All Forum Posts by: Natalie Lindsey

@Will Barnard

Thank you, I reached out to our CPA but he has not responded. I am going to probably try to get a hold of him again tomorrow.

@Bjorn Ahlblad

Thank you

I am trying to figure out which state I should get an llc in.

We own property in OH and WV but have chosen not to get an llc for those properties up to this point. They are residential homes with long term tenants. We do have an umbrella insurance policy though just in case.

With that being said, we are trying to expand into more Multifamily properties. We currently live in TX due to a military PCS. We have been looking at properties here but we are also looking at properties in KY and OH. We have a promising lead on a 7 unit property in KY and the same owners also have a off market 20 unit that they may sale in the near future. We have decided it’s time to go ahead and get an llc. The problem is we aren’t sure if we should get it in TX, OH, or KY. We are supposed to view the 7 unit, virtually, on Friday. (We have family members in the area that are going to walk the property for us while we are on video call.) We are also viewing properties here in TX on Saturday. Both seem to be pretty promising possibilities.

I want to get our llc set up ASAP so we can make offers on these properties and work towards getting lending. Any advice on which state we should go with since we are interested in investing in all 3 states? We do plan to be in TX for a good while but we don’t have state ID’s here since we just recently moved here and it was for the military. We also really like OH and KY for cash flow. TX is better for appreciation. We want both and like that it helps us diversify a bit being in the different markets. Any advice appreciated.

My husband and I are in the process of buying a duplex. The loan should be closing soon but I received another document to sign that is trying to charge us over $1000 more. It had already raised one time due to a higher appraisal cost so this is the third document we have received. We signed off on the other two but I don’t feel comfortable signing off on this one.

This document and the higher cost was never discussed with us, I just found it in my email. After looking at it to see where the additional charges came from I saw that it said origination changes (points). Normally paying points are to bring down the interest rate or mortgage payment. On the document, it still has the same interest rate we locked in a while back and the same mortgage amount. The APR was higher though. So basically they are asking us to pay over $1000 more now that we are close to closing but with no benefit to us. It would only cost us more over the life of the loan.

Has anyone else had this happen? I don’t want to pay extra money for something that was never discussed and doesn’t benefit us in anyway. How should I handle this?

@AJ H.

Thank you for your advice. I was thinking since it was a multifamily property (22 units) maybe we should get an LLC this time for protection. Up to this point we have chose not to get an LLC since we just had some SFH properties and an umbrella insurance policy seems to be fine for that. Could we get an umbrella policy to cover a property of that size as well? Thanks again for your help answering my questions!

I am not sure where I should create our LLC.

We are a military family and we are waiting to find out where we will be moving to this summer. Hopefully we will know sometime in Jan. or Feb. We have several SFH properties already, but we would really like to invest in multifamily near where we will be living so we can be close to the properties. We are basically waiting to find out where we will be heading before choosing our next market.

Meanwhile, we have found a multifamily property in WV we are interested in. We are considering putting in an offer on it but feel like we should probably go ahead and create an LLC ahead of time. WV is actually considered our home of residency since that is where we lived at the time when we became a military family. We also own a rental property there already.

Whenever I start looking into information about LLC's I see some people mentioning places like Wyoming, Delaware, and Nebraska. I understand that there are some benefits to certain states. On the other hand, I understand that there can be additional fees for opening up an LLC in one state while having property in another state. So I'm just wondering where we should open up our LLC. Although we are interested in a property in WV and it is our home of residency, if we don't end up buying the property I mentioned above, then we will more than likely buy in the state we move to or one nearby it. Not WV. Since we don't know yet what state that may be, where would it make the most sense to set up an LLC? If we set it up in WV but then don't end up investing there, will it cost us a lot more long term by having to pay extra fees for whatever state we do end up investing in?

@Rigo V.

I have a home in Huntington that has been a rental for close to 12 years now and it has done just fine. I was also a Realtor in Huntington until I moved out of the area. With that being said, as others have mentioned the drug situation has gotten really bad. You really need to know the area well if you want to invest there so you know what to avoid and what neighborhoods may be worth investing in. We now focus on investing across the bridge in Proctorville, OH where the school district is in high demand and it’s hard to even find rentals listed. Barboursville is also a decent area.

My husband and I have had a rental property in WV for around 11 or 12 years. In Dec. 2019 we purchased another rental property in OH. Although the properties are in different states they are only about ten minutes from each other. We are a military family and have to travel about 7 hours away to check on/work on these properties. For most of the year we were only traveling to tend to the WV property but we made two trips where we worked on our WV property but also looked at the OH property to purchase and then closed on/did work on it the next trip. How would we break up the travel expenses for these two trips seeing as though we tend to both properties when we travel there?

We have a tenant that has been renting from us for about 5 years. He has mentioned several times that he is interested in purchasing the home from us through a rent to own type situation. He has been a good tenant and we have never raised the rent in those 5 years. He is paying $750.00 a month for rent. My husband and I are leaning towards asking around $90,000 for him to buy it. We just aren’t sure how to structure the deal. If we would do a rent to own type situation would it be fair to ask maybe for a $5,000 nonrefundable down payment up front that would go towards the $90,000 purchase price? So they would owe $85,000 when it was time to close? I don’t really want to put any of the monthly $750.00 towards the purchase of the price because we still pay a lot of the fees associated with the home like insurance, property taxes, repairs, garbage fees, etc. out of that amount. If he would ask for us to put some of his monthly payment to the purchase price should we tell him we can only do that if we raise the rental amount? Any advice on how to structure the deal would be great! Thanks for taking the time to help me with this in advance! 

@Chris Salerno thank you for your thoughts. I have definitely been looking into both options. I think at this point either apartment buildings or storage units would be a better option then SFH.