All Forum Posts by: Nathan Letourneau

Many of them are over/around the 100 yr mark.  Some have been completely redone, others only have minor fixes.  I have replacement cost on all of them with $1000 deductibles.  All around the $600 range.  My agent tells me age matters, sq/ft, electrical breakers or fuses, age of the roof and other things are all big factors in the premium cost.

Until 2 years ago, I had my rentals and personal property with Auto-Owners through a broker that has many companies.  There were a couple issues I had with this broker, so I finally decided to shop around to see what else was out there.  It took a little bit of time but I checked with a couple national companies (State Farm, American Family and someone else) and then with a few other brokers with multiple companies.  I ended up with a referral to one broker who I ended up going with and saved me at least a couple hundred on each property (one property was $900 savings) with better coverage plus I switched my personal home/cars/etc all over to them with substantial savings for the same or better coverages.  Currently using Foremost for most properties.

Thanks @John Woodrich.  I've been trying to get a meeting with him, but he didn't get back to me til earlier this week.  That is why it got sent in right now.

I'd suggest checking with other agents in the area or insurance brokers who deal with multiple insurance companies.  This way you can get multiple quotes to see if that is the going rate.  It sure seems high to me, but my properties are in Wisconsin and I pay much less than $1000.

Thanks everyone for the information.  I did make an error when posting this.  I meant to say my 2017 income will be much higher (not 2016). 

@John Woodrich thanks for the reminder about 2016 taxes.  I just had sent all my info to my tax guy right before posting this question.  Your right about people being decent at preparing returns, but not always knowing the tax rules.  As I mentioned, I think I'm going to have to find someone who is well versed in real estate and taxes.  Also, what's a ballpark range for what it costs to elect the S-corp status (corporate return, payroll, etc)?  Are you allowed to elect S-corp status one year, but then not elect it the next?  What would you say is the minimum a person should make in order to make the s-corp worth while?

@Lance Lvovsky & @Steven Hamilton II You mentioned that I can't elect s-corp for 2017....only for 2018. Since posting this, I've found some more info on when a person can elect the s-corp status.  How come some CPAs say they can (basically guarantee)  late s-corp election for 2017 right now (one even mentioned they could do it up to March 2018).  Have you ever done that?

I've operated my business as a straight single member LLC for the last 10+ years. This year (2016) my income was much higher and I figured it might be useful to looking into the S-corp designation with the IRS. What is the deadline for filing this designation and still be able to use it for my 2016 income? If I file it for this year, do I have to continue with the S-corp designation for future years?

Any general rules of thumb for how to determine wage vs dividend for a house flipping business?

I asked my current tax guy a number of these questions but he wasn't "familiar" with them.  I think it's time to start shopping around for a new tax guy/gal that is well versed in real estate tax preparation.  Any suggestions for tax professionals/CPAs/etc?

I experience this kind of thing a lot. For me only a few are people who don't qualify financially.  Most of the ones for me are people who have pets that are wanting to rent my no pet property.  I put "NO PETS" about 3 times throughout my ad and I still get a ton of requests from people with pets that want me to make an exception.

I used to show the property to anyone who had interest.  I found myself wasting a bunch of time on people I didn't ultimately want.  Then, I would show the property to anyone who replied to my online ad who said they qualified.  I would find myself doing showings and the people would say something like...."we love the house and want to rent it, but..." and then tell me they don't meet the income requirement, credit score requirement or even more often that they have a pet they want me to consider on a no pet property.  Again a huge waste of time. 

So now I call each online prospect and go through a list of questions and re-iterate my requirements before I ever agree to do a showing.  Doing this has weeded out a ton of people who would not qualify.  I spend a bit more time on the phone, but for me that is much better than wasting my time driving and doing the showing for no reason.

One of the other problems I used to have was people scheduling a showing, but not showing up.  I got tired of this pretty quickly so now I always reconfirm with them the night before (usually by text) or tell them to contact me 1 hour before the showing.  If they don 't reconfirm in one of these two ways I don't show up.

Thanks @Jim Adrian.  I'll look up the EPA information.

Thanks @Lora P.  I'm thinking along the same lines as you.  

Thanks for the idea @Max T.  I'd be interested to know if that makes any difference legally.

@Matthew Paul - not sure how I feel about raising rent even if taxes do go up a bit.  I'll have to think on that some more.  Thanks

Hey Randy, welcome to BiggerPockets. I do real estate Investments over on the other side of the county near Hudson. Call me if you ever want to talk about investing.

Hi Brian,

I invest in the Somerset, Hudson & New Richmond areas mostly.  Mainly doing fix and flips, but rentals as well.

Let me know if you have questions about the area.

Nathan