All Forum Posts by: Kevin Kurt

In all my leases I have a clause that states that this lease supersedes any prior leases.  I have all tenants sign a new lease each year, so I can make changes as necessary.  

So, in this case I would simply have both them sign a new lease that way you avoid this problem.  If both parties agree to terminate an agreement and forge a new one I think that is less legally ambiguous.  It doesn't really help in this case, but is a thought for the future.

I'm not sure to be honest because tax rates vary from place to place, and sometimes places are only taxed at 80% of value so I would get just call the assessor in charge of that location and ask if I bought a duplex for 134K, what would be the tax bill at the end of each month or year.

Check the current assessment value as well.  Sometimes they get way behind on assessments and the taxes go way up because the sale triggers a reassessment.  For example, the current house is behind on assessments and is currently taxed at 100K when you buy it for 134K all of a sudden the 250 a month in taxes become 350 a month and kills your return.

I may be able to make it tonight.

An update on mine.  I just got a call from the assessor he is going to submit an open book change to 197K-198K so right about a 15K reduction.  He did say it would probably go up next year with more sales, but that's an issue for next year.

This is the first time I've done it.  The first thing I did was call the guy who made the assessment and figure out what were his reasons for the assessment.  In this case it was a comparable sale in the same neighborhood we both had a 3BR/2BR duplex.  I was assessed at 212,400, and the most recent sale was at 209,000.  The other house had slightly higher rents.  So, I simply asked him to explain if a house with higher rents sold for 209K, how was he valuing mine at 212.4K.  He really didn't have an answer for that, so he said he would have to do a drive by to look, but I think he'll have to drop the assessment a by 5-10 thousand.

I live in Madison, and I just appeal myself if I need to.  There is a form that you have to fill out.  I think I will get one assessment reduced by about 10,000.

I respectfully disagree with Thomas S.  You don't need to be prepared to foreclose.  You need to be prepared to eat a huge loss.  I never lend money to family, I give it to them, if they give it back great if not it was a gift in my mind anyway.

     The other option is to look into just tearing it down, and selling the raw land.  You'd have to figure out what that property would go for without a house and see if you could get the land and and remove to house for less.

      I'm generally not a fan of going hard against what the area is doing.  If everyone else is tearing down and building new, you may not get much more if you put 40K in to the foundation repair.  If I was planning on building new why would I care if the old foundation is terrible it's going to end up in a landfill.

I've used Matt and Jen Kornstedt for 3 different rental properties and my personal home.  They run some properties and I've never had any problems.

I've met Paul Haviland as well I know he's pretty active in multifamily and he's on bigger pockets.  He seems like a good knowledgeable guy, but I've never actually used him, mostly due to timing, I meet him after I purchased my properties