All Forum Posts by: Noam Birnbaum

Hi folks,

A family member owns a very large home in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's really an amazing property: Six bedrooms, 6,000 square feet, with a heated pool and a stunning landscape and views. It's an easy commute into San Francisco via either car or BART.

The municipality in which it's located does not allow short-term vacation rentals that are less than 30 days in duration.

They've been renting it on AirBnb with moderate success, but most AirBnb users are looking for shorter stays.

They've also noticed that the guests who treat the place well, are willing to pay full price, most enjoy their stays, and leave the best reviews are corporate guests who are in town for short-term business opportunities.

Where would you recommend marketing this property to attract more short-term corporate guests for stays of 30+ days?

Thanks! :-)

Hey folks,

I'd like to ask tenant applicants to go through an online credit check and background check process, which they would pay for. I would want the reports to be delivered to me so that I can select which applicants to show the unit to.

I would want all of this to happen before I even correspond with the applicant.

What platforms are best for this?

Thanks!

Thanks for those names @Drew Sygit

Hey y'all,

I've been running a small (non-R.E.) business for many years, so I'm no stranger to what it takes to manage a small business's finances. I'm also no stranger to Quickbooks, because that's what I've used for decades.

But, there are some unique details about R.E. that make me wonder if there's a better option besides Quickbooks.

If a landlord holds multiple properties and each one is in its own LLC, you probably should use a separate Chart of Accounts for each LLC in order to avoid piercing the corporate veil. (In Quickbooks Windows, this would mean a separate data file for each.)

And yet, there are portfolio-wide considerations that you want to take into account: Some expenses will be spread across multiple properties (for example, your BP and Rentometer membership fees, right?). 

Also, while you should regularly run reports for each property to determine your profitability and cash positions, I also want to run portfolio-wide reports to view aggregate trends for the entire portfolio. And so, keeping each property in a separate Chart of Accounts might not be convenient.

Got any thoughts on this? What do you use to manage a portfolio of multiple LLCs? How do you keep your cash and your books separate, but make it easy to view aggregate portfolio data? How do you arrange things to keep the corporate veil whole?

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I'm preparing to close a couple deals in the next month, and will be immediately putting those units under the care of an outsourced property manager.

All the R.E. books I've read talk a lot about the purchasing process, and about the property management process.

But I've never seen a comprehensive punchlist of everything that should happen right after closing, when the keys are fresh in hand, in order to transition a property from escrow into property management -- especially when there are pre-existing tenants and leases. The PM needs to become familiar with both the property and the tenant without having actually placed the tenant.

Do you have such a checklist, or just tips, you'd be willing to share?

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I'm starting to make my rental units available for Section 8 tenants.

Based on the research I've done, it seems that a standard credit check might not always be appropriate; after all, many Section 8 tenants simply won't have stellar credit. However, in the case of Section 8, this isn't necessarily a good reason to deny them tenancy.

I have read of some landlords actually going over to visit the Section 8 applicant's current home, to ensure they treat their living spaces well. I'm uncomfortable with this because it seems rudely intrusive. (Is it even legal?) It's also a significant amount of additional work for my property manager.

Do you have other suggestions for how to do a good background check for Section 8?

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I'm closing my second small MFH in the Detroit region. My first deal was in the burbs, and the insurance broker who helped me insure that place can't give me a competitive rate on my second property because it's in Detroit itself.

It's a duplex, investment property. I won't be living there.

Can you recommend the brokers and carriers who have gotten you your best insurance policies in Detroit?

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I have a few properties that I plan to put into LLCs. 

I'll put each property into a separate LLC.

How much liability insurance does each LLC need, if it has no assets other than the property itself and cash reserves?

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I have 2 doors in Rochester and am planning to add another 2 to 6 doors over the next few months.

Seeking an experienced property manager who leverages online tools for management. I'm an out of state investor.

Thanks!

Hey folks,

How do you recommend I vet my property manager?

My situation is complicated by the fact that I’m an out of state investor. For example, I need to know that the new water heater actually got installed but I can’t go look.

Thanks!