All Forum Posts by: Ginny Shaw

Eek I feel a bit out of my depth... when we bought we hadn’t ever considered adding another building... our four plex is built on 4 lots so I think we can do this but I am struggling with how to get started. I’d like to be starting the build before the end of the year if we can but clearly This is not going to be as simple as we first thought... 

We did start talking to someone but I failed to tell them it was in the name of the LLC I just didn't think about it till now.

I had considered transferring it back to us personally but aside from the annoying title costs wouldn't that lose the protections and advantages of the LLC?

We bought a dilapidated quadplex May 2017, and formed an LLC which owns it free and clear. Over the past year we have rehabbed it from top to bottom using almost only the rental income so officially it hasn't made any money but it's probably worth $100k more than we paid for it. We have come into some money and would like to take the opportunity to use it as a down payment on building another quadplex on the same lot... we have plenty of space for that. However, we will need a mortgage... we'd planned on refinancing building one to build building 2 ... but just realized that it's owned by the LLC so the mortgage would need to be the LLC... no one is going to lend that kinda money to a year old business that on paper hasn't made a penny... is there a way round this???

Yes, absolutely.... that clause is in my lease... it's a 3 day notice to vacate in Texas.... i was just trying to give him a reasonable chance of getting somewhere else... as well as keeping his temper down since i do fear for the safety of my other tenants... one of whom just moved in tonight as the sheriff arrived... (how's that for murphy's law?) you think i am being too nice?

So tonight I had a tenant threaten to shoot other tenants between the eyes... turns out he has had other issues to which no one told me about till today...- like throwing all of his daughters clothes in the yard...??? Needless to say I want him out. I wish someone had told me before because I would never have renews his lease and now we are a week into the new one... my intent is to ask him to leave by the end of the month and if he does not I will start eviction proceedings. Is this a reasonable course of action? The sheriff came out but he wouldn’t come to the door so they left ... fat lot of help that was...

Discrimination is illegal even in Texas! There are also firm rules on late fees and deposits that he has not been adhering to. Nothing I can't stick to if called to but just don't like overseeing an illegal lease. I plan to ask the tenants to sign legal leases if they are willing 

So we are still in negotiation for our four plex we will be missing our third closing date again Tuesday. Inspection showed that he has been running this building into the ground with no maintenance and leaving his tenants unsafe. We still believe it has good numbers and are still trying to make it happen. One of the issues is the leases we are inheriting are not legal texas real estate licenses but some crap he made up on a couple of pages with clauses in blatant breach of real estate law (discriminating against kids for a start) How do we go about honoring leases when these leases are not legal in the first place?

Looking at getting rid of all carpet! But I get your point... 5 year old appliances will be starting to get old... but hopefully tiles and kitchen updates will be long lasting. I think part of it is totally unbusinesslike of us... but we really want to give our tenants the best places to live we can... we will probably live and learn on that one but we'll give it a try. Also hoping that maybe in a few years, one of these apartments might be our daughters first home of her own so it is in our interest to raise the standards as high as we can.

Exactly what we plan!. My husband has been retired since he was 21 and I stopped working outside the home 2 years ago. So we are I suppose semi-retired. However, I have lots of time and energy to put into the business and plan to self manage for the time being... with a view to having the property managed if my daughter is not able to take on that role when I officially 'retire'. I do agree with the multi family homes being less risk on the vacancy front and admit when we devised this plan we were looking at single family homes... we fell upon this 4plex and the financials were just through the roof... we couldn't pass it up. Not sure how much bigger we would want to be... I like the idea of duplexes and fourplexes... and feel that big apartment buildings are probably more than we'd be comfortable with ... but I have a feeling I may change my mind....! Keeping an open mind... A year or so in we should have enough in hand to put a deposit down on another.... oh and no not granite countertops ...miracle method! though I must admit I am not sure what class tenants we aspire to.... trying to shift a class I suppose and not really sure if that is possible or not....

We are in a contract on a 4plex home which we are buying for cash we obtained from a legacy gift. I've owned property since I was 19 years old, and over the last 8 years I have owned rental homes- being the accidental landlord when we could not sell homes we had lived in. We have finally sold all our properties except for our own home and this will be our first purpose bought rental property. I think we have learned enough not to be totally naïve, but I am quite sure we have a lot left to learn!

It's a very nice 4plex in a small town. It comes with 3 tenants and one vacant unit. The place is really in perfectly adequate condition, but our plan is to go in and take it to the next level... replacing carpets with wood plank tiles, installing glass tile backsplash , staining kitchen cabinets dark and adding satin nickel pulls, adding stainless appliances, a dishwasher, disposal, built in microwave, resurfacing countertops... I hope to keep the renovations around $5 to 6K and to do the same to each apartment as they become vacant.

I am 52 years old and we have a pretty solid income right now, but my retirement fund is horrible... the plan for this home and any future homes is to provide me with a decent retirement income and later to give my youngest daughter who has some special needs a business she can run and keep an income from. My husband is retired military with VA pension so our money is safe until he passes on- hopefully not anytime too soon! So right now we would like to invest in making these properties as good as they can be, then raising the rents to honestly as high as the market will stand. We will then reinvest in additional property when we are in a position to.

Yes, I do know I could have borrowed and used the leverage to buy more properties now, but we just didn't want that level of risk and insecurity at our age and stage. We have lived through months with no tenant in place and having to pay the mortgage and didn't want to have the stress of that now. However we will be prepared to borrow for future properties with this "safe" income in hand.

We have started a multi-member LLC, myself, my husband and my daughter.

Is this a sound plan? Have  I forgotten anything huge?

Ginny Shaw

Bandera, Texas