All Forum Posts by: Pinaki M.

I own a small commercial building. The units are suitable for very small businesses, like small office, hair salon, etc. I recently had a bad experience with a tenant (always late with their rent payment and finally left with some rent unpaid), but to be honest, I didn't really do any sort of screening on them before they had moved in. So, I would like to know what are some ways I can screen such tenants.

I'm guessing many people will suggest looking at numbers showing how their business is performing. While I agree with this, keep in mind that most of these businesses that would look for space in that area would be small sole proprietor type business, likely serving the lower income population and doing cash transactions. Or many are just starting out.  So I doubt how many of them can furnish things like income statement or other records.

Given this, what are some things I should still look for, or what are some questions I should ask them?

Thanks in advance.

I have recently created a Solo 401(K) for a business A. This is the only business that I have so far and it only hires contractors. Now I am thinking about starting another business B. However, for business B I might have to hire W-2 employees (for example, this business can be a restaurant, or a hair salon, etc where people work on a daily basis). If that happened, can I still continue having the Solo 401(K) account for business A? Or does having employees for business B disqualify me from having a Solo 401(K) for business A too?

If yes, is there any way to work around that? I was wondering if I had a trust created (with me as trustee) and this trust is the sole member of the LLC corresponding to business B, then if that will help to continue the 401(K) for business A. Will that work? If not, then any other ideas? Note that it's not a requirement for me that I have to be able to create Solo 401(K) for business B, but at the least, I want to continue the Solo 401(K) for business A.

Thank you.

@Sovat C.

No, it wasn't leased to the food truck. So I won't be able to provide much help on that.

@Michele B. How do I know how much they had in sales? Any better way than just taking their word for it?

@Joe M. Could you elaborate a bit on "most people charge 10% of the money made for the parking fee"?

Also, I am not sure what the parking fees are. Any way to (kind of) convert the rate for the building to the rate for parking/food truck operation?

I got someone interested in leasing space in one part of the parking lot of a commercial property than I own. He wants to run a food truck there. I had never thought about this until this person (who I don't know) approached me about this. The property I own has several units and they usually have people in there only on certain days/hours of the week (most are occupied by small ministries). I am wondering, is it a good idea to rent out some part of the parking lot (preferably a part not used by cars) for this? Any downside with doing this? Any general idea on how much I should be charging?

Anyone here that rents space to food trucks?

@J Scott @Brian Pulaski @Andrew Kerr

Sorry if it wasn't very clear from my post. I am not paying him separately for materials. I am supposed to pay him a lump sum that will cover both materials and labor. Is it still OK to ask for some of the materials receipts in this case?

The only reason I want to see the receipts is to make sure he is not doing something completely wrong (like using sub-standard or old materials that he might have in stock, or using materials from his other jobs). And only for the big items like kitchen cabinets, bathroom stuff, flooring, etc.

Yes, I would have preferred that I provide the materials and he charges me for labor only, but this particular contractor doesn't want to do it that way.

One of the houses that I own needs a fairly large rehab work (remodel bathroom, kitchen, replace floor/subfloor in some parts of the house, bring electrical up to code, new HVAC, etc.). I have never done a rehab before and finding it quite difficult to find a contractor for a reasonable price. One of the contractors gave me a quote that seems OK so far (not the lowest one I received). I am required to pay him for both material and labor. However, when I asked if he could show me receipts for the material he buys (at least the big ones like cabinets, bathroom stuff, etc.), he said he does not do that. The house itself is a low priced house in a lower income area, so I am not expecting expensive or high-end materials. Nevertheless, it doesn't give me a lot of confidence not knowing what materials are being used and where they are being sourced from. Is this something common that a lot of contractors do? Am I being reasonable in asking him for the receipts? 

(Btw, any suggestions on how I can find a good contractor?)

Thanks @Steven D. I will look into state standard purchasing agreements. However, I am still not clear about #2 - that is, in a deal if it is possible for only one party to be represented by his/her realtor and the other party to not use a realtor. Let me use another example. If I am buyer who does not have a realtor and the seller has one (listing agent), then the seller's realtor will represent both parties. In this case, do I the buyer have a choice of not using his service?

Yet another example is the case when the buyer is a wholesaler/investor and a realtor himself. If he approaches a seller and offers a below market price, I have heard that he has to tell the seller what the fair market price would be. In this case, it seems like he is also acting as the agent for the seller (otherwise what obligation does he have to protect the seller's interest by telling him the fair market price).

You might still be right, but I am trying to understand how the above cases add up then.

Hello, I have never bought any REO property before, so I was wondering if it makes sense to use a realtor to do it? What I mean is, I have found a REO property myself (without realtor involved yet) and talked to the bank who is selling it. They told me that they don't use realtor and will not pay any commission if I was using one on my side (which means I will have to pay for that). My questions are

(1) If I don't want to use a realtor and were to make an offer myself, how do I do it?

(2) If I was using a realtor to represent me, wouldn't that realtor also represent the seller (since they said they don't have one)? I mean, this is how it works for FSBO, right? So why is it different in the case of REO?

Thanks.