All Forum Posts by: Kyle Meyers

I used the service for a year and a half. They have great customer service. I only left because the pricing gets high if you have more than a few payments each month.

You capitalize the total investment at the time you place the property in service. Then, you can deduct expenses and depreciation going forward so long as the property remains in service (rented or available for rent). You can depreciate some components faster than others, check the link provided above.

I recently switched from erentpayment to Buildium. There are more features, and it is less expensive if you have enough units. For just one or two units, erentpayment worked well and they were adding additional features over the summer before I stopped using that service.

I do not use paper check register. I just record everything in Quicken. Most payments are done through online bill pay, but some contractors get a paper check when the complete the job and I just record it in Quicken when I get home.

There are a lot of lenders who will do a cash out refi, though at a lower ltv than a purchase or rate/term loan. Keep calling around until you find the right lender.

I have obtained several properties from tax lien sales. When I went to my first sale, I was under the impression that it is very rare to get a deed because the owner will redeem at some point during the 1 year redemption period. I bought 3 liens and not one of them was redeemed. I also learned about some of the risks that aren't often talked about. 1 of the 3 burned down and I walked away from my lien on that one. Another was left unsecured by the former owner and required a lot of work when I got the deed. But, the overall return on these properties, even with the fire loss and additional rehab work, is still a good investment and I continue to invest in tax liens.

There are a couple of buy and hold investing strategies. You can buy for appreciation, or for cash flow. You should be able to find units that rent for ~$600 you can purchase for ~$35k or less. It may not appreciate as well, but you will get better cash flow. When you have it rent ready, advertising is the best way to quickly find a tenant. If you don't get a lot of response, you can drop the rent or offer a move-in special, etc. There is lots of advice on this site to help you as you get started.

Will Barnard, Does the tax apply to flipping? I thought it was on passive investment income and most flipping is taxed as ordinary income.

Mark Spivey, my tax bill does not indicate what part of the assessed value is land and what is improvements, but the assessor does have it split out in their records. I can look it up online or call the assessor's office to get the breakdown.

I have properties in small towns and a large city. I thought it would take much more time to rent out the places in small towns, but they actually were filled faster than in the city. I don't think the size of the town is as important as the rental market there. If there are a lot of for rent signs, there may be too much supply or not enough demand. It has taken me as long as 2 months and as short as 6 hours to fill a vacancy.