All Forum Posts by: Julie Macd

@Mel Hayes you can chose either landlord, tenant or split.

I pay it for my tenant but that was my choice.

Automated Clearing House (ACH) is an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. ACH processes large volumes of credit and debit transactions in batches. ACH credit transfers include direct deposit, payroll and vendor payments (Wikipedia)

I signed up for erentpayments.com

Process was simple. Both sides set up in a day. It took 5 days for the first transfer to go through. The tenant can set up automatic payments. no contracts, you can set parameters such as auto-billing of late fees, acceptance of late and partial payments, etc. The charge is $3 per payment.

@Steven Silva If you do not have a registered deed than you do not own the property. Do not start any work until you know the property is registered in your name. While the lawyers will always make it sound easy you never know until the ink dries. What if the other party does not want to sell or has other ideas?

 Yes call your lawyer. A few hundred dollars is lawyer fees could save you much more in the long run, and as you are inexperienced, the lawyer will be more likely to be able to tell you how serious the situation is and what your rights are as far as the seller and or the title company.

What are your carry costs? Insurance policy should be adjusted to closing date.

Has the lender already transferred the fund to escrow? or are you paying cash? 

From a renter's perspective Zillow and Trulia are much easier to navigate. Just set your parameters and the list appears. Plus if you save your search they will send you an email of anything that matches your criteria on a daily basis. (good for market research as well as the owner.) 

Compare with Craigslist which is a random list that is full of scams, hard to search, tons of repeats as you have to repost every day to be on top,  and very inconsistent quality of information.

So if you are a busy professional, which would you turn to...

@Chad Hotovec congratulations. All great journeys start with a single step. You are on your way!

I just signed a purchase agreement for a house in Belton, MO. The first step is the hardest.

@Account Closed

I was in Kansas City last month talking with TK operators. Below is link to a post I wrote. I am happy to share experiences and thoughts on the operators and due diligence.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/87/topics/296010-my-trip-to-kansas-city-to-meet-with-turn-key-operators

Send a PM if you want to discuss more details

@Allan Fisher

The first thing you need to determine is what are your goals and objectives in real estate investing. then you need to decide what you really want to do and what your role will be. Do you want cash flow, appreciation, or capital or some combination.  How passive or active do you want to be? these are the fundamental questions to ask even before deciding to sell your highly appreciating asset for a possible cash flowing one. Personally I am keeping my Seattle house for appreciation and because someday I will return there and want town property. But I am investing in KC for cashflow and a bit of appreciation.

Below is a post I wrote on my trip to Kansas City to visit TK investors.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/87/topics/296010-my-trip-to-kansas-city-to-meet-with-turn-key-operators

@Michael Glaser I also invest from overseas, but I am overseas all year long.

I am investing in KC as well.  My hometown, Seattle, does not have good cash flow and the market is too hot to try to compete from overseas. 

I will try to answer whatever questions I can, or commiserate as needed...

@Zachary Critchett

it is impossible to know how much to set aside without knowing what tax bracket you are in. You really need to consult a tax advisor.

Are you a passive real estate investor or is it your profession. Normally on the RE side, if you do buy and hold it will be a tax write loss to offset your income. If you flip then certainly you need to pay taxes on each deal.

How much 1099 income you need to set aside depends on how much other income you have and how much you can shelter. But generally you will have to pay both income and social security taxes. Between the 2 it can be anywhere from 25-40%.

If you post in the tax section, there are a number of tax professionals on BP you can reach out to. 

@Linda Weygant I am so sorry to hear about this. I found this post as I was looking to see how best to accept automatic payments from my tenant in the USA. At least in my case he has been my tenant for 4 years, but after multiple problems with his bill pay, I am looking at other options...

The US system is so screwed up sometimes... In Europe for 1 euro I can transfer money to anyone's accounts. For any withdrawals they have 2 -3 level access encryption even on a personal account. Not sure how a third party payer works, because basically everyone just uses their version of ACH (IBAN number)  Basically the personal accounts have the same controls as business accounts for ACH transactions. Funds are deposited same day or the next without fail even in Italy. it takes longer for my debit transactions to clear funny enough.

Best of luck figuring out.