All Forum Posts by: Morgan Gruelle

Hello, 

I just purchased 2 4-plexes back in january that are right next door to each other. One tenant that was just put in place back in december just before i closed on the property has been nothing but problems. Her rent was due the day after we closed on the property (january 15). It is not coming up on May and we have not received a dime from her. She is coming up on 5 months behind. I went over to fix a leaky sink one day and tried to talk with her about it to see if we could come up an agreement, but she gave me a story about how she had an issue with the previous landlord putting someone on her lease who ended up having to leave because he was living in the basement apartment which is not legally able to be rented yet the two of them were supposed to be splitting the rent. The other person on the lease was the previous landlords maintenance guy. It was kind of a weird situation i guess but regardless she is the only one on the lease and living in the unit at this point although she may have someone living with her im not really sure.  I had my property manager try to reach out to her first and she said she would think about it and get back to us, but she never did. After she stopped responding to the property manager I went by and tried to speak with her I told her we were willing to work with her to lower rent to something she could afford and I made a couple of verbal suggestions of what we could lower it to and she said she would not agree to anything. I went back a couple weeks later to "check on the fixed sink", at that point i dont think she thought i was anything other than the maintenance guy, but i tried to speak with her about the situation and come to an agreement but she literally told me she "did not wanna talk about it" and when said "well your 4 months behind on rent I think we need to figure something out here", she started screaming at me and told me to "get the F*** out of her apartment" and then ended up calling the cops on me because i was standing there trying to de-escalate the situation but not leaving her apartment. i ended up leaving before they got there and didn't end up talking to them. Even though I don't feel I was in the wrong I have tried numerous times to apologize and just try to start a conversation with her to resolve the situation, but she will not respond to texts or answer the phone. she is coming up on being 5 months behind on may 15th. At the very least I was going to try to get her to apply for rental assistance, or even lower her rent, or try to pay her to leave, but shes so  aggressive when I've gone over there she just starts screaming. The last time I knocked on the door she opened it and tried to close it in my face. I ended up putting my foot in the door and tried to say hey wait a second lets talk but she flipped out and called the cops again, I ended up leaving again before they got there. This is the first problem tenant I have had. I am not sure what to do at this point or how to handle the situation. My property manager is telling me Illinois is not doing evictions at the moment. This property is in Granite City Illinois. Does anyone have any ideas or advice on how to handle this situation? 

So I have owned a triplex for almost a year now and recently had new my first turnover. I had  tenants move out of one of the units and new tenants move in. They have been there about 2 months now. I just had my property management company tell me the tenants "found a nest of mice living inside the stove." It has only been a couple of days since they told me but they indicated they were trying to get more info from the tenants and would let me know how to proceed. I am not sure how to proceed here. Do I need to call in a professional rodent service in immediately? Or do I just advise them to put out some mouse traps or something? This is the first I have heard of any kind of rodent issues, and it has been a few days and have not heard anything more from the property management company. I am wondering if this poses any legal issues I need to be concerned about? What is the best thing to do at this point. Sorry if this is a dumb question. I am still new to all of this so just trying to proceed with caution and get advice from anyone who may have advice on how to best proceed here. Thanks in advance!

@Michael King its H3 property Mgmt, they charge 6% of rent that just happens to come out to about $124 a month plus the normal turnover fees. However I dont think I would recommend them I havent been really happy with them this far. There has been a problem with the amount they pay me each and every month so far, and I have had to make numerous phone calls and argue with people over there to get them to even look into the issues and then they don't get resolved very quickly and it's hard to even get anyone to respond to you when there is a problem.

Are there real estate investor meetups around st louis? I'd like to network with some like minded people that have been doing this longer than me. 

well ive only owned it for 6 months now. it's been going smoothely because i guess the tenants pay on time every month (at least i think so) the management company has been paying me every month like clock work. Although there have been hickups and problems with getting paid the correct amount every month that i have had to be on them about, but ideally id like to get the experience of doing this myself and also increase my cash flow since im paying them like $120 a month for the service. 

