All Forum Posts by: Glen Wiley

You need an accountant who specializes in real estate. Don't use an accountant who just has a few clients with some property. To maximize your tax savings you need a hard core specialist. Years ago we moved our taxes to ProVision (national firm that works with Robert Kiyosaki) and have been extremely pleased with how much more thorough they are than other CPAs. We save tens of thousands in taxes every single year over what we used to get.

We use a very simple spreadsheet, date, activity done, hours spent, miles driven. We have been audited by the IRS recently with no issues.

I will be retiring from my w2 job in a few years and plan on using the SFH rentals as a way to stay busy without being too busy. My wife and I love real estate and I enjoy the maintenance since I like working with my hands,

We realize that we are going to have to do something to shed assets eventually simply because I am not  interested in dying with a super high net worth but we won't be selling because we want to.

After 20 years of landlording I can honestly say that I love providing good homes to good people. I love how we help families, I love the game of buying houses, I love fixing them up and seeing the results....why sell?

The most important use of the credit check for me is to find out whether a tenant will lie to me. I ask them to tell me what I will see and if they lie then they are not going to rent from me.

Use this as an opportunity to refine your approval criteria. By law, you must accept the first application that meets your criteria. If you do not have consistent criteria for each application you are vulnerable to being sued for equal housing violations.

Quote from @Wesley Na:

Quote from @Mackaylee Beach:

Just curious - Will you continue to provide maintenance during the lease term? How did you include it on the lease?

 curious on this too

From above: I have a separate appliance lease form for these to call out exactly
what we are providing and what we expect from the tenants - I spell out
that we only repair/replace if they are used according to mfg
instructions. The reality is that if anything goes wrong outside the
warranty period I'll probably just replace them

A few years ago we moved our tax work to ProVision, these are the guys that handle taxes for Robert Kiyosaki. They are amazing! Our return is pretty complex, we find that they are saving us literally tens of thousands every year in taxes. We also had an IRS audit this fall which they handled smooth as silk, closed the audit with no changes :) They are not cheap but I consider them worth every single penny.

Do a quick search on "how to evict in detroit michigan" and read a few articles/documents. You'll be a pro in no time. Just remember, the courts have no sense of humor and usually very little flexibility - do everything by the book.

I use a spreadsheet. I store receipts for the year in files named yyyymmdd-propertyaddress and put the filename in the spreadsheet with the expense. This all gets turned over to our CPA for tax prep.

I use both apartments.com and Zillow to receive rents. Tenants pay via ach. Nice because I don’t manage their payment details, no fees.

Take their offer and get them out asap. Your peace of mind and future financial losses aren't worth their rent.

One of the reasons that I personally meet every potential tenant is that I feel my ability to read people is a major value add to my rental operations. This is why I don't trust property managers, I am not confident they care as much as I do or that they have the ability to read people.

In my 20 years landlording, I have found the single best predictor of good tenants is the vibe I get from them as I walk them through the house the first time and chat with them. Talk, but listen more. Go into the meeting with the intention of getting to know them, ask about their jobs, what they like to do etc. You would be shocked at how often bad tenants will tell you up front that they will be trouble, but you have to take the time to talk with them.