All Forum Posts by: Julie Dike

Since the bill is in your name, you're already stuck paying it, whether or not you have any chance of recovering the money.  There's no advantage to putting it off.  If you allow the city to turn off the water service that's in YOUR name, YOU are not providing a habitable residence.  (It would be different if the bill was in the tenant's name, because then it would be between them and the utility company.  Had a tenant do this with electricity.)

It sounds like you need to lean on your local elected officials to allow residents to be responsible for their own water bills.  What a ridiculous policy.  

Have you tried furnishedfinder.com?

I'd make a really detailed series of video walkthroughs.  Show the insides of the closets, show the views out the windows, be specific about which rooms are on which level, walk around the yard, etc.  Provide double the information you think is necessary.  The more detail you provide, the fewer people need to see it in person. 

It doesn't sound like they should be on the same contract, since they don't know each other.  I don't have experience with separate leases for one property, but based on a conversation I had with an attorney, it's a thing.  

Separate leases make it a lot easier to evict one tenant and not the other, should that become necessary.  It also makes it clear that they each pay rent to you individually, rather than pooling their funds each month and submitting the total.  

I can confirm that business credit/loans GENERALLY do not show up on your personal credit report, but there are exceptions. It’s worth asking your lender if they’ll report your particular loan to the personal credit bureaus.  If another investor referred you to this lender, they might be able to confirm whether a similar loan showed up on their own credit report.

(There are also business credit bureaus, like Dun & Bradstreet. If your loan is reported there, you build business credit, which won’t be checked when applying for personal loans/mortgages.)

I would use the BP rental property calculator.  It might be cash flow negative when you're only getting paid rent on two units, but that doesn't make it a bad investment unless it's going to cost you more than what you'd pay for housing otherwise.  

It would hurt to run the numbers both ways (renting 2 units vs. all of them), especially if all the units are currently occupied and you're going to have to wait for a vacancy before you move in.  Life circumstances can change, and if you find yourself needing a different living situation, you'll have peace of mind knowing that you can rent this place profitably.  

None of the experts here have mentioned in-kind distributions. I don't know if this fits your circumstances, but when you reach retirement age, you may be able to receive the property from your IRA as a distribution, without having to sell it.

Get them out of there.  In Virginia, you could start the eviction process immediately and have the property back in January or February.  It might be worth offering to return their deposits if they'll leave sooner without having to go to court . . . but not if they're not paying rent in the meantime -- that's just postponing the eviction.

When you serve the pay-or-quit notice, are you including all the late fees on it?  Not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that's important if you end up evicting over those late fees.

Make sure you ask your accountant and your banker.  Sounds like a lot of people are having trouble opening bank accounts for Series LLCs.  

Start watching the Bigger Pockets webinars!  I've learned a ton from those.