All Forum Posts by: Jolene Perry

@Brandon M. Can you please PM me your agent information too?

I have had this happen three times at my personal house. The first time we placed a service call and the technician said it was from the particular filter we had in the unit. We had used a pretty high filter and he said that the higher they are the worse they can be for the furnace and air flow. We started using lower filters and it worked fine, but when trying to pick out the filters later on, since they vary by place purchased (i.e. Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart) we ended up with the same issue two more times. The last time was just this past weekend and we went with a Rhem FPR 4 from Home Depot and it has worked fine ever since. Seems odd that the companies make filters that work TOO GOOD for a furnace...

Since I have bought my first rental property this year, I am looking for a good CPA that understands real estate investing to help me on my taxes. Any locals have a good recommendation? Thanks

Are you using a real estate agent and do you trust them? I had a great agent that I trusted completely and when it was time for the final walk through she handled it for me as just part of her service.  

@Sam Leon I was originally forced to use Citizen's on my first rental property in Florida that I purchased in July of this year. I only pay $1,720 for coverage on a 1,700 sq. ft SFH insured at $242,000 so yours sure sounds high, although I have no idea what size/value you are covering. I also would stress for you to make sure you did the wind mitigation as I know this reduced my coverage by $735.00 and I don't believe that I even have the "best" of the wind mitigation requirements that would increase the deduction even more. I also just received notice from Olympus Insurance that they will be assuming my policy in November unless I opt out. I would suggest you shop policies/pricing, however I do know that when I signed with Citizen's I was required to pay the full annual premium up front and was told that I cannot cancel early and get a prorated refund. Therefore I have no plans to shop around until closer to the end of this policy.

Actually I had Citizen's for my new rental property (July 2014) in Seminole, Fl and just received a letter from Olympus saying they will assume my policy in November if I do not opt out. So they are definitely trying to get more and more people off of Citizen's. What I don't like is that I have no idea if Olympus will be price competitive without having to do a lot of research and I find that annoying to do just 4 months after getting an annual policy!

Hello felllow Iowan. You should always double check anything listed on zillow with the actual listing site, in this case iowarealty.com. It is actually listed at $80,000, upon further research at realtor.com it shows there are two listings since there is also a vacant lot next door owned by the same person that is for sale for $18,000? Here is the link to the actual real estate listing. 

http://www.iowarealty.com/aspx/FindAHome/listingde...

And here is the realtor.com listing that shows at the top that there are two different listings, one for $80,000 and the other for $18,000 lot.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3...

Does anyone know of a good property management company in Seminole, FL? I will be renting from out of state and need to find someone to manage my new rental house. I have one that I've talked to that would charge 10% plus first month's rent and I would like to compare that to others. Thanks.

I am considering a purchase of a second home that I will probably want to rent out for a couple of year's until I am ready to move to the new location. Since interest rates are higher if I go in calling it an investment property rather than a second home, is there an issue if I do call it a second home and then decide to rent for the two years?

I wouldn't be willing to just buy it as a second home at this point, we could afford it but would be a waste of money, so I would want to at least break even with renting for the next two years until we move down there and it becomes our home. Of course profit would be even better!

I just feel like we can get so much more bang for our buck buying now versus what it might be like in two years and since we have the means to buy and rent, just seems to make sense.

Thanks for all of the feedback so far!