All Forum Posts by: Jeff Bisgier

Thanks again everyone. A few people mentioned "piercing the corporate veil" and making sure I follow the rules. Can anyone elaborate on what that means? As a newbie, I want to do things right the first time and so many of you have great experience and advice.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply! As always, some very complete and informative replies from you folks. In reading all of your posts, I'm seeing it's a lot more involved than just simply, "should I form an LLC or not?". There's things some of you discussed that I never even thought of.

I see there's still many different opinions on the question of forming an LLC or not. Not sure if this will change anyone's thoughts, but here's some numbers on the property. We have spent approx $120K on the house. It's currently worth approx $220K. Our annual expenses including taxes & insurance are $5k, and our tenants just signed a 2 year lease at $1900/month. So $22,800 in annual rental income and $5k in expenses, for $17,800 annual profit. I believe that's a fairly decent return for our first investment. My wife and I are not what would be considered high net worth. We do not have much equity in the home we live in.

I should have asked these questions about an LLC month's ago, but now I'm suddenly faced with 2 weeks until the tenants move in. Pressure!!

Hi Folks,

I was hoping not to have to write an new post about forming an LLC as there are tons of them on BP, but after reading through so many forum posts and reading articles on both BP and other websites, I'm more stumped than ever. For every 50 people who say "You have to form an LLC if you own rental properties", there's another 50 who say, "No, just get a good umbrella policy".

Here's my situation........My wife and I purchased a single family home in NY a year and a half ago and have been fixing it up (don't ask why it's taken so long. Many mistakes on my part plus a bad contractor). We paid cash for it. We have our first tenants moving in in 2 weeks. The only other property we own is the house we live in. We may look for another investment property in the future, but not right now.

So my question is, should we form an LLC?

Thanks!!

Thanks again to everyone who responded! Lot's of useful information!

I re-read every post and marked down how many of you said the property should get a tub vs how many said leave the shower. Of course, it worked out this way........ 9 for the tub and 9 for leaving the shower lol! There were 6 people who said it depends on the cost, the target market or the area demographics. As I said in an earlier post, I think the best thing is to get an estimate and then make a decision. The plumbing will be the worst part I think. I may try to do the rest of the work myself, but moving plumbing I'll leave to a professional.

Thanks!!

Wow! Lot's of good thoughts and opinions from all you folks. Thank you!

A few people asked about the area and what our market would be like. The house is across the street from a church and next to the church is a Catholic School for pre-k through kindergarten. The house is also 0.3 miles walk to the train station and 1.3 miles to 2 major highways. That train line goes to Grand Central Station in Manhattan btw, so it's a great commuter house.

You all gave me some good thoughts both for and against putting in a tub. Seems like the best thing for me is to get an estimate of the cost and then go from there. Thanks for all the good advice!!!

@Alexander Felice LOL....Yes, I'm joking about the votes. I've gotten so much great advice from the people on BP with other questions I've asked, so I will look at everyone's thoughts and opinions and we'll make our decisions with that advice in mind.

And yes.....my wife is certainly the "I told you so" type of person!!

Ok, so far my wife has 2 votes for the tub and I've got 1 for leaving the shower. You all have valid points. Curious to see how the voting ends up going. Thanks, guys!

Hi Folks!

My wife and I are in the process of rehabbing our first investment property. The house is a 2bd / 1bth single family. We are having a slight disagreement about the bathroom. Right now, it has a corner shower stall only. My wife says that we need to redo the bathroom and but in a bath tub because any perspective tenants with young kids will not rent our property without a tub. I'm looking at the cost to do this and I think it will be pretty expensive. The bathroom is above a finished basement, so a contractor would have to tear open the basement ceiling to move around plumbing. We'd have to move the toilet and the sink and the baseboard heater as well.

I'm hoping to get a few opinions from you folks as to what you think would be our best move. As a side note, the house is 100 years old. Would the weight of the tub be an issue as far as the floor joists go?

Thanks!!

The original poster mentioned the Roof Razor as one of the snow removal tools that could be used. Just figured I'd chime in on that because I bought one last year after using a traditional roof rake for the past 12 years on my own home. The Roof Razor really does work incredibly well, especially when compared to the roof rake. It's not as effortless as some of the videos online make it look, but it does a great job. The higher your roof, the more difficult it will be and the more tired your arms will be. I use it on a single level ranch home and even with a roof that isn't all that high up, my arms are burning after I get all the snow off, but I'll never use my old roof rake again. And no....I don't work for Roof Razor. :-)

That is so good to know. I was wondering how I was going to come up with another $20 - $30K for a down payment. Thanks!!!!!!