All Forum Posts by: Mich Copper

Debbie, sounds good. Thank you. I'm doing what you and Nathan suggested, start them with a new filter then clearly state in the contract that replacement is their responsibility.

Thank you both for your feedback.

Tammy, I understand why I (as a landlord) care about replacing the AC filters because not doing so impacts the AC system. But the water filter is there to improve tenants' drinking water. If they don't change the filter, it wouldn't affect my property one way or another but the quality of their drinking water. So please help me understand why I should choose to pay for it. Maybe I'm missing something here. Thanks.

I'm about to rent out my condo since I just bought a single family home. I have a water filter under the kitchen cabinet which needs to be replaced. The filter would cost about $150 (or I may be able to find a cheaper filter). My question is that - should I replace the filter for the tenants every year or should I put in the contract that it is their responsibility to replace the filter? Same question for the water filter in the refrigerator. Thanks!

Hi, I just recently bought a single family home and am trying to decide what to do with my current condo that I've lived in for the past 8 years. I paid $250K plus 30K capital improvement so 280K tax basis. Based on comp, I can sell it now for around $475K to $500K. My mortgage is $912 (3.625% interest) and have only 90K left. The HOA is $250. Property tax is around $3,600 per year.I can probably rent it out for $2,300 a month. A realtor has done research and said the rental around here for something similar is around $2,300 to 2,500. So if I turn this into a rental, I'm looking at more or less $700 to $900 of monthly cashflow until its paid off, then $1,600 to $1,800 thereafter. For the expense calculation, I included mortgage, HOA, property tax and insurance (about $100 per month) and didn't account for repair or vacancy costs. The rental income is not a lot but since I can deduct a bunch of things including depreciation on my tax returns, I will also have savings from reduced tax liability. If i were to sell it now say for 500K. With the 250K exclusion, I'll pay no tax on the gain and have 400K cash in my pocket. I've done excel comparison of cashflows between selling now (all gain is tax free) and selling in 15 years when i retire (only 8/(8 + 15) of gain is tax free), but it seems that the outcome really depends on the assumptions i use e.g., return % on the cashflow, future property value, etc. By tweaking these assumptions, I can make the argument either way. Another alternative is that at the end of the 15th year, I can do a 1030 exchange of the condo for another property to live in and sell my house then. Please let me know what you would do if you were in my shoes. If you think selling is a better idea, how would you invest that 400K cash? I would want to diversify outside of stock market as too much of my retirement is already in it. Thanks!