All Forum Posts by: Kevin Phu

Closed and moved into my first property at the end of September. Started renting out rooms shortly after. Would it be worth hiring a CPA to do my RE taxes for the 3 months? I understand, for the most part, how to fill a Schedule E and Schedule A. I'm sure I can look up the questions I have as well. Seeing as a few months worth of income/expenses isn't much, would it be better to just do it myself for this filing?

How did you go about finding potential mobile homes? MLS listings? Driving for dollars?

We're literally talking the difference between life and death. It's such a small expense, it would be negligent not to buy and install them in my opinion for the safety of yourself and tenants regardless of whether or not it's required by law.

Okay so I'm looking for some advice from landlords that have more experience than I...especially in the SFR house hacking realm.

I currently own a 4br 2ba SFR. I live in the master and have two of the other bedrooms rented out. Currently the 4th bedroom is my office space. I have a friend who is moving out of her apartment that she was splitting with a friend. She needs a short term place to live until she relocates to a different city.

She has two small dogs. I know these dogs and they are very well behaved and I personally wouldn't mind living them. They can pretty much be unleashed anywhere without a worry and are very obedient. They don't piss or poop in the house and don't go bark crazy.

However, I dog sat a friend's dog recently and that was a nightmare for me and my tenants. The dog didn't behave at all, climbed all over everything, take off out the front door if it were opened and it wasn't held back, etc... This left a sour taste in my tenants mouth about dogs in the home I believe.

Currently, with the two rooms rented out, I am paying total out of pocket less than what I was previously paying for my own apt so I'm not pressed for income. However, if I rented out the last bedroom, my mortgage would be pretty much completely covered and I would have to only pay ~$300 out of pocket to cover the rest of the mortgage and utilities.

How would you guys handle this? Stick to no pets or ask my current tenants on their opinion? They aren't complete strangers. One is my coworker that works on my team and the other works in a different department. 

Originally posted by @Michael H.:

The main thing is you have to get along and trust them since you are giving them access to your personal home. There are things you can do to protect your things but they still have access to many things so keep that in mind. Definitely write up a lease and make it month to month like others have said. You don’t want to be living with someone you don’t get along with...Nicole A. How did you deal with when your tenants wanted to invite a friend over? Did they need to ask prior to them coming over? I currently rent rooms out in my home and that is one thing that I struggle with how to deal with that aspect.

 I write in the lease that they need to respect the peaceful living of the other residents. Also, visitors can not stay over longer than a week (to accommodate for holiday breaks and the like). My tenants and I are on the same page when it comes to having friends over. They have friends over and so do I. We all act like adults because I made it clear from the beginning. 

It's a home. Not a military barracks or jail. You want to treat your tenants like humans and allow them to be comfortable. 

I bought a 4br 2ba house this past September. I've been renting out 2 of the bedrooms, master bedroom as mine, and the last bedroom as my office. 

Like everyone else has said already. Make sure you have a lease, outline rules, responsibilities, expectations. I haven't had any issues. I'm a gov't employee and the two tenants are gov't employees at my same agency so that made the tenant screening a lot easier. 

Some issues I've realized (nothing major):

1) Dishwasher. One tenant will use it to wash a plate and skillet. Obvious waste of water but there's not much I can do excect ask him to use a full load next time. My lease doesn't state anything along the lines of loading the dishwasher with a "full" or "reasonable" load. Next tenant, the lease will state it. 

2) Washer and Dryer. Same as above.

Also: I changed all the bedroom door knobs to ones with locks. Each person has a key for themselves and I have a copy for emergencies. It's ~$15 per door knob at Home Depot but it gives everyone their own additional sense of security. Well worth the few bucks. 

@Johnathan P. Welcome to BP! I live in Oxnard as well. I have a property in the Marina West neighborhood. As CJ mentioned, check out the monthly REI meeting in Thousand Oaks. I will most likely be at the December one. I have been gone so much that I've had to miss the last few. It's a great group and there's always a good discussion. Lots to learn!

I use 123Landlord to track rent for my SFR house hack. Free for up to 2 tenants and has online payment portal. Haven't set up the payment portal yet.

Looks better than what I just got. I have a 4br SFR. Mortgage is 2500. Renting 3 bed rooms for 800 each. Paying 100 of the mortgage and the utilities. However, in the nicer neighborhood of my high crime city. Close to work and lots of commercial business /townhouses developing right down the street. Main goal was to stop paying 1500 in apartment rent. Everyone has a different goal and what "works" for them.

@Jason K., I was just searching Redfin and Zillow how @Marshall M. suggested. I have no idea on this market so I started by browsing the listings to give me a starting point for exploring the area.