All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Nathaniel Busch

That's helpful, thanks.  What about expenses?  For instance, I painted our new house in order to get rid of the cigarette smoke smell.  I'm currently living in the house with my family.  If I rent the house out 2 years from now, will the paint expense be non-deductible since I purchased it in a previous tax year?

Hi all,

Here is my situation:  I lived in a house for 2 years and I'm now renting that house out.  I plan on doing the same with the house I just moved into. 

My question is:  If I made improvements or fixes to the propery during the time I was living in it, can I depreciate the improvements and deduct the expenses 2 years later, now that it's being rented out?  As far as depreciation goes, can I depreciate the whole amount, or do I have to start depreciating as soon as the improvements are made, losing 2 years of depreciation.  Thanks for your responses!

I was just curious about how other people handle the lazy prospective tenant.  For instance, an email through craigslist simply stating "I am interested in this home".  No questions or anything - just a simple statement.  Another example would be an email with obvious gramatical errors that the prospective tenant didn't take the time to correct.  One more example that comes to mind is the missed call with no message.

I've generally been ignoring  these types of inquiries.  I don't feel like I should put more effort or time into a response than than they put in to their inquiry.  I also assume that someone that puts such little effort into an inquiry would tend to put the same amount of effort into keeping the house clean and well maintained.  Should I change my approach?  Am I missing out on good leads?

@Stephen White 

I just used RentPrep for the first time and am very happy with your product!  I was given all the information that I needed, and it only took a few minutes to receive the reports.  Thanks!  By the way, I'm a CNY native and Bills die hard, so... Go Bills!

@Elizabeth Colegrove 

Thanks for clarifying this for me!

Elizabeth,  As far as first come first serve goes, What if I get an application with a lease term that begins September 1st, but I think I can have it filled by August, 15 or earlier if I wait for other applicants.  Would you hold on to that application and wait a couple weeks to process it, or would you tell them that their application was rejected and then keep your fingers crossed that you could find someone sooner?  Or would you state that the lease term has to begin on August 15 or earlier and if they wanted it, that's what would have to be on their application.

In general, If I have 3 applications that I havent processed, Can I take the one with the earliest lease term even if it isnt the first one I received? 

Thanks for the responses.  This really helps clarify things!

This is my first time filling an apartment and I am currently going through the screening process.  My question is about down payments.  Do you take them?  At what point do you take them?  If I've already had one application submitted to me with no down payment, and then someone comes along offering a down payment, can I move the second guy to the front of the line?  Should I reject all down payments and process the applications in the order they were received?  Should I only accept a down payment after an application has been approved?  As you can tell, I'm very unclear about how to handle this.  Thanks in advance for your responses!

-Joe

Thank you all for your helpful responses!

Sub-question: If one of the applicants meets the income requirements and the other does not, could you do the background check on both, but only put the one approved applicant on the lease, making the responsible one fully responsible for the payments?  That way if the roommates had a disagreement or something, the one that makes enough money would be the one to remain in the apartment.  I want to protect myself financially without being discriminatory.  Thanks again!