All Forum Posts by: Michael Seeker

Why not pick out a few of the leases you have and call the tenant?

Tell them you are auditing your management company and ask them some simple questions, one of them of course being their monthly rent.

If everything checks out, maybe you need to chat with the management co and let them know what you are expecting the rents to be.

So I just created an LLC (I can't believe how quick/easy it was). I have am the sole partner and registered as a disregarded entity.

I created the LLC in Nov of this year (2011). I will have no income, debt, funding, or ANYTHING done with this LLC until 2012. I'm not even sure why I rushed to do this, just thought I had a catchy name and went with it.

What am I looking at for filing my 2011 taxes? I had assumed I would just need to write in a big goose-egg somewhere for my business income/loss on my regular 1040 form.

Will I still be able to file the 1040EZ online stuff through taxslayer? Would it be worth extra expense to have a tax pro look at my stuff and if so, should that tax pro be versed in RE or is personal tax sufficient?

I do have 2 rental properties that aren't currently held in my LLC.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!!!

-Mike

I have to agree with Don, the contacts and contractor relationships I've built with my current project are invaluable.

I can't even estimate the amount of time I spent working on a flip with a "partner" only to end up calling in some contractors to finish it up for us. The amount of money I'm getting off the place is hardly worth the time and effort I put into it.

From strictly a $/hour standpoint, it seems like a waste of the last 5-6 months of my life. If you add in the intangibles, of which there are too many to list, it starts feeling more like a paid (not paid for) education that will last me a lifetime.

Thankfully for me, I have a great day job where my ROE is insanely high :)

I noticed there was a bit of an argument over passwords. I personally hate having to type or swipe every time I want to look at email or take a picture or use Siri or...the list could go forever.

I also hate the idea of somebody getting ahold of my phone and getting any of my personal data. It's hard to say which is more frustrating, but there's a really REALLY simple solution for both.

If you get the find my iPhone app and set up the iCloud (www.iCloud.com) then you can completely forgo the pain of a password lock and still have all the security.

After downloading this app, you can log into the "cloud" and do various things, my favorite is to have my phone play a sound when I can't find it. It also allows you to send a message to the phone. It also allows you to remotely lock the phone (I'd bet this locks up Siri as well) and even erase the phone completley.

I hope I never have to use the lock or erase features, but I'm really glad I don't have to spend a few seconds unlocking my phone EVERY time I use it.

Bonus: The iHandy level and flashlight apps come in handy every now and then.

@J Scott: Thanks for the input, that's exactly what I was trying to figure out.

@Ophelia: We're really not concerned with the type of loan (O/O vs Investment) or CLTV as we feel the amount of equity in the property is more than enough for us to cash out what we're looking to use for our next purchase. I'm thinking O/O would not be the best approach though since my partner will probably end up moving into the next property we purchase sometime during the renovation process.

On a side note, since I only own one other property, would it be feasible for my partner to sell me the property? The only problem I see with this is that we would have to get the 25%-35% for a down payment through the proceeds of the sale, not from my personal funds which I'm thinking might be a roadblock. Thoughts?

I'm wondering what might be my best approach for accessing equity and using it to finance another property.

Setup:
I purchased a SFR as my primary residence and still own the property/pay the mortgage every month.

In December 2010, I partnered up with a coworker and we purchased a 4-plex that was in need of some work. We've each contributed half of all expenses to date. My partner secured the loan as an owner-occupied property and we quit-claimed the deed to both of our names shortly thereafter.

Fastforward to today, we've put loads of sweat equity into the property and have 2 units rented, one occupied by my partner, and the 4th unit will be completed and ready to rent within the next month or so.

At this point, we would like to refinance in order to purchase another property. We're also considering setting up an LLC to hold ownership of the 4-plex and any future properties.

Questions:
-What is the best approach to cashout as much equity from the 4-plex while simultaneously transferring ownership to a newly created LLC, or should we be considering something else?
-Would it make more sense to refi the 4-plex as owner occupied or refi as an investment property given that my partner will likely not live there for more than 6 more months?

Any thoughts, comments or insights would be greatly appreciated!

Hey Tod, so far I've purchased a SFR which I spent about a year redoing while living in it, and about 4 months ago I purchased a 4-plex with a partner which we are now both living in. We're in the process of redoing the last apartment and are hoping to be finished within the next month or so.

I've spent the past 4-5 years doing research both online and through reading RE books. The past 6-12 months or so I've spent a lot of time "shopping" and driving around familiarizing myself with some of my target areas.

As far as goals are concerned, I'd like to be a full time investor within the next 2-3 years. I currently split time between my day job and my RE hobby/addiction.

I came across this site during some bored (at-work) perusing and instantly knew I had to sign up.

I'm quite excited at the prospect of being part of this community and can't wait to see where it leads!