All Forum Posts by: Mike M.

Lead paint and asbestos are two more that come to mind.

Congratulations. I've learned a lot from your posts here, and 123flip is one of the best resources on house flipping I've found.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not an attorney, and I welcome corrections to my understanding:

If law allows it, I've read that it is recommended to insert a "joint and several liability" clause into your lease. The short story being that every lessee will be held responsible for the entire rent. You can pursue any judgments in your favor against any lessee, and then it would be up to the lessees to sue each other to establish liability for paying the judgment. Should you just have a "joint liability" clause, one (or more) lessees could skip town and you'd have to sue them to recover the lost money.

This question lumps the quality and applicability of all degrees together. In addition to the technical aspects of a degree, many cirriculums force a student to manage time, set priorities, schedule, sacrifice, etc. These qualities are essential to success. Some are born with these skills; many have to build them, and college can be a great place to do so. Plus, I would guess for every successful dropout there are thousands who aren't. My engineering degree, while not teaching me jack about real estate, refined some of the key skill sets that I believe will make me successful in my real estate endeavor. Plus it's not a bad day job.

Mike

When I pick up my first rental, I was going to have a document similar to yours that the tenants sign. Even if there are no negative legal ramifications using the PM's document, proving the tenants signed off on the condition of the alarms in the event there is an issue could be a big plus. A consult with an attorney may also be beneficial.

[i]What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures by Frank Gallinelli. Comes with access to a spreadsheet that codifies many of the calculations in the book.

I was also advised to treat it like a business. I've got a binder where I keep all company related infrastructure - Certificate of Formation, Registered Agent, Operating Agreement, Meeting Minutes, Business Plan, etc. I will likely add company procedures in here when I finish writing them. The main takeaway being that I really want it to look like a business and not a hobby.

The financial accounting piece is also critical. My CPA advised me (since I plan on being a small scale investor when I get going) to just keep track of property expenses in a ledger. I've yet to buy a property, so I've yet to reconcile the best way to keep track of property expenses and manage the checking account. One of the many reasons I'm on this site!