All Forum Posts by: Jimmy Lin

@Lance Thibault I think the whole point of getting a buyer's agent is for them to find you a property. You finding the property yourself defects their whole purpose. If you are keen on finding your own property, not having an agent is actually advantageous. If you are looking for properties on the MLS, Zillow, Trulia etc, typically there would be a listing agent on the Seller side already. The listing agent would have to sign a dual agent agreement with you for you to send an offer. You now have the Seller's agent doing your paperwork. Best of all, the agent will consider your offer much more since they will get both sides of the commission.

I have bought all my properties this way so far.  However, I am planning to start networking with agents so the deals can come to me.

@Nicole Blair

Did you ever close on your property? I’m a local Investor in York, and have been pondering on the possibilities of expanding into property management.

I have 3 years of experience in this market and have 9 units in York City.

@Theresa Whiting

Katie Rittel was my banker. However, the bank went through a policy change at the end of 2019 and they now refer all LLCs to apply for commercial loan.

Commercial loans will have a higher interest rate as well as a shorter loan term.

@Robert Shortsleeves

I am trying to build a Team in York County, PA. What is your version of the Core 4?

Also, I forgot to mention. I have a few old school tenants that are not electronically savvy. There are also certain individuals that prefer cash. In those scenarios, I went to my bank and opened bank deposit cards for them. This is similar to a debit card but it only allows deposits. They will not be able to make withdrawals nor do they have your banking info. They can easily make rent payments to a teller at any branch of your respective bank, or at any ATM of your respective bank.

Its a little more hassle then online payments but I have three tenants using this method and they love it.

@Daniel Pessin

Zelle and Venmo are useful for personal transactions. If you are building a business, you should be using a more formal platform like Cozy, Podio or Buildium.

I am currently using Cozy. Do a quick google search and you can find articles listing pros and cons for each.

The only gripe I have for Cozy is that it takes around 5 business days from when the tenant schedules the payment to when the funds hit your account. Unless you want to pay a fee for immediate deposit. To me, thats unnecessary. As long as you know that the tenant has submitted the payment, a few extra days don’t matter. Cozy also offers the tenant the ability to pay by credit for a small fee, which Zelle and Venmo doesn’t. It also has automatic late fees, maintenance requests, rental applications etc.

In conclusion, use Cozy, Podio or Buildium if you want easy online payments for the tenant, as well as a property management software that will help you keep organized and scale.

@Brandon Hall

Are you able to provide insight to the following post regarding depreciation recapture for appliances? 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/775323-depreciation-recapture-when-depreciation-appliances-etc

Depreciation recapture makes sense on the rental property's building and improvements, but what does not make sense is how the depreciation recapture is calculated for assets like stoves and refrigerators.

Example 1: 

If I buy 10 appliances for an apartment building in year 1 that cost $1,000 each. I would be able to depreciate $2,000 each year ($10,000 / 5 years).  If I sell the property in year 6, does the $10,000 of depreciation I took for appliances get added to the recapture? Even though those appliances are most likely at the end of they're useful life and worth $0?  Let's assume that the appliances all crapped out and were all thrown out before the sale.

Thank you!

I just read the first 5 articles on Google and non of them really explains this.  

I would say that it's time for your first deal! Use the critical path method. All the things you mentioned are great but are complimentary to the overall goal. Your next step is finding a deal. It is not getting a license, not finding a mentor, not even getting the funding. Scour Craigslist, FB Marketplace, MLS for potential deals. Worry about direct marketing and off market deals later. That is your realistic "next step".

Sure you need to consider how to fund the deal, how to close, and how to exit.  But let's do it one step at a time...

@Manny Cirino

You would have if you bought on April 3rd and sold this week.