All Forum Posts by: Michael D.

I own a 9-unit building in Millvale, PA and just got a notice that the school district is appealing the assessed value in order to extract additional tax revenue from me for 2013.

Can any of you provide any advice on how to deal with this and what evidence to present?

"That's what I hear about all the time."
A dangerous line of thinking.

I don't have the right answer, and I think there are a lot of complicated variables to consider - not the least of which are the likelihood of the insurance company going bankrupt and of politicians pouring money on "victims" who don't have insurance.

I keep thinking about whether to buy it for my home, but I still haven't.

Does anybody have any experience with separating water meters in Pittsburgh? What did you have to do? Was it difficult? Worth it?

Thanks

That's dangerous territory Jeff. You're giving control over the property to the tenant, and blurring lines as well. Should things go wrong you'll have a hard time evicting them.

If you think they're capable of the tasks you want them to do, pay them separately. Make it clear that the full rent is due on time, every time. Any work they perform for you is paid by a separate check from you to them, with proper accounting (could be an invoice).

Remember that this is especially dicey when you're asking them to "help manage the property." Part of a manager's job is to make sure rent is paid on time and evict. Are they going to charge themselves late fees, post pay-or-quit notices, and follow through with evictions?

Good luck.

The windows are that hard to open?! That sounds dangerous to me. What if there were a fire during the winter when all the windows were shut, but there was no safe path to the front door?

I'm sure that from that perspective, the landlord wouldn't mind letting you out of the lease.

This is most likely not positive expectation. The chance that you would split if you win increases as more people climb on.

You didn't give many details, but I'll take a stab. You can probably count on at least $2000 in vacancy and repairs per year. So that leaves you with $9000 NOI max. A 10% cap rate comes out to a $90k purchase price. I wouldn't offer any more than that if you want to have any kind of positive cash flow after financing.

I don't barter with people who owe me money.

If a tenant is current on their rent, I will consider paying them separately to perform work as a contractor - never as an employee. The important point is that the payment for the work is always separate from the rent.

Stop paying off your credit cards and instead put that money into a bank account. Be careful not to increase your spending on stuff though.

Soon you'll have $20k in that bank account, and $20k balance on the cards.

Frank, you're not including management, repairs (even condos have some) and vacancy in your expenses. I think those should consume $100-150/mo. Still, nice work.