All Forum Posts by: John T.

@Riley Thomas It would be helpful if you mentioned the City and State where the property is located.  This might catch the attention of someone who is familiar with RSA 5 zoned lots in such City and State.

Check to see if zoning or HOA rules, if any, prevent you from subdividing the lot. If there are no zoning rules or HOA rules that prevent you from subdividing your lot, then you should be able to subdivide the property. Consult with lawyer licensed to practice law in the same State where the property is located before proceeding.

Assuming that you have the right to subdivide your property, then you may wish to consider the following:

When you prepare the lease covering the front one acre, ensure that the description of the Property in the lease covers only the rental house and the front one acre tract.  IMPORTANT: Do not land lock your back one acre. You need ingress and egress from a public road over and across the front one acre to and from the back one acre. The easy was to do this is to keep a fee strip of land (probably 30 feet wide) to use as a driveway or road. Therefore, I would rent the front one acre SAVE AND EXCEPT a 30 feet wide strip of land running from the public street to the back one acre. You could also use an easement for ingress and egress, but if it were me, I would want full ownership (fee simple ownership) of the 30 feet wide strip of land used for roadway purposes.

You will need a "legal description" for the lease, so see a lawyer and, if necessary, a surveyor. 

Since this is a valuable tract of land and you want to build your dream house on it, I strongly urge you to consult with a lawyer on this matter.

Regarding the Tenant, you could include in your lease notice that you intend to build a home on the back one acre.

You should establish a written policy and system for handling notices of alleged tenant violations of HOA governing documents. The purpose of your policy and system is to handle the matter in a business-like manner, train your Tenant to obey the HOA governing documents and to prevent yourself from being fined by the HOA.

You should maintain a healthy distance from your Tenants and not get involved in their personal affairs. A tenant should not be your "best friend forever." It won't end well.

There is no need to have more than one or two bank accounts - Operating Account and Savings Account. See the @Nathan Gesner and @Scott M. posts above.

Accounting software can easily keep tract of multiple Properties and Tenants. This is done by assigning each Property to a unique Class (e.g., 123 Main Street) and by linking the Tenant to that particular class. If your accounting is setup in this manner, you can create financial reports for the Company as a whole or as to each Class. For instance, in QuickBooks, I can create a Profit & Loss Report for the Company over any period of time that I choose. Also, I can create a Profit & Loss Report by Class and the report will display Profit and Loss as to each particular Class. The Profit & Loss Report by Class will display each Property side-by-side in the report with all of the income and expenses relative to each Property. If you have a question about any income or expenses for a particular property, you can simply double click on the income or expense item to get more detailed information.

I suggest that you use a robust accounting program like QuickBooks.

@Ernie Sturzinger

I'm not sure what you are looking for.  Perhaps you'd like to see an Annual Property Operating Data sheet.  You can create this form in Excel for the present year and future years.

Call her on the telephone or meet with her face to face and discuss the matter.  Find out what her story is.  Maybe she intends to pay before moving in or maybe she wants out of the deal. 

If she moves in and refuses to pay first month's rent and security deposit, then serve her with a notice to vacate or a notice to pay or vacate.

@Peter J Struck Pray that no one drowns in your pool.  In my opinion, a swimming pool in a rental is a liability trap.  Further, I can't imagine the average tenant taking the time to properly maintain a swimming pool.  

@Josh Corby Many of the other posters have thoughtfully suggested that you budget money for expenses and capex.

I agree.  You should establish reserve accounts to pay for inevitable operating expenses and capex. I budget and fund each account on a monthly basis. I use four reserve accounts:

Tax Reserve - to pay real estate taxes
Insurance Reserve - to pay for Landlord's Insurance and Umbrella Insurance
Replacement Reserve - for capital expenditures (I sometimes use it for maintenance and repair expenses also)
Other Savings Reserve - a contingency reserve