All Forum Posts by: Anna M.

@James Dickens, thank you for the great tips! :)

Carbon Monoxide Detectors – Follow on to the discussion, “Do You Provide Carbon Monoxide Detectors?”

Where should I place them?  How many should I have?  Plug in or battery operated or both?  What say you?  Check out this link.  

https://www.lincolncounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/7767

Like many, I have the smoke, CO combo detectors, but is this adequate?  They are currently placed in every bedroom, hallway, living room and kitchen.  But how many of us stop to think about just where the CO detect should go?  I have had them on the ceiling all this time, but is that the correct location or should you have a backup, knee height?Special thanks to @Matt Shields for starting the discussion.  I did not want to hijack his post so decided to start a follow up discussion on placement of these safety features.

Side note- Water alarms:  How many of you have water alarms?  I find them extremely reassuring to have especially with a basemen unit.  Place them by the toilet, under the bathroom/kitchen sink, water heater, anywhere, there is potential for water leaks.  They are noisy too, but that's when you thank the heavens!

Fire Extinguisher:  Do you have one?  What kind is sufficient for your rental? I do the ABC + the kitchen fire kind, is this overkill?  What would you do for your property?  How often do you check them?  Once every 6 months for me.  Overkill?

Fair enough. So as suggested, familiarize yourself with the local laws and when in doubt check with a real estate attorney and/or directly with the county/city. That being said there may be others here at BP that are from Dallas, Texas that may help shed some light.

Fair enough.  So as suggested, familiarize yourself with the local laws and when in doubt check with a real estate attorney and/or directly with the county/city.  That being said there may be others here at BP that are from Dallas, Texas that may help shed some light.

Not sure I understand what your question is exactly.  If it is compliance as relates to landlord-tenant laws, simply read up on that, why would you need someone's seal of approval?  If it is compliance as relates to city/county code, then go to the city/county and have them come out and inspect.  Only word of caution for you is be careful what you ask for.  In the end, you should be following code and if you are, then I am not sure why you need an inspection, but perhaps those in Texas can explain better as I am unfamiliar with Texas laws as it relates to rental properties.  A local real estate attorney too in the end would also be a good place to start before opening up a can of worms seeking inspections.  Cheers!

@Oscar Macal I see you referencing cost to set up an LLC. Unless I am mistaken and/or you are seeking an attorney to set it up for you, you can set it up for yourself for a fee of about $25 (Colorado) and annual reports cost $10. I believe the fee would not be that much off in TX so overall you are looking at Less than $50 to set it up. Then keep up with your annual reports, but you can simply have email alerts sent to you so you do not forget.

Registered agent LLC rules vary slightly from state to state. For the precise rules in your state, consult the website of the state agency that handles business filings. I have heard best not to list yourself if you are seeking anonymity. I however set it up myself and just have myself. I do not however, ever put down my physical address, I prefer to use a P.O. Box just to protect my home address/privacy. All in all, an LLC can be set up without exorbitant attorney fees, but if you feel much better you can certainly and should certainly have an attorney help you with setting it up.

Utilities?  Contact the utility company and let them know you are the landlord and would like to be put on the account as 3rd party, they will send you a form and handle it that way.  I use Xcel Energy for my Gas/Electric so that was set up that way.  Water is already in my name.  I use the RUBS system to split up utilities.  You do want to check if you can use the system in your state, I've heard people say the RUBS system does not apply to all states, I did not bother to research which as I invest only in one state at the moment and that was what I focused on.

Asset protection: Yes ideally to get full asset protection you would need to transfer the property to the LLC, but be careful with that as you could trigger the due on sale clause. There is a lot of debate on this issue and some don't care for the risk, Personally I do, so I am careful not to and often when you have to refinance the banks most times not always, will ask you to remove the property out of the LLC. I use insurance to help cover me and the LLC I like the formality.

Utilities in your name?  Not necessary, but I always add myself onto the account as a backup to the account to ensure that utilities remain on and especially the heat to keep pipes from freezing.  This is especially useful should you have a tenant that fails to pay utilities on time leaving the utility company wanting to turn off utilities.  I will pay it, but believe me I will pass it onto them plus any late fees.  Thankfully that has not happened.

Background checks, I use RSI Tenant screening but I also use cozy.com for my rents so I suppose I could use cozy for my screening needs too. 

Advertising:  You have a good path.  Zillow will advertise on its sister sites Hotpad and Trulia as well as other random sights.  I would add on Cozy and Nextdoor.  Never hurts to be all out there.  Craigslist yes.  Despite the issues that craigslist has had with scams, people still go there to find what they need.

Rent payments:  Skip the mail or personally going there to collect setup.  Use an online tool.  It is convenient, saves you time and should you start eviction proceedings, you can simply put a stop on collecting rents to avoid messing up your eviction process. 

LLC: Good idea to have as well as Rental Property Insurance and some kind of umbrella policy if needed. Advertising, yes I advertise as LLC, my leases have the LLC name and I have an LLC bank account where all rents get deposited by the 3rd party (cozy.com). Keeping the rents coming to you? Why? If you want a professional approach, why would you do it that way? Just curious?

Who is responsible for extremely high water bill?  All including property management company.  Split it 3 ways (each duplex 1/3rd and management 1/3rd).  That will trigger more vigilance and ownership going forward.

I really don't understand the seller's reaction, is this some kind of seller remorse?  Why should she care?  So on that point does anyone know if it would present a similar issue if I used photos currently on Zillow to run an ad for one of the units in 5 months?  I am inheriting the tenants but for 5 months only as they want to purchase a home, so I will be advertising the unit they move out of.  The photos are beautiful and am of the idea, "why recreate the wheel?"  Any thoughts on this one?  We have not closed yet, should I be asking for permission to use?  Sorry @Justin Stephens, I don't mean to hijack your post,  its just that your post has triggered a related thought/questions.