All Forum Posts by: Joe Semifero

I agree with a lot of what is stated here:

1) Obviously get something state specific,
2) Have it reviewed by your attorney, and,
3) You can get a good starting point from many of the free resources available, such as the Michigan Legal Aid link above. 

We started out with the lease our real estate agent used to sign our first tenant (maybe you can call an agent you know or have used?), and then we updated to add things we wanted in the lease. I also collected leases from when my son was looking at rentals near Eastern Michigan. You can go to the web sites for some of the rental companies in Ypsilanti and a few have their leases posted, which is probably true for a lot of property owners in college towns.

Our current lease has evolved over time. I was worried we might not be completely in compliance with tenant landlord laws, so I just sent the latest version over to our lawyer and he pointed out some items to change and update. Since he represents us in court if we have to evict, I trust his opinion. It cost us a bit more than an hour of his time, but we know we are good to go now. 

I can send along whatever I have found in the past if you want some of that info - send me a message. 

@Brandon Turner - I thought when I saw this post the answers were going to be different than mine, about making money, dollar signs everywhere, etc. Obviously there is some of that in the forum here, but I was surprised at how many people said the same thing as how I feel: Real Estate investing is something I really love. It is a passion. It is that, "Find something you love to do and you'll never work a day," concept. Buying deals, doing rehabs, talking about the projects, even doing the books and taxes - I simply love it all. Hoping one day it is my everyday thing to do and I can finally never "work" again. 

@Andrew Holmes - I'd be interested in learning about finding portfolio lenders. We have worked with one in my area that we found by calling around and word of mouth from our real estate agent, but we'd like to find some others so we have some options. 

I'll send a connect request. Thanks. 

Joe

David - I know there are a lot of naysayers here, but I and my partners have exactly this sort of arrangement. It is not difficult to manage at all. Yes, we have a separate bank account for each unit. Yes, we complete a 1065 tax return for each unit, which is a pass-through to the "master LLC." They are not difficult to do and I do most of it on my own with TurboTax Business.

You are right about the cost to set up and maintain - $50/$25. This is also not difficult and you can do it yourself very easily. For the $300 for the lawyer, I am guessing this is for the Operating Agreement that calls out all the details of the LLC. If that is the case, once it is written the same format can be used for additional LLCs. That seems like a good investment to me. Your lawyer should also be able to let you know what things you need to do for annual meeting minutes, not co-mingling funds, etc., to maintain the LLCs.

Lastly, there was just a podcast on this exact topic - it is pretty good and is well worth a listen. http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/02/12...

Good luck!

Joe