All Forum Posts by: Johann Jells

This may be a NYC specific thing, residential property taxes there are way under the local metro area market. It could be it moved you out from under the subsidy program.

Quote from @Jeff Lamothe:

Also check out CrimeGrade.com.   They do show a crime heat map, but I am having doubts with the accuracy of the data.  

Looks to me like it has no compensation for density, Density gets red, no matter how expensive the area. I've noticed these kind of maps have a difficult time with density in general. If they show crime per capita, retail corridors and areas where no one lives like industrial parks show the hottest!  Trulia was the best I'd seen for my area where the gradient can be really steep with good areas really close to bad.

Quote from @John Woodrich:

Our industry is severely understaffed so you may be talking to a company who gave you a high rate as a "We aren't interested but for this price, we will make room".  Kinda like the contractor who gave you the crazy bid, probably didn't want the job.  

Haha, we call that the "FU" bid, the ridiculous price at which you'll happily do a job you don't want. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I'll see if I can find that name.

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

This is the part I don't get. Holding rentals isn't really that complex, nor is there a lot of wiggle room, you have expenses, depreciation and income. I don't see how an accountant can possibly save us $5k a year. Except for the LLC filing instead of the Schedule E I filed using TT, our taxes don't look much different using a CPA.

My wife hates our CPA. We don't get much advice, he's disorganized, and the last straw was him sending out a group email to 200+ clients exposing everyone's contacts! That's like a 1998 internet mistake. I would never do that to my tenants! But he's apparently inexpensive. 

Our taxes ARE a bit more complex than average, 2 schedule C's in addition to an LLC holding our 3 properties, filing as an S, no recent schedule A since the standard deduction was raised. But I used to do it myself using Turbotax prior to the LLC. I feel like we're paying simply for data entry.

So what's reasonable? Being in the NY Metro we know it's more than some areas, but we got a price from a referred CPA in Minneapolis, and they were way more expensive!

Quote from @Craig Desnoyers:

@Johann Jells Are you using Navajo white walls with Swiss Coffee trim? do you have any pictures I am curious to see that color combo, I've always leaned towards ultra white trim for a crisp clean edge.

I ended up going with Trail Oak color for the flooring, medium color with darker tones to complement the cream walls, hoping it gives a nice contrast, and yet helping hide dirt. I'll start installs this weekend if all goes as planned haha. If it goes well and I like it, I will continue the colors to the other units over time. 

Here's shot, but I can't vouch for the color balance. I used to use bright white early on, but found it didn't age as well. This separates just fine, without being bright. It's funny, I couldn't find a similar warm off-white in the BM book, but they have no problem mixing it for me. I use superhide for the walls, but don't mind paying extra for better quality trim, so much less of it gets used.

What you say complies with state law, but since Union City has universal rent control, I would not be surprised if they have a local law regarding eviction. Be sure. 

I'm confused Drew. If you're an owner in residence of an apartment, why can't you have roommates? There's people sharing apartments all over this city. What were you in court about? Evicting a roommate?

Don't agonize. I hate the gray, but after that I get the laminate that is on sale at Costco. Latest is pretty dark oak, I didn't like their Hickory as much. I used to go medium oak on the theory that if it looks like the most common hardwood floor color, it will get less scrutiny than some picture of exotic hardwood. 

+1 on Ben Moore Navajo White! I've been using it for many years. Never took the gray wall Kool-aid. But my trim is a darker white than yours, I get BM Ultraspec mixed in a Behr color, Swiss Coffee. 

Not that it will solve all your problems with this tenant, but a logging thermometer will supply you proof that the system is working if she starts calling the local housing authorities. Put one of these cheap but fantastic datalogging, bluetooth downloading, thermometers in a locking thermostat box (so they can't move it around) in their living room. You will get graphs of the room temp and CSV files to download.

Thermometer Https://www.amazon.com/Govee-T...

Lockbox https://www.amazon.com/Honeywe...