All Forum Posts by: Geetika Casmon

This 2 day event brought together like-minded individuals and created a platform for attendees to share knowledge/resources, create/expand relationships, and have an amazing time in the process. Thanks to @Joe Fairless and @Benjamin Lapidus for all your hard work in the planning and execution of this memorable experience.

Congrats @Tim Johnson. You took action and got the ball rolling which is always good. My husband and I also bought a 2 unit when we started and slowly made updates to the units over couple years. I know many asked about financing, for us we did an FHA loan. With credits and low down payment, we ended up paying less than $2k at closing. We used the money we saved up to do the improvements I referenced above. These change along with rent increase helped us significantly increase the value of the property. We then refinanced and got rid of the PMI since we had gained enough equity.

This experience also allowed us to build our experience in being landlords. We had also asked for one of the units to be vacant when we purchased it.

Thanks @Account Closed for your thoughts on this. I am seeing mixed information on the notice period, some have 60 and others 30 so I have a bit more due diligence to do on that. 

Hello, I am trying to deliver a notice for termination of lease without renewal option to 2 tenants (roommates). The lease ends on June 30, 2016. Within our lease terms, we are required to give 45 days notice. Is there any IL law which requires this period to be 60 days? Also, when giving notice, would you suggest certified mail to each of the tenants (although they reside at same location), requiring signature for receipt? 

Hello, i am venturing into the flipping side of realestate and have already submitted offers to buy couple single family homes to rehab. I don't plan on flipping to be a full time job but anticipate doing 2-3 flips a year in addition to purchasing buy and holds and my full time job. We have a great team of folks we have partnered with to increase our chances of success with the flip. But I have some questions.......

1)If my intention is to flip, is there anyway around being considered a dealer as opposed to an investor especially if I don't intend for that to be my primary source of income?

2) If marked a dealer and now being subject to higher taxes (including self employment tax), is forming an S Corp the only way to relieve some of this? I've read it helps by avoiding the Medicare and SS taxes? But wanted to get some answers from those more experienced. 

I realize these are potentially sensitive tax questions and I plan on speaking with a CPA specialized in tax but wanted to find out more from BP community so I can go to them with specific questions.  

I strongly believe in having a mentor, however don't believe you need to pay to get one and learn relestate. You learn by doing. With the amount of knowledge thats easily accessible to us nowadays, you simply need to make it a priority to take time out each day to learn. Set your own daily/weekly goals. Be active and intentional with what you want to do and accomplish and make it known to people. You would be surprised how many people will reach out and provide guidance. But at end of day, it's up to you to research the advice you are given. Through this process sometime you naturally develop a mentor/mentee relationship. Get started In realestate forums, local RE events,  etc. 

I have been involved with relestate but wasn't active on BP until recently. However I did attend local events.  Simply reading forums on here as helped me. Hope everything works out for you and you get going soon. 

Have you considered asking the seller to have tenant removed as part of the sale? I had a situation and we asked the seller to have the unit vacant because we didn't want to deal with someone we had no relationship with and go through legal proceedings. In our case we were going to live in the units so it was required anyway or we weren't going to make the deal. But the seller can try and pay the tenant to move out which will save you a lot of hassle.

Jim,

I don't think it is a crazy idea to self manage the property until you get a few more properties but here are some things to consider with a property that is an hour away.

1) Condition of property - if the building is older you may possibly have more maintenance to consider versus something that is newer.

2) When there are minor maintenance calls, I often have a handyman to go over while tenants are home and fix the issue, I confirm with the tenants that everything is okay, and pay the handyman. There is no need for me to drive there. However, if the maintenance issue is an bigger one, I usually need to make several trips: Check it out myself first, meet someone to get an estimate, check progress of work if it is over multiple days, review final work, etc. prior to paying for the services. This can add up very quickly especially in Chicago where traffic can be a pain.

If there is a handyman you trust, you can sometimes just work with them so they can be available to you when needed (this may lesson the amount of trips you need to make if you can trust them).

3) Tenants - Based on prior experience with tenant, do the often report maintenance issues or minor things all the time? When I do tenant screening, I often ask about this to their previous landlords.

There are obvously more things, but hope this helps. Keep in mind, I would log your trips so that you can expense the mileage for your trips as a business expense.

Buying a duplex as your first property allows you to begin learning the business as well as become a landlord. My husband and I did the same thing. We bought a 2 unit property in a nice neighborhood which needed work using an FHA loan. We wanted to use the money we saved up to help fix the place, not use it all on a down payment. We luckily inherited tenants in the purchase, but we renovated our unit (just the kitchen) and made minor improvements to the overall property. After one year we got the loan refinanced. We got the property reappraised and increased value by $100k. We were able to drop the FHA loan, thus removing the pmi and lowering our monthly payment. You can only have one FHA loan at a time. Since we refinanced, we now have the option to get another property with an FHA loan if we wanted. We learned quite a bit through the process. One thing to keep in mind, since we lived in the building, we set clear expectations that all request for repair should come through email (unless it's an emergency). Of course you can make this sound good by stating that you prefer to have a documentation trail for both parties. You don't want people knocking on your door any time they wish.