All Forum Posts by: Christian Malesic

I am not sure if we have a "one month supply", but we do keep a decent sized pantry. We have 5 in the family (3 kids) and the same busy lives most of you do.

With apartments, our construction business, and life in general we do not always make it to the store on the day we 'need' something. For example, we have had no milk in the house for 2 days (one kid is a 14 month old) and plan to pick some up today. Thus, the pantry has helped to allow us to do a 'big purchases' filling the car every two weeks or so making us much more efficient in our shopping.

On a side note, we recently have picked up a couple of 5 gal. jugs of water from Home Depot in case a storm takes out the electric or public water... just to get us through.

We are very modern, but have been old-fashioned in our approach to renting our apartments using the local newspaper for ads.

The price has gone thru the roof, with the smallest of classified ad costing $50 for one Sunday. We post ads probably 50% of all Sundays. The cost is killing us and the results are declining.

We are looking to modernizing by expanding to the internet, at first, and maybe even transitioning to it, eventually.

Any tips? Suggestions? Sites? DOs? DON'Ts?

As in "1984"?

Not only No, but HELL NO.

What would be next? The Thought Police?

2+2 is not 4, Winston. It is 3 or 5 or whatever the government says it is.

In your short description, your strategy sounds sound. I am in Harrisburg, just a few miles up 81N from you (in fact, I will be driving by your great city this afternoon). Welcome to BiggerPockets - we are glad to have you.

Thanks. We think so as well.

Way cool. Looks like it will fit in a regular garage.

I had a further thought after posting the above:

In PA the law also speaks to interest, which is also pretty common throughout the states. PA allows the landlord to keep a small percentage (Something like the first 2%) and all other interest must be remitted to the tenant each year. Since most savings accounts are giving .25% to 1%, there is no need to remit any interest payment to tenants.

IMHO, the paperwork involved and the tracking (logistics) is more trouble than it is worth. For example, 2% of $550 sec dep is $11.00 a year minus hard expenses (like stamps, envelopes, ink) minus time. It is a very unprofitable task.

I actually prefer the lower interest rate scenario (not determined by us, but by the market) so that the whole side of legal compliance is negated.

This means you must have a sec dep account. It does not mean to have a separate account for each rental unit. For example, we have over 30 units, does the law expect us to have 30 accounts with anywhere from $450 to $750 in each - of course not.

It DOES mean that this can not be your checking account or tax escrow account and MUST be its own Sec Dep account. In fact, our bank allows us to put 'labels' on each checking or savings account. We have actually called that savings account "Security Deposit Savings"

Hey Ryan...

Thanks for joining in. We hope you find the site productive and helpful.

Hello. You may want to try posting your land question in another forum. General Investing or REO forums might be a good place to start.

Until then... welcome and enjoy.