All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Garrett

Taj,

When you apply for insurance you are looking for non-owner occupied insurance.  Your coverage should be 1,000,000 at least.  Most reputable carriers ask for a copy of your lease so they can verify there is a tenant in it.  You have used the term Landlord insurance.  If you try to use regular insurance as if you lived there and there is a claim it won't be covered.  On my single family rentals the insurance cost is between 480 and 600.    

Juan,

A friend of mine invests in Romeoville with single family homes.  Its a great buy n hold area. Rents 1300 and up for a 3/1.  I think you should try some smaller investments to get your feet wet and see if its what you think it is.  I invest in the northwest suburbs and things are still good.

Good Luck.    

Frank,

I am in Illinois as well. The LLC's are very expensive in Illinois and I understand the DBA concept. I would urge you to go on to YouTube and search Mark Kohler LLC and DBA. He does a great job on explaining the difference. His firm represents a number of people in Illinois. Its great free information. He will do a free 15 minute consultation over the phone.

Hope this helps. 

I have been a building and zoning official for over 20 years.  It is a code violation and the building is not habitable without a proper water source.  I agree with the other comments check your lease.  I am not familiar with Colorado  Law but every jurisdiction I have encountered addresses this issue very similar.   They could post the building and in these cases could find you temporary housing, but it my put you in a bad spot.  I would look for other government sources through the county, township, housing authority, city etc.  There may be other resources you are not aware of.  Each jurisdiction provides different resources for these types of situations.  

I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK.

I totally understand.  You can get occupancy (temporary) for unit by unit, but its up to the discretion of the inspector.  As long as the common area (exits) are compliant and do not interfere with any safety issues, it seems to be a reasonable request.  I deal with a lot of inspectors since I teach code classes to the designers, engineers, inspectors, contractors etc.  If you need help message me at my inbox.

Good Luck. 

LoopNet.com is a website designed for commercial properties.  They have multi-family on the site.  Direct mail is good as well.  Using multiple methods of marketing to find properties is a continuous process.  For direct mail I use LIstsource.com it lets you pick and choose your parameters on contact list.  I like to use it for out of state owners of property with no mortgage or low balance on mortgage.

Eric,

I have been a building and zoning official for over 20 years.  If you get caught you will go through hell and it will cost you time and money.  I'm not sure why you just don't call for the inspection.   

Is this a situation where you have rehabbed the building and the city issued a building permit or are you referring to the rental registration.

You may get away with it but I don't think its worth the aggravation.

Go to Credit Nerds.  They are a credit repair company and only charge what they can get removed of your credit report.  They work with a lot investors trying to improve there credit score.  I know people who have increased there score 100 points within the first years or so.  Eric Counts does a great job helping people. It is definitely worth the money.  There is an upcharge to review your file but they prepare the letters that are sent to the credit bureaus.  It is very difficult to improve it on your own.  It will speed up the time to improve your score.

Eric,

Eric makes some very good points. I take a different perspective on rental units, I try to build equity in them by fixing them up nicer then the competition. This provides a couple of advantages; it drives up the ARV so when I refi I can reduce, if not eliminate my money invested in the project ( I typically use private funds) and I can get better quality tenants.

Good Luck.

I listen to a few podcast and I think the two that I get the best info from is EPIC Real Estate Investing out of California.  I've used some of the strategies and it definitely gives you a lot of nuts and bolts you can use.  He does try to sell his training but if you just take the info it is pretty good.  The refresh your wealth radio show is about legal and taxes.  Its a little corny some times, but I get a lot of good tax and legal tips.

On the book side, the Millionaire next door and of course Brandon Turners book on Rental Property Investing are both very good.