All Forum Posts by: Ben Skove

^^^ This. I took a morning off to sit in on the municipal court handling evictions. It gave me a great idea of what to expect, how to come prepared, as well as just how landlord or tenant friendly the court was. The judge or magistrate generally has a lot of leeway within the legal parameters, so it's very well worth it to know which way your local court leans (though it often gets down to a judge by judge basis.)

Also, just because you don't have a lease right now doesn't mean that you can't put one into place, as long as you comply with your state's requirements on notice, etc.

Make a system for your various practices, then put it in writing. This will save you time, headaches, and energy. It will also save you legal trouble if, for instance, you have a fair housing complaint. Trust me - I know where you're coming from. I'm nowhere near to being as organized as I need to be, but don't put it off. Do it - now.

Thanks for all the hard work that y'all have put in. It's a great, great resource!

My understanding of the new IRS regulation to take effect Jan. 1, 2014, is that the "safe harbor for small taxpayers" regulation will allow qualifying taxpayers to avoid having to determine whether an expenditure is an improvement or a repair so long as the total amount spent (per building) is the lesser of $10,000 or 2% of its unadjusted basis. Is this correct?

Granted, 2% is pretty small potatoes for the types of SFRs I deal with, but some folks may find this beneficial.

@Steven Hamilton II , I'm tagging you as the go-to tax guy! :)

I apologize if this has been covered already - I wasn't able to find an older thread.

So sorry to hear about this, Jon. I'll keep you in my thoughts, and hope you'll let us know if there's something we can do to help.

It seems like if you feel the law is unfair, unjustified, or misapplied, there's a perfectly legal way to go about it - work to have the law changed.

I like @Joel Owens idea, where it's allowed - like the people dressed up at tax time.

I don't know about y'all, but saying "everybody does it!" doesn't hold any more water than when I used to try that on my mom.

I think that must be the proverbial pig in a poke!

I found my latest acquisition on craigslist. It was a FSBO; the seller had inherited her grandparent's house and was trying to get rid of it.

While it's not my primary means of finding deals, a simple search plugging in price range and pertinent keywords sometimes turns up something useful.

I would delve deeper into the "neighborhood". From my admittedly limited knowledge of the fracking boom, you can ask $3K in rent for a 3BR because of the current supply/demand situation. How long is oil/gas in this particular area of ND supposed to flow? As the fields mature, will the population drop?

You might have nothing to worry about, but on the other hand you'd hate to find out in five years that you were only able to ask 1K in rent.

Even though he's moved, mail your security deposit notice and other material to his last known address (i.e., your rental.) Generally, you're required to do this (depending on the state.) Endorse the envelope with "Address Service Requested". If there's a forwarding address, not only does the mail get forwarded to it, but you're notified as to the new address.

USPS Endorsements

I can't speak for longevity yet, as I've only had it down in a rental for about a year now, but during my maintenance walk-through last week I saw no problems.