All Forum Posts by: Robert Littke

Grace, I believe the one thing that you have going for you is that you sound very open to doing what needs to be done, whatever it is. And objectivity is often the key. Your willingness to look at the facts and do what needs to be done will, and not paralyze you, will serve you well whatever you decide.

Move back into the Vienna home
Sell the Fair Lakes Home
Take the cash out of Fair Hills and leverage a couple of smaller properties that cash flow.
Use the cash flow to pound equity into Vienna home (I know Aaron's going to ask, why throw good money after bad?) Just bite the bullet for a few years until you can get your balance sheet to look better. Just a thought.

Thanks guy's! I really have no desire to structure a deal like that, and I shouldn't have to since I have it priced right. I'm looking into all my options. From the sound of it, if I have to escrow the down payment cash, it wouldn't be feasible since I wanted to use it to cover moving expenses. Also, I've had rental properties in other states and its no fun to manage from a distance. J Scott - I figured that there was a good chance the buyer wouldn't follow through, but also figured that I would at least have 2 years of equity in, and a down payment that was forfeited so I wouldn't be that bad off. (assuming the house didn't get trashed)

Alright I will do my best to keep this brief but give the details.
If I have a $250,000 Single Family Home and I owe $228,000 and I want to move it fairly quickly. Payments are $1,470/mo. Market rent is probably $1,300 -$1,500
If I lease it out with a lease option at $1400 for 2 years with an option to buy and require $4000 down on the lease option, and apply 10% of payments to go towards down payment. When the purchase is made in 2 years, do I actually have to bring the $7360 ($4,000+$3360) to the table at close or just account for it on the settlement statement? What are the larger considerations that I should be concerned with on a deal like this. Thanks for you input. (This home is in NC, and I will be relocating to FL.)

Tax Question, Can rental income from a property owned by a group of investors in an LLP be distributed as dividends? Thanks for the help.

I have a client who I obtained a tenant who it turned out to be a dud. (to put it nicely) We have a very strong lease agreement. But this is the first time I've had someone go bad on me so can anyone tell me what the process is or steer me in the right direction for eviction and collection. He paid a deposit and one months rent and has abandoned the property and does not return calls or respond communications.
My role was simply to find a tenant and set him up on the lease, I have no management role but the client is asking me what to do. I sent him to an attorney but the attorney said he doesn't handle evictions or collections. My questions again is, What are the steps here. Client abandons retail commercial property and has not paid about $3,000 in rent.

If I'm hearing you correctly, a lender will not allow a property to break into a legal condominium structured ownership at a 90%LTV? Therefore, LLC Ownership would be one of the only options.

I have a client who owns a 10,000 sq. ft. Flex building that he developed two years ago. He occupies about 3,000 sq. ft. and has been unsuccessfully trying to rent out the other portions for over a year.
Part of the problem is it currently shell space and there is just to much on the market that's finished.
I was going to suggest making the property available for purchase. My questions are:
1) Aside from Condo and LLC, what are the other options for transferring ownership in the property?

2) Of these options, which ones provides the most control to the current owner.

3) What are the pros and cons of each.

4) There is a 90% loan on the property, is the bank going to give us any trouble if we break it up?

Thank you for your time.

Thanks guys, I think I may have had it right in my head but wrong in terminology, but let me throw something down (I understand your not accountants but I can see you have significant experience so here goes)
I buy a Flex Space for $100,000 have $5,000 in closing costs and do $20,000 in capital improvements over two years. At which time I sell it for $212,000 and pay out $10,000 in commisions and closing costs. If what I'm hearing is correct. $100,000+$5,000 +$20,000 =$130,000 subtracted from
$212,000 - $10,000= $202,000 and I arrive at $72,000 (This calculaiton does not take into consideration any deprecaition) Does that sound right, at least in crude terms?

Can someone give me some clarity on what is deductible against capital gains in commercial real estate? I was under the impression that maintenance costs and general repairs were not, but capital improvements to the property were. Is this correct?