All Forum Posts by: Jake Dotson

Hello,

Wondering if anyone is having a similar issue, and what you are doing to avoid it or help compensate for the extra costs. I have two Multi-Family properties that have had their property taxes significantly increase (double) within a 18 months of purchasing them. The reason being that the properties had not been transferred for 5+ years and I am buying them at a significantly higher price than before. 

I had one property go from $10k per year, to $10k per HALF year, and another doing the same. And I can't argue the appraised value with the county, because they are simply using the sales price as the "new appraised value". Bottomline is, is there something I can do to avoid this, or should I just take my lumps, focus on increasing income, and be more mindful of this in the future?

I am guessing it's the latter, but curious to hear BP forum thoughts.

Thank you,

Jake Dotson

Hey everyone!

As the number of properties have grown, so have the number of checks being written. I know I know, this is kind of a "small potatoes" problem, but I'm wondering what everyone is doing to maybe automate this process or make it easier? I'm tired of handwriting all of my checks.

I've looked into check printing software (open to suggestions), because right now I use Quickbooks Online for accounting, and they won't allow me to print checks using BLANK check stock. This is an issue, since I have multiple entities from which to write checks; I would have to change out the check stock every time I switched entities.

Any advice or suggestions is welcome. Thank you in advance!

@Account Closed I have no problem with money orders. I even plan on accepting cash from my tenants, as long as they contact me beforehand.

@Michaela G. I suppose that's true. I guess I just worry about people setting up 3rd party ACH payments with my account info (ex. utilities), but as you said people have that info all the time when I write checks. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Thank you for the response!

@Thomas S. Thank you for the response! I agree, it should be convenient for me, and I shouldn't have to come to the tenants. I like the idea of the drop box as kind of a win-win scenario; it's easy for me to swing by on the 1st and 5th, and easy for tenants to pop into the common area and drop off. I also like the idea of setting up a deposit only account and transferring funds, I hadn't thought about that. I will have to talk with my bank tomorrow and see what they suggest. Thank you again!

I just took over my first rental property, a 4-unit that was previously managed by a property management company where the tenants sent in their payments by mail or dropped it in their office drop box. I am having a hard time deciding how I should collect rent. Each unit is occupied, and each tenant's rent is different. After looking through the forums here are the options I have been considering, and what concerns me about them:

1) Electronic - this concerns me because 2 of the tenants are in their 70s and would never be able to figure this out. Nice people that have been in the apartment for 18 years, but not real tech-savvy

2) Drop-box- I thought about just putting a locking lockbox on the property for them to slip their rent into, but my concern is (maybe dumb) what if someone runs off with it or breaks into it?

3)Deposit slips - I have deposit slips from my bank with my LLC name typed on them and no account number. I could just have the tenants take these slips with their rent to my bank, but is that asking too much?

Sorry to blather on and seem a little scattered, just trying to figure out all of this on the fly. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you in advance for helpful suggestions.