All Forum Posts by: Mitch Kronowit

As an alternative to filling it in, consider building a deck over it. It would add a nice little feature for your tenants and it would be easy to restore the pond sometime in the future by simply removing the deck.

Here's a company that builds decks over unused swimming pools. Basically the same idea.

http://www.deckover.com/

Flooring with a pattern that resembles an upside-down pepperoni pizza sprayed with lukewarm beer should work nicely in your unit. ;-)

Second what Joel said. Your rental has to blend into the market it's competing in. I don't bother putting granite countertops in my lower middle-class rentals because the prospective tenants aren't going to pay extra for it. Sure, they'd like and appreciate some fancy upgrades, but their primary concern is a clean functional place at a good price.

OTOH, my higher end "white-collar" type rentals come with carpet, wood floors, and appliances. Why? Because that's what the customer expects. A middle-class renter pulling down $50k/year is going to consider a place without a garbage disposal and a big hole where the dishwasher should be a "dump" and go elsewhere. One unit of mine comes complete with a stacked washer-dryer, refrigerator, and an over-the-range microwave in addition to the range, dishwasher, and garbage disposal. Not only has the unit rented quickly over the last ten years, I get around $50-75/month extra because of the amenities. That comes to at least $600/year extra that easily covers the 5-year life span disposal, 7-year dishwasher and 10-year washer-dryer/microwave. Of course there's also the additional indirect gains from low vacancies and higher quality tenants that are more difficult to place a price on.

Interesting question. My guess (emphasize guess) is any funds you personally disbursed are considered a capital contribution. Once your LLC makes money and has retained earnings, you can take a draw to "pay back" what you contributed. The sticky part is where you place all these payments on your tax return.

All my tenants pay their own utilities with the exception of one rental condo where water and trash are included in the HOA fees.

I had a run-in with one of those demonic creatures in my Perdido Beach condo during my navy days. It was walking across my ceiling and I knocked it to the floor with a broom. It immediately righted itself and, I KID YOU NOT, it came at me!!!

Good thing I still had the broom. Had my .223 rifle not been 20 feet away, I would have used that!

You forgot:

Mosquitos the size of turkeys,
Snowbirds who wear socks with sandals, and
Everglade rednecks that make Ozark hillbillies look like members of The Royal Thames Yacht Club.

Just closed on a short-sale using my uDirect administered SDIRA.

Let me ask the ol' CPA about that Ryan. :-)

Thanks Sharad. I'll give them a call. It looks like most of their cars are down at Rice University. That may be tough to reach from Houston Intercontinental. Our CEO's wife is a professor at Rice. Maybe I'll ask if she can pick up my butt from the airport every week! ;-)