying well, and the property conforms to the 50% rule, there's room for a loan. Maybe 80% LTV, maybe just 50%. If I have $2000 in rents and $1000 after expenses, I should be comfortable paying $500/mo on a mortgage, and still have $500/mo as a return on my downpayment. This should take all expenses as well as vacancies into account. Someone looking to use rentals to invest for retirement is going to be far better off with 5 properties all 80% mortgaged than with one fully paid off.

Are there air conditioner units in this building? Your gas will be minimal, but electric will be a potential killer, I'd be very careful, and if there's any way to break up the service (I'd bet there is, and worth every cent), I'd do it. My 3 fam had one furnace, with baseboard heat. Gas company said it ran $4000/yr. I'm having the system split up. It's easier to say 'utilities not included' than to get enough higher rents to pay the bill.

50% rule says allow $450 for expenses. That leaves $450 for a $375 mortgage and net $75/mo. That's cutting it pretty close.

As a realtor, I pay a quarterly fee for access to MLS. It seems as if you'd like a publicly accessible version of it. If realtors thought this a good idea, it shouldn't be too tough to implement.

I recommended to my broker that we sign up for Zillow premiere, and it's far from $500/mo. We pay just under $100/mo and plan to try it out for a year. One extra successful sale will make it worth it. One contact was so happy with my response, she asked for a few extra cards of mine and that alone may turn into an extra transaction or two.

Sorry, public service? What for-profit business ever claims to be a public service?

@SenseFinancial - Much thanks, you understood the question just fine and gave me my answer.

Thanks again. As I get closer to actually doing this for my next purchase, I'll take you up on the offer of a quick consult.