All Forum Posts by: Joshua Hanson

I have a house in Las Vegas that is managed.  I've been slowly raising rents, but am far below market rents.  They are currently at $1370/month.  They moved in four years ago at $1265.  Market rent is at least $1800 now.  When I told manager to raise to $1525, they came back with $1450.  I countered at $1490 and have been countered again at $1475.  I didn't anchor at a higher price to be able to come down to where I wanted it and am not sure I've set a good precedent with negotiating rent increases.  They have been decent tenants and even though rental market is strong, I don't want a vacancy right now as renovation costs are high right now.  I'd love to hear some feedback about how others have handled these situations.  Thanks in advance!

Hi All!  I'm looking for a property manager for a rental house in East Las Vegas.  Anyone have any recommendations?

Most loans out there are convention / conforming loans that conform to Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac guidelines.  You can check those websites for those rules and limits, which is what the lenders usually follow.  I recently took a screenshot of this off the Freddie Mac website to have on hand as the question quite often comes up.

The only one I could find was WF and I checked most of the major banks and credit unions around. I was able to get 60% LTV and a good interest rate for a $75 annual fee. This was about six months ago. Contact Bob Archer at WF Mortgage.

I am in SE Portland and also looking for this service.  I got going with Mint and Stessa which are great, but now I'm ready to get everything real dialed and automated with my accounts in with current software or quickbooks or the like.  @Mathew Wray   I am right off Woodstock and interested in your friend's services if they are a good fit. @Nicole Richards I'll let you know what I end up doing.

I wouldn't go back to a W2 job just for to get qualified for a loan. I've been a 1099 independent contractor for about a decade and though it's definitely tougher to qualify than someone who makes the same salary as a W2 employee, you can definitely get qualified by banks big and small. They do want to see that you have a certain number of years in your industry. They usually want to see your last two years of tax returns in lieu of W2s. Your net income is what they are looking at, so gross income minus expenses. The business expenses like mileage, meals and entertainment, travel expenses etc. are the tax benefits that W2 employees don't get to enjoy. On the flipside, those expenses also subtract from the amount of income that you show on your application, and therefore your DTI (Debt to income) which is usually the bottleneck in the process. Try to keep income high and expenses low. I would complete an application with a large bank and a community bank or mortgage broker. You will quickly learn where you stand.

 Venmo is getting rid of their website and going only phone app based.  It sounds like they will be phasing themselves out even more soon.  I've so far used Venmo, Square Cash, Paypal, and Zelle and haven't yet found one that I love for collecting rent.  Thinking of trying Cozy or Appfolio.

For prospective tenants, I use email.  It's not as invasive and I usually don't pick up unknown calls as half of them are spam these days anyway.  All current tenants have my personal cell number.  Their numbers are programmed in to my phone, so I know it's them.  I like to have direct communication with them and I haven't had any problems.