All Forum Posts by: Nicholas W.

 That law is usually for managing properties that aren't yours. You can manage your own property and I don't see any issue introducing yourself as the property manager.

As Jeff mentioned above what you'll need is to file for a DBA (Doing Business As, also known as a fictitious name.) You can do this at your local courthouse. With that you can open a business bank account in that name so you can deposit checks made out to that name.

The previous landlord really should have had the tenant fill out a property condition report prior to them taking occupancy. You can check if the previous landlord did that and if they have a copy of it. Without that there really is no way to prove the move in condition and it becomes a he said/she said. I am not sure what the law is in Connecticut but in Wisconsin you can not ever hold back cleaning expenses as they are considered normal wear and tear.

 Emily, yes it is a small local bank with just 3 branches in the Milwaukee area.

 Shawn,

Using it worked fine. Since using it though I recently attended Tristan Pettit's Landlord Bootcamp put on by the Apartment Association of Southeast Wisconsin where this very subject was brought up. It was his opinion that requiring applicants to use Smartmove at their expense would be indefensible if it came to it since it was more than the $20 limit. It sounded like the best (most legally defensible) thing would be to take the $20 and then pay the fee yourself and eat the difference.

@George Despotopoulos in my case it was borrower income.

Just closed on a SFR income property loan at 4.125% on a 30 year fixed with 20% down and no points.

My personal house had a similar issue. I bolted some 2x10's to both sides and put composite decking over the top and then skirted the sides to hide the stoop. That alone doesn't look like it would be enough to make up for the height difference(the decking only adds about an inch) so you might need to add some 2x4's to the surface of the stoop in addition to the 2x10's on the side and screw the decking on top of those.

So two things, first of all shop around. I've never heard of such an exclusion and there are millions of homes with cast iron drain pipes. Second of all, as Wayne mentioned the sewer lines have nothing to do with water pressure. They are only used for drains and typically leaks in drains start very small and if monitored closely are less likely to cause major damage than a supply line.

If your cash flow numbers included things like vacancy, repairs and maintenance, etc then your numbers look good to me. On the first one I calculated 9% cash on cash return and 11% on the second deal. Either way that is pretty good. Now if your cash flow numbers are figured using piti as the only expense the profits are probably pretty slim.

Spending a lot on the rehab just reduces your unexpected capital expenditures as time goes on. I see that as a good thing as long as you aren't replacing things that have significant useful life left.

Your estimates for Cap ex and Repairs seems a little low. Insurance seems low too but maybe that is what it goes for in your area. 

Take a look at the following blog for reference: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/10/1...