All Forum Posts by: Kristen Bouvier Scoville

I set you a message... 

You are going to learn and you will get it. dont give up!!

@Nina Ningundefined

the way we re sign our leases. We resign in September/October for the following year. Usually be this time we are at 100% occupied for the next school year. We currently just have 4 units left 

I have been in the student rental business for 15 years in a SUNY town. You have to have a good lease and have clauses on the lease. We have 99% occupancy. One student didn't show this year out of 150 students we have. We deal with year round rentals and commercial as well. The students should be your easiest to keep the rent if something like this occurs. They always have a choice to stay in the dorms. I make that clear.. They are signing a legal document and making a choice to live off campus which entails paying rent whether the school is in session or not. I was extremely stressed out that the students weren't going to come back or they were going to try and get out of their lease but they didn't. I did have a few that sublet their lease. (we charge a fee for that per semester) (We charge our rent per semester as well) Most of these students do not want to stay home even if they are doing classes online. If they have an apartment they want to be there! Believe me.... They want to be with their friends and away from their parents....lol

Why give the bank the money just to write it off to save in taxes to not give the government the money. You will have expenses if you are running the properties as a business anyway. If you are retiring. I would get rid of the highest interest properties first. And/Or you also said that some loans are due to be paid off in 3-4 years so the interest are basically paid, so get rid of those if you want immediate cash flow. Depending on how long you have owned them you will still have depreciation and if you have owned them for a while you will again do MORE work to them to yet again gain MORE depreciation! The circle will continue.. I am 52 and own over 50units commercial, residential and student rental for 20 years and it continues.. I think you will have the write offs you need. If you take care of your houses you will also continue to increase your depreciation as it decreases, if you understand my example. So start with the shortest loan then the highest interest. Thanks my thought.

So I have been looking for a Real Estate Software that would work with my unique business structure. We have rentals like many of you all. Although we have Student Rentals in a college town. We bill like the college on a "Semester" per student basis.  We wait for Financial Aid. We allow them to have payment plans and we treat them sometimes like our own children. Yup pain in the ***... haha

Anyway, I wanted a better software than Quickbooks. More accurate, detailed. I wanted to keep track of EVERYTHING! From inspecting, cleaning, payments, bills... In one place!! 

I was hoping this would be it.. It is pricey!! Really much more expensive than QB or any other.

My first encounter was great, things have progressed. But once my business structure really came out they wanted to charge me more money!! I was pissed!! The sales man was just a sales man!! Turned beds into units into dollars... Totally turned me off!!! I wasn't happy!!  

Then Owen called and turned it around! Im hoping that things will keep going smoothly and the program will be exactly what I am hoping for.. 

I will keep you all posted!!

@Scott Smith I think my questions above were definitely before some of the conversations we have been having. I have had a lot of people tell me to be careful of Series LLC's in New York because if there is a law suit I may be unprotected at the end of the day when Im trying to be extra protected. So Im a bit reluctant. Struggling because I feel as though it would be a perfect solution for what I need. There are others that structure it a bit different but similar almost like an upside down triangle. with an Funding company at the bottom and an operating company on its own. 2 bank act. single LLC'a funding Co being a MMLLC Operating CO as a MMLLC. So by now Im really messed up!! hahaha no I'm not.. I have received so many great ideas! especially from you! So thanks.. Im still considering the Series.. Ill be on your Webinar Wednesday!!

@Arian Potter that was my original thought. My only concern was the liability on commercial. The potential for lawsuits are higher and obviously the potential to put all your commercial properties under one LLC was concerning. Obviously LLC gives a great protection and the insurance protection should be enough. Do you have an umbrella policy as well for all your properties or do you think that is over kill?

@Llewelyn A. the negotiation is between tenant and us right now. Buyer wants the LLC and we are considering it. But you all have really valid points. I really appreciate your input. Would be interested to find out what our attorney says. Would we as members be covered after the LLC is sold? I almost think that we would be better off selling it because of the possibility of someone having a possible old claim. I believe if the LLC is terminated then there is more room for potential liability. Depending on the laws and how many years someone can go back on a claim etc. I'll keep you guys posted on what I find out.

@Raymond Dipre @Llewelyn A. here is what Im thinking.. The bookkeeping isn't my problem at all the bank accounts are. I want to keep the money in one place and then print P&L's for each LLC.

I currently spend $64 a month on Quickbooks online. I set up the Sales system with Tenants and they provide a Tenant Type. Which is perfect for my properties because I have Student, Commercial and Year round residential) The only flaw I have is Unit.  I use the (company line) as a "Unit" (I have tried to work with them on changing that to Unit instead of Company) They have done a lot working with property management and it seems to be working well. (Expenses are set up as "Class: Property, Sub-class:Unit" Category: Sub-contractor & Sub-Category etc...) Now if you are using this program and you have rents coming in via online usually they attach to the specific tenant or invoice. In that case they would attach to the proper property. Not sure what online collection website you use. 

There are reports you can run, Invoices you can set up re-eccuring. Each invoice will have the Unit/ Or Company in which you could put the individual LLC so when you run your reports you should have no problem keeping accurate numbers. This is definitely the Bookkeeping solution. Bank account, create cards and all mortgages download right into the program and once it is set up it will be logged into which ever LLC or (Company) you want it to. This would and could help with your bookkeeping issue.

I guess my biggest legality was whether I could co-mingle funds with bank accounts and I have so many it was becoming crazy? And it seems as though I can as long as I have the proper bookkeeping set up.

Another question I want to clarify is, all the funds can flow through the operating LLC and I can set up a management fee to pay for all business-office expenses to show some type of income in that LLC and as long as I have a statement for each LLC I should be fine? Correct?