All Forum Posts by: Lisa Casey

I know this is an old thread but it hit a nerve for me. We put our house up for sale recently. It is a 100 year old house that has been maintained well over the past 25 years that we have owned it. New metal roof, gutters, cornices, new HVAC,  electrical updated etc . plus cosmetic fixes, paint, plaster, floors. It is not perfect but it was priced to sell. The first day we got a full price offer with 5 hours to respond. The buyer's financial situation was strong. We had a open house scheduled for the next day, but canceled it. We accepted the offer and the buyer had 12 days to complete an inspection. The inspection showed only minor issues, but regardless, they asked for 20K off for a bunch of upgrades they wanted. We went back and forth for a while but after 3 weeks messing around with these buyers we decided to cancel the contract. I do not believe, they ever intended to pay any thing near full price. After putting it back on the market another offer came in almost full price.  

Thank you Justin Fox and Jake Hottenrott for your responses. Makes sense, and not as complicated as I thought it would be when doing my taxes.

We decided to add an addition, master bedroom/bath, to our rental house. It did not go as planned and need advice on how to report expenses with no current rental income on my tax return. The rental house was shut down in July 2018 and the addition was suppose to be done in 4 months. The contractor did not begin until Oct 2018, (contractor fell off truck and broke his ribs, his business partner died, etc.) it is a long story, so I will not get into it. Eventually we fired the first contractor (losing $$$$$ we paid him) and hired a new contractor who is now reworking some of our former contractors work and finishing the addition. So there has been no income from that property and a ton of expenses, how do I report this on my tax return. Do I wait till the rental property is back in service to claim deductions and income?

Thank you for the advice!

My current tenant wants to buy the condo I have been renting to him for the last 4 years. He says he has pre qualified for a mortgage loan. I believe the condo is worth around $135K.  He has offered 125K with the seller, me, paying all closing cost. I own this condo outright, no mortgage. There is a real estate agent that just bought a condo in the building last year and I have asked him if he could help with the paperwork and closing (for a fee not set yet). Or should I just contact a Title company? I need advise on the best way to handle this transaction. Just fyi, I love this historic condo, but slowing down and tired of the renting hassle.

I know it has been awhile, but I did rent out the house as an Airbnb for a couple years. It went way better than expected and we made twice the money we made by renting it out. Also had control over how the place was taken care of. The people we rented out to were highly respectful and gave us great reviews. We even allowed dogs at no extra cost with out any issues. Looking back over the thread, I do appreciate the knowledge and advice of this group. Airbnb is now shut down because we are currently building an addition to the house and having issues with the contractor not doing the work he was paid to do....here comes more lessons.

Thank you for your responses, and Pam, your prayers....I need all the help I can get. But in the big picture, it is not the worst thing that has happened to me. This too will pass.... but, emotionally, I feel that I have been robbed of my funds.

I appreciate all the responses and Thank you! for the advice. I will check into the Bankruptcy lawyer and the bond, and probably, will unfortunately, have to accept that I made a costly mistake and move forward.

I hired a General Contractor/Small Co. (in business for 40 years), to add an addition to my Airbnb rental house. I paid half down in March 2018 and he was suppose to start on July 9, 2018, that is when I was closing the Airbnb so we could add the addition. I periodically called and was assured the work would begin on time.  Then, the General Contractor, broke his ribs, his business partner died, his sister who worked in the office, husband died, these are all true, and I can go on and on with other issues. I was so frustrated and angry but wanted to be understanding.... Needless to say no work began till Oct 2018 and I lost about 2K a month(Airbnb income) in that "no work" period of time waiting for them to get started. Finally the foundation, framing, and roof got done at a snail's pace. On March 7, 2019 he asked for 10K more even though the original contract said half down and the balance/ other half owed upon completion. He signed another contract saying that the 10 K would cover the electrical, plumbing, siding, and deck. I took in to account, the bad year he just had and gave him the 10K. ( I was not thinking straight as my mother just died a few days before.....That's my excuse for now) I guess you all know what happen next...NOTHING.  No more work was done. I recently threaten legal action and so I met with him today 7/18/19 (side note, true again, he just got out of the hospital for congestive heart failure) and he said he was not asking for more $, BUT....asked me if I could help him out and pay for the plumbing and electrical directly to his people. I told him I have already paid for the electrical plumbing and more with the 10K, and I am not his bank. Also I have no reason to believe him, given our history.  Well guess what, he then admits he has spent all the money I gave him $30K totally on not just my project, but other things/projects. Also that he gave me a low bid and has already done 30K worth of work. He now has no money and said he was trying to help me out, and has never NOT finished a job and blah, blah, blah. Then he was going to have to declare bankruptcy. 

 I am ready for a big lecture, and hired people on my own for the pass 20 years, first time hiring a general contractor. What I really need to know is.... what are my options? Am I totally screwed with this and should I just move on and take my losses? My husband thinks we will never get our money back or the work from him and it is not worth the fight.

Again, thank you all for the support, analysis, ideas, and comments.  Me and my husband spent the most part yesterday starting the clean up of the house and surrounding area.  There is still a ton more to do, but when leaving we both felt a lot better about it all.  We made a bad choice to rent to these tenants, but big lessons learned.  We got away with being nice to other renters for the past 15 years and have 2 other places we are currently renting.  Sooner or later we were going to get burned because of the way we handled things, which I can see clearly now.  I understand how you talk to tenants, and what is in the lease is so important. Do not become their "friend" which I have been guilty of doing, may be it is an ego thing, as it feels good when people like you.

All that said, this has changed the way I will do business in the future.  The original plans for this house after we renovated it was to rent it out as a vacation rental, so we could use it also. A few of you mentioned this as an option.  It was furnished and we were just starting the finishing touches when these tenants came along asking to rent it....it was not advertised for rent. (The formal contents of the home are in storage)  So we are leaning toward making it a vacation rental, but I will need to learn how to do this right, also, as it differs from long time rentals.