All Forum Posts by: Bettina F.

Is there growth occurring in your area? Have you been attending County Council meetings, is there a growth plan that you can review? My residence is also on 5 acre minimum parcels, but with the growth that is occurring in my area, I anticipate the zoning will be changing. Higher density housing will be going in. You should also look at the taxes you pay on the land and the value of the timber on the land you are leasing out. Will your lease allowing logging? You may end up with a piece of logged out land that is worth considerably less than what you have now.

Yes. I can't recall the line number. but there is a line for misc business expenses.

I agree with the Allure floors. If these are truly slumlord condition, just cleaning, new paint and floors will make a huge difference. We install the 2 inch faux wood blinds, curved shower curtain rods, white appliances (easy to match). New light fixtures are a relatively cheap DIY upgrade. Do the cleaning, floors and painting first. You may not need as much of a remodel as you think.

Idaho LL here, not Washington. But your only recourse is to sue in small claims once the SD is used. But then you have to collect. There are some services where you can report to collections and ding the tenants credit. This is why I believe term leases benefit the tenant over the LL. We only do month to month and focus on making our units easy to turn over.

At least in the Seattle market, American Homes for Rent do not take good care of their landscaping.  Judging by the photos of available houses for rent, they do a good job of maintaining their interiors, but I would not want to live next door to their dead lawn rentals. 

Got a notice from a tenant on Saturday that her bathroom sink was leaking.  My husband and I went over Sunday afternoon to take a look and assess the situation.  The pop-up sink drain assembly was loose and leaking.  My husband was going to call a plumber on Monday -- but I encouraged him to try the repair ourselves.  We disconnected the drain assembly and the J pipe, and took it to the local hardware store.  We were able to purchase a new assembly, washer and plumber's putty.  We returned to the apartment and did the repair in 20 minutes.  Cost : $27  in supplies and our time. 

But what have we really gained?  We have a happy tenant -- because the problem was fixed within 24 hours.  We avoided the cost of a plumber on Sunday, and the hassle of scheduling and waiting for the plumber.  But we have 6 units in this building -- with 6 bathroom sinks all of a similar age and construction.  If one has failed, the other 5 are probably not far behind.  So now we are alerted to a potential problem in our building and have the  skills-- and some of the supplies - to make the repair.  With the next inspection or turn over, we will be alert to the problem and come armed with an extra drain assembly and plumber's putty, in addition to the smoke detector batteries and light bulbs.  We will get more efficient as the repair is done,  What took us 20 minutes yesterday will probably be done in 10 minutes, next time.

Had we simply hired this task out, we would have out much more than the plumber's fee. 

We do the same. Our apartment building is in the name of our LLC. Checks are both paid and received in the name of the LLC. We sign rental agreements with our name followed by the LLC name.

Originally posted by @Daniel Peavey:

Work all that overtime

Buy cheap

And after work the real work begins

It’s hard hard hard

Stop making it sound easy

YES!  I would not be where I am today if I had not worked lots of OT as a nurse in my 20s and 30s.  People look down on the hourly worker, and often have elaborate plans for "side hustles" -- but if you can get paid OT wages, you will make a lot more for just doing what you already know.  At one period of my life, I routinely worked 60 hour weeks, lived on my OT and banked my regular salary.  That is how you grow cash to start investing.

There are many posts here on Bigger Pockets from young wannabe investors who have no cash, no or bad credit, and jobs they don't like.   They want to know how to get started.  Well, you get started by rolling up your sleeves, getting to work on time, and asking your boss for extra shifts.  Get known as the guy or gal that can be counted on to come in on short notice when another worker calls in sick.  Be willing to take on extra projects with a smile.  Brown nose a bit.  Pay down your debt, bank your cash.  In six months or a year (which will fly by when you are working OT) you will have a nice nest egg to start investing.

But this unglamorous, not sexy strategy would not make a good podcast or sell a book.   

Originally posted by :

I love the advice.  Lately I have found myself with paralysis of the analysis.  I find what I think are good deals and then start to analyze, go through worst case scenario, and in the mean time the deal already has an offer on it.    

Quit looking for the great deal.  Look for a fair deal and you will be fine.

I believe you have an opportunity to ethically position yourself as the "go-to" broker for multifamily in your area.  When we bought our building in 2013, we did not go with the friendly agent who sold us our residence -- we went with a commercial broker who marketed himself as "the apartment broker".   He taught us so much in the time we worked with him -- and found us a property that will serve as well in our retirement planning for young retirees who self manage.  He provided worksheets for evaluating deals and taught us about due diligence.  He was NOT just trying to make a quick sell off of us.  He also gives the multifamily talk at the annual RE outlook day long seminar that his brokerage puts on.  He continued to answer our calls when we had LLing questions and I continue to refer people to him.