All Forum Posts by: Shari B.

Inspiring story, @Jean Brune! Thanks for sharing it.

Congrats @Alex Martinez! Sounds like a good deal and you must be handy to have done all that work.

I use Innago for two of my properties. It's free, handles rent payments/reminders/late fees, maintenance requests, some reporting (e.g., P&L), tracking expenses and income, rental listings, lease signing, etc. It works great for me with only two properties. I'll continue using it when I add new properties until I find something that I need that it can't do. My other property is in another state and has a property manager. You have lots of other choices in the free and paid space. Good luck!

I’m purchasing an investment property in the Atlanta, Georgia area. The original owner has a ton of exemptions so she only pays $400/ year on property taxes. Without the exemptions the bill is $4,000+. Tax bills have already been sent out (I own another property in the same area and I’ve already received my bill). My question is twofold:

1. This far into the tax year, will the property tax due in October be recalculated for the new buyer or does the new buyer pay the old taxes for this year? I know they’ll go up next year.

2. I am purchasing the property from a company that is purchasing from the original owner (the lady with the exemptions). We are doing a back to back closing. If the property tax is expected to increase for the new owner, should the company making the purchase from the original owner reflect the higher tax amount on the ALTA in my transaction? That is, should the ALTA in my transaction reflect a credit from my seller for half of the anticipated new taxes or half the old taxes?

Thanks

Hi it looks like you are getting some help in this section, but to answer your question, you can post them to the "Real Estate Deal Analysis & Advice" forum. In the left navigation on the forums, it's listed under "Reviews and Feedback". Good luck!

Thanks for updating the link! Looks interesting! It's more than I need at this point, but if I had to do a full construction project or a flip, I'd definitely use it.

I use Monday.com for lots of things and am trying it out as an inexpensive alternative to Google sheets. It does all the things you mentioned you'd like. It's not purpose built for construction and I'm not sure it has any integration with Quick Books. 

You can create a board for each renovation project and view tasks in a table, GANTT chart, calendar, Kanban, etc. I'm using a board to track a light reno on a new property and it's working well for me. You can also create automations, like when a task has been completed, move it to  completed projects area, other automations, integration with other software. 

They have a free plan that I use and I can include 1 more person on my team. I have another account where we are using it to manage operations for a website and I'm thinking about getting a pro subscription so that I can have the whole team use it.

I don't know much about TSPs, but instead of withdrawing early and incurring taxes and penalties, can you convert it to a self-directed IRA? That way, you could legally use the money in the account to purchase investments such as real estate, etc. Obviously do a ton of research before taking this step and get some professional advice to make sure you are following all the rules. Good luck, Tanjaree!

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Shari B.:

I am shopping around for a cash out refi on a rental property and have a couple of very good prospects. Conventional loan, excellent credit and reserves, nothing owed on the property and the property is seasoned. One of the mortgage companies has approved me, subject of course to an appraisal. They want me to sign something that lets them start the title search. Is that customary? I mean, I'm not sure if I want to go with this lender yet, as I'm still waiting for the conditional approval from another lender who might come with better terms. If I let the first lender start the title search am I bound to go through with the mortgage with this lender? The broker that I am talking to says that this is standard.

Let's say it is standard and it doesn't bind me to go forward. Should I feel bad if the lender spends the money on the title search and I don't use them? Thanks!

We have favorite title & escrow companies in each of the communities we buy in. So, we incur little if any cost on prelims. It is slightly different. However, you may be charged for a title search, but it does not bind you to doing business with them or that lender.

When you buy bread, if you don't like what is being offered at one store, you can put the loaf back on the shelf and go to another store.  It's the same with loans.

On a $400,000 loan for 30 years, a 1/4% interest difference costs you something like $23,000 in frozen costs not to mention that you could be investing that money along the way.
Here are some of the companies owner by Fidelity National

All of the major title companies get their titles through 

FIDELITY NATIONAL TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY

and their list is something akin to 

And on it goes. 

 This is very helpful and enlightening. You make a good point about the cost of interest! I feel a bit better. Thanks

 Thanks! It seems like such a little thing. I've done refis before, even one on a different rental property. However, you know what I've never done until this ref? SHOP! So it was never an issue before; I just went forward once I got an approval.