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All Forum Posts by: Lynn Y.

Lynn Y. has started 4 posts and replied 15 times.

Post: buying with renter in place

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

I agree w everything Marcia said. Only thing I also do is to indicate on the estoppel is a list of all  appliances owned by landlord. 

My personal experience is property w tenants has always been a plus. You get rent from start. Especially a tenant has stay for a few years. Those usually good tenants. As Marcia said, the one time i did not quite work out w tenant, they moved out on their own. 

But I also realized tenants, especially those plan to stay for a while, get really nervious when changing landlord. So, be friendly, introduce yourself, give assurance that you will be happy to hornor their current lease ( which you need to do anyway), and find out their concerns about the property, are a few things help to build a relationship. Best luck. 

Post: renting an illegal unit

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

Marcia.  Thank you for your advice. Those who advices me are local fellow landlords. I also need to clarify that city's record has the third floor space as living space already. It is zoning.  

Any advice on how to work w city to get the 3 units as occupancy. 

Post: renting an illegal unit

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

I am interested to buy a multi-family property.  It is a 2 unit in city's record; but the provious made it a three units.  The property worth much more if I can rent it as three units; other than two.  And city has been really tough on granting more units in this area based on past experience.

I was advised to put a kitchennete instead of a full kitchen in the illegal unit, so it is not a "unit"; I was also told to sign a joint lease with 2nd floor - that this is a "roommate" situation"; I was also told to just to sign a lease on 3rd unit but let the tenant know/clear that this is a illegally unit and he/she willingly chose to live their.

Any ideas?  Bottom line: I wan to rent the 3rd unit space without legal trouble down the road hopefully both with city and with tenant.

Many thanks.

Post: Question about extending a lease agreement

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

I just have one page giving options 1.  1 yr lease, no rent change; 2. m-t-m with rent change of 100$. 3.  Quit residence at the end of current lease term.  Followed by no other change of lease terms signed on (a previous date).    Ask tenant to initial their choice; and sign at the bottom.

For tenant I really like but want to go m-t-m due to uncertainty of  job transfer; or buying a house; I typically have a smaller rate increase (or no increase) with the understanding that they will help me to show the house for next tenant.  Some of them actually end up never move (and paid a higher rent); some of them did such a good job to stage the rental for showing.  

Talk to your tenants, find out what their needs are, and work out something halfway.  

Good luck.

Joe, I agree with all said above.  have a lease, spell things out clearly, stick to it, be fair but firm, are the best way to start with anyone new.  One thing I want to caution you, in my state (CT), the law actually says you could not charge late fee until 10 days after the due date.  I see you are from NY, which may be very similar to CT.  Check out the landlord tenant law in your state, make sure you familiar with all the key points (e.g., late fee, deposit return/interest, extra occupants, etc.).  And also, I like to have everything in written:  when my tenant called to discuss a serious issue, I always ask them communicate by email; or least I will write myself a memo. Good luck!

Post: LLC

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

My understanding of benefits of LLCs include: 1. isolation between personal asset / properties of different LLCs; 2. some people say LLC provides
privacy of owners (which is not in the case for CT business.  You can find ownership of property (assuming it is a LLC); and thus find name / address of manager/members of this LLC through government on-line database.  easy).  But potentially, it may provide privacy with tenants assuming they did not try to look for those info by signing lease / make check payable to LLCs.  3.  I also felt it adds a bit of formality that landlord is a business other than an individual.

The downsides of LLC: 1. in CT, it is 250$ per year for business tax; 2. More paper work now you have different bank account structured under LLC. 3. Filing is easy and cheap in CT (around 120$ in CT and all form available on line), but you still need to go through all those steps and draft an organization agreement.

My accountant is the one strongly suggest to form a LLC for each property. His point is the complexity will provide protection. I think that way of thinking is the whole point of why LLC: it adds complexity in structure, harder to people to figure out if they want to get you; but harder to manage. Nothing is impossible thus it all comes down to comfort level of each situation.

Best luck!

@Mark Shaffar  Hi, would love to hear your thoughts on the difference between investing real estate in BJ comparing to in US.  I have friend who is investing in China, it seems two different worlds.  For one thing, their rent/investment ratio is so low (annual rent / purchase price ~ 1/100), but they see their property value double/triple in a few years + no property tax. 

Post: equal housing

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

Joe. Thank you. That really helps. I am very puzzled and in disbelief.  I got two big packages/ certified mails. What a waste! I was also asked to provide tons of information ranging from all properties addresses to lease of current tenant to copy of all applications. I guess I need to send a box back. Plus, I was asked to send All that to complaint as well(? Did I get it wrong here). On what ground I need to disclose all those info to a person I never even met?  And who going to spend time to read all these. Again, such a waste 

Steve, this is CT and I guess it does fall into income.

Thank you. I really appreciate

Will need to find an attorney after this holiday weekend.

Post: equal housing

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

Someone filed a complaint with state housing discrimination unit against one of my rentals.   It seems that she emailed me last october (6 month ago) asking one of my listings and informed me she has section 8.  Based on the complaint, I replied this rental has not been approved for section 8.  It also seemed she did not make another attempt to contact me again, rather, filed a complaint about income discrimination.

I unfortunately can not track that particular communication in my email inbox

Question:  Is it a correct understanding that a rental has to be approved by certain authority who manage section 8, and landlord has to pass certain registration process, in order to accept sec 8 payment? If that is true, on what ground complaint can be filed simply because landlord disclosed the status of this rental with sec 8 authority.  Or is this simply a mis-communication.  But if so, why someone will claim suffering so much emotion stress/other losses, take all the trouble of filing/notarize a complaint, other than just send me another email to clarify? 

Can anyone shed light on this?  Thank you very much.      

Post: question about Hubzu auction: inspection and occupancy

Lynn Y.Posted
  • Investor
  • New Haven, CT
  • Posts 15
  • Votes 3

Questions regarding Hubzu sale:

1.  If you won the aution, can you, on the purchase/sale agreement, put contigency to inspection of the property.  (there is a box on their sample doc 2.19).  Reading from above, it seems some of you are able to have inspection done and back out if issues.

2.  There is always this language about "seller does not garantee occupancy status".  Can you ask seller to evict current occupant on the purchase/sale agreement?  Will they do it or it depends on bank or they will never do it.

What is your experience in above?  Very much appreciated.