Hello, 

I purchased a triplex back in July and just signed a 6 month contract with the management company that was currently managing the property. Up until now they have been collecting the rent every month and transferring the funds to me every month so far. It has been pretty hands off for the most part aside from some minor maintenance items i have completed for 2 of the tenants. My contract with the management company is up this month and i should be receiving my final payment from them within the next week. Starting january 1st 2020 I was planning on managing the property myself and using either avail or cozy to collect rent and make listings etc. What I am not sure about is how to go about transitioning from using a management company to managing the property myself. More specifically how to notify the tenants of the changes, what exactly do i tell them? I assume they don't really need a ton of details on the situation.  How do I notify them? Should I just put a letter in their mailboxes? Should I go over and introduce myself and speak with them face to face about it? Are there any other things I should be considering for this transition? Honestly I am not sure how to go about this and having to take this on fully without the management company is making me really nervous even though there hasn't been much to do so far durring my ownership. 

@Patrick M. What is the 199A deduction? I havent heard of that, how can it benefit me? Is that something I should be able to use this year? 

well first off let me say im just getting started here. I purchased my first rental property (a triplex) back in late July. I have been trying to get organized and keep my ducks in a row but so far I have been utilizing friends around town that dont have real day jobs so I let them do work for me when I need it, because it helps them out and they also do the work for pretty cheap. I had a couple of different people cut the grass before I found a reliable lawn service and I paid those guys cash. I also am having another friend paint some rooms and cabinets for me, and i actually dont think these guys even have bank accounts one guy doesnt even have a car so its not really reasonable to pay him with a check nor have I ever really been the kind of person to write checks. The only other instance was the purchase of a replacement refridgerator off craigslist I paid cash for. None of these expenses are over $600. So I just have a few one off instances here where I want to be able to keep track of these expenses. This is definitely something I will try to get away from as I progress through my real estate career, but for now I am making due with the tools I have until I get a better system and workers in place. 

Can anyone tell me what the significance of an expense being more than $600 is regarding a business expense? 

i am not familiar with quickbooks, how can that help me track these types of expenses? Currently I just have a spreadsheet template I pulled off the inernet and have just been adding stuff on it, though i really havent been keeping it updated. I have just been trying to remember to keep all receipts in a folder for now. I just started with my first rental property back in August so this is all new to me still. Is it acceptable for tax purposes to buy a cash receipt notebook as @Melody E Bergloff suggested and have the person rendering the services to you write up a receipt for you out of your own notebook and use said receipt for expense tracking? Would this be acceptable say in the case of an audit from the IRS? I have ran into this twice already this week, once paying a friend cash to do some painting in a place and then again purchasing replacement appliances off of craigslist for cash. Not everyone takes plastic as previously stated. I have friends that I utilize to do some work for me at times who need the money and dont have a way to take electronic payments. Additionally its not feasible in most situations to go into a craigslist transaction with an E-payment. Most people off craigslist expect to be paid in cash. 

I am wondering how I can account for cash expenses. I have a rental property that I did not have time to paint so I paid a friend cash to paint the rooms over the coarse of a few days. I am wondering how can I track this expense for labor since I do not have an invoice for the work or a receipt from paying him. Should I just get one of those cash receipt notebooks and let him write me up a receipt for the work? Would that be sufficient at tax time in case of an audit? Additionally I had to replace a couple of broken appliances, which I purchased off craigslist also for cash. What is the best way to account for these expenses for tax purposes?

I am wondering how I can account for cash expenses. I have a rental property that I did not have time to paint so I paid a friend cash to paint the rooms over the coarse of a few days. I am wondering how can I track this expense for labor since I do not have an invoice for the work or a receipt from paying him. Should I just get one of those cash receipt notebooks and let him write me up a receipt for the work? Would that be sufficient at tax time in case of an audit? Additionally I had to replace a couple of broken appliances, which I purchased off craigslist also for cash. What is the best way to account for these expenses for tax purposes?