All Forum Posts by: PJ M.

Just an opinion but wouldn't the fact that the LLC themselves were suing show an active, not passive, role in the management of the business? I self-manage so maybe I have the wrong expectation but if I had a PM I would expect them to be the ones suing to evict or whatever. Although I guess if I had to sue my PM for something, there would be an issue.

Where I am, claims are filed with the owners policy first. The owners policy covers up to the deductible of the master policy of the HOA. Payment from the master policy comes into play after that has been met. Where I have a condo, the deductible on the master policy is $10k.

Gotcha.  Sorry, my suggestions were for the future screening criteria as opposed to what to do now.  If you ran a credit report I'd just send the standard letter that they were denied based on information gathered from XXX credit reporting agency and that they can get a copy of that report by contacting XXX.  The standard credit denial letter.  What you don't want to do is go into details.  When you go into details you open yourself up to a lawsuit.

I'd also take a minute to circle back, come up with some written criteria that takes into account what you've learned you don't want from this (that's not discriminatory) and come up with a grading system for potential tenants.  Have a minimum criteria and a maximum.  Select the candidate that comes closest to the maximum.  

I agree with everyone else here.  I've got written criteria that I include as part of my application process.  Basically my application has a cover page that includes what would be considered an immediate denial.  I figure there is no sense in wasting time and money screening an applicant that won't pass.  Drug charges or charges that contain an act of violence are cause for an immediate denial.  

@Omar Johnson

In addition to the financial aspect think about the risk and personal peace of mind factors also.

I’m somewhat risk averse. I like comfort and for me that comfort is my home. At the end of the day I wouldn’t risk (and this is a very personal decision) the home life I have for my business. @Noel Felix III brings up good points that touch on it. For me my home is my sanctuary. It’s where I have the family life away from the business. It’s my “safe space” to decompress. You and your SO should both think about “home” and what it is to you each individually.

Having all that at risk where I could end up with not having that sanctuary would keep me up at night. I’d be too worried all the time. Now I have the pleasure of not being at the starting point and have a few properties so my perspective is different. However when I was starting out, I did keep business and personal funds completely separate. It helped me focus and kept me grounded to make sure that the business was working on its own without me getting emotional and using personal funds to feed something that should have been left to die.

@Angel Arr Thanks. My properties are in the near northeast section of the city, Tacony, Mayfair and Holmesburg. They're in my name so far but I am considering a deal with some class C- property and I'm thinking of moving those to an LLC.

Craigslist, at least in the Philly area, seems to have turned to real crap for finding local contractor/tradespeople for this type of work.  I've been looking for a few months and I've noticed a lot of clearinghouses that are advertising locally but are really just companies that are trying to act as middlemen for the contractors.  

They seem to also be trying to lock up the market and recruit anyone who advertises their services on Craigslist.  I've seen some local contractors put in their advertisement to not call them for subcontractor work.  I'm guessing that these middlemen companies are trying to lock up the local market and take their cut.

I popped in this thread because I was going to be posting today trying to find a contractor for a reno I've got coming up.  Not a full reno but a refresh of a property.  Flooring, kitchen skimcoat walls, paint, etc.  These clearnghouses are advertising local numbers but are not local at all.

@Gita Faust has great suggestions.  I can't stress two of her points enough.  Coming from an IT background keeping control of your documents and software is important.  Cloud providers and App providers come and go, both the free and paid ones.  You're data isn't always the first thing on their mind when they decide to fold.

Backup, backup, backup.  You realize how important it is once you don't have it.  I've read good things on Carbonite.  Personally I use Backblaze.  

@Angel ArrI'm working on moving from just a pass through managing everything myself to a LLC with property in it. Similarly I am from NJ with property in PA. Interested in how you plan on setting things up.

I only have a few rentals but I use Quicken.  Every property is set up as a "Project".  Every transaction is recorded to that project.  when i want specifics on a specific property I run a report on that specific project.  Transactions are downloaded automatically.   

Mileage I handle manually.  I have to pay a toll to get to my rentals so it's easy for me to track the mileage.  I just keep the toll receipts and I know the mileage for the trip depending on the bridge I went over.   I've been recently playing with IFTTT and using the GPS on the phone to automatically add information to a Google Spreadsheet for all my trips.  Not sure if I will move to that for tracking at some point in the future.