All Forum Posts by: Matt Devincenzo

Marc Jolicoeur I don't think Jon was trying to say you are planning on taking advantage of your parents, just that they may be less cautious than they should be becoming "business partners" with their "lower income" retirement meaning if you blow it they have less possibility to replace it unless they're willing to start working full time again.

I invest with my parents no problems(as far as the family aspect) and yes we lost some money in 2007 and we're all still here and working together so it is doable just make sure everyone really knows what they're about to get into.

I have a US co-worker in my office that has an investment property in Canada and is married to a Canadian living here in California and files Canadian taxes. He said that the money/tax issue is fairly simple for them due to the agreements between US and Canada. I know that doesn't specifically answer your question, but is what he has found in his personal experience.

A better way to get some idea of comps i.e. right now you can pick 2+ bed which leaves a 6 bed property showing up being able to range it to 2-4 bed just like you can do with square footage.

Also a distance option like within .5 miles of prop ect.

Yeah my quick numbers put it at $475 expenses(50%*$950) - $304(4.5% @ 25% DP)= $171 cash flow/mo which is not bad necessarily.

The reason most people here don't go for those returns is the Cash on Cash return is 8.6% which is not a stellar amount, and you could loan private money at about 10-12%.

It just comes down to what kind of a return you're looking to get on your cash, most here want more than 8.6%.

There are a couple problems with your numbers, first look up the 50% rule that might change some of your assumptions.

At the numbers you posted yeah it might be somewhat easy to find, but in the long run you'll probably find out that the return isn't what you thought. Things like vacancy, repairs and legal fees have a funny way of eating up cash flow faster than it comes in.

Ok that cleared it up some I think the post I was referring to was on lease options. Thank you both for the insight into potential legal issues, always good to have some extra insight when trying to work on a deal and knowing the potential risks with each one.

I'd say based on the info given leave it alone. From my perspective you risk losing the deal and any money spent on DD thus far due to trying to get a couple grand for 2 issues that from what you said aren't really a problem.

I have a question on this for Bill Gulley, K. Marie Poe, and Randy F. or anyone else that may have the answer.

Does allowing a tenant to perform repairs and maintenance open the LL up to the tenant having an equitable interest in the property? I may be way off on that but I thought in one of the recent(last month or so) posts I read that was mentioned somewhere.

I would start by looking at your lease and see if there is a clause about pest control, if there is then explain that the terms of the lease they signed say they're responsible for it. You can also use this time to go through the lease with them again so you can explain what it is they are responsible for as a reminder.

If not I would explain that ants are attracted to food, and while impossible to completely prevent their food sources like crumbs and dropped food, that will go along way. And then follow with you have no control over the prevention of the ants since it is not you that lives there, and therefor the treatment for them rests with the tenant.

Obviously if you would like to keep them you need to be tactful about saying it and don't have it sound like you're saying they're dirty, but at the same time let them know you're not going to just take care of items that are theirs to prevent and treat.

Well at least now you have received advice about it so you can take care of any issue like this with your PM(or get a new one) before your next tenant.

Also look around at some of the older posts for the discussions regarding rent increases, it's not always a bad thing and often can be good to do once a year or every other year ect. it's alot easier for a tenant to swallow a $50 increase every year than a $200 increase after 4 years netting you a longer term tenant over the long haul and offset increased costs that you have.