All Forum Posts by: John R. Whittington

@Thomas Weidner i would not use Legal Zoom to set up the LLC. They are expensive for what they do for you. The process is not that difficult to do yourself. I don’t live in your state, but I was able to set up my LLC online through my state’s Secretary of State website. You can obtain an Employee Identification Number through the IRS website. But as others have said you will need the advice of a good attorney and a CPA to tell you how to structure your LLC. Furthermore, you will need an operating agreement, even if you are the only member of the LLC. You should plan on spending between $1000 to $2000 with an attorney to get this done. The CPA’s advice will be critical in helping you to decide how to structure the LLC. Do you want form a partnership, an S corporation, or a C corporation? Each of these entities has pros and cons, and a CPA will be able to help you pick the best one. They also will be able to help you set up and maintain your accounting systems so that you can withstand an IRS audit should you be called in for one.

@Susana L. I would go with Katie’s advise and put the utilities in your name. Then I would increase the rent for each room to cover your increased cost. Since this means more work for you i would factor in a small mark up over and above what is the utilities cost, say 10% or so. However, I would put launage in the lease that limits how much you will pay towards the cost of each type of utility service. Any cost over that limit should be split equally between the four tenants.

@Stefano Mitrano not sure why you would want to pull the dishwasher. Even if you pay the water bill, most studies suggest that a dishwasher uses less water than doing dishes by hand. If your tenants want to have a washer and dryer in the units I would allow it. However, if you are paying for the water I would increase the rent to reflect the added expense you will incur on the water bill. Please let us know what you decide. Take care, John

@Curtis Thomas i just finished building a spreadsheet to help me with this. I used two sources to help me decide what items to list. The first was J Scott’s book on cost estimating, and the second was Paul Rsajain’s book “Real Estate Rehab Investing Bible”. I also consulted sites like Home Advisor.com, and checked out prices at the big box home supply stores. If you send me your email address I will sent you a copy of the spreadsheet. You can reach me at “John.r.whittington.com”.

Thank you Justine.

Thank you Pavel.

Hello My wife and I are new investors. We are seeking recommendations on real estate agents we can add to our team. We are currently focused on properties in the Portland neighborhood of Louisville. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Take care, John