All Forum Posts by: Ronald Starusnak

Why would you hold the mortgage for someone who can't even pay their own rent? the government is not going to pay their "rent", interest, and lease option principal. Not mention, most lease options have a deposit and if they can afford a deposit they should not be eligible for section 8. They can't pay their rent and they aren't eligible for a mortgage, don't put yourself in that kind of position. Rent to own is an excellent strategy but it's not for individuals in the situations your tenants are in.

You will need two loans. If both properties are from the same owner, see about getting them combined into one parcel.

Nancy, I wanted to post again and I will be honest in saying I did not read every response in this thread. I think I can give you a pretty analytical,  unbiased take on the situation here. If your PM was scamming you, she would not intentionally fail to collect the late fee each month. I am a property manager in Upstate NY and we keep the late fee for reasons listed above. 

There is no reason for the PM to keep the deposit in trade for the late fee. If the PM kept the security deposit to cover the cost of un-collected late fees, that doesn't sound like a scam necessarily, it sounds like a bad PM was trying to ensure they were paid their balance. Taking the security deposit in exchange, if that is what happened is not the way to collect.

As for the pet fee, you need to be clear on the expectations between you and your PM. What were the pet fees for? Was your management company doing additional work to ensure there was minimal pet damage to the property? IE special landscaping care to prevent dead grass, forcing the tenant to obey leash laws, requiring copies of shots, and licensing of dogs, forcing tenant to have additional insurance for the dogs that protect you? I can tell you now that your typical policy does not cover you if a dog attacks someone. For the PM to keep the $25 fee is very reasonable. 

You had a tenant that paid late every single month by your own admission for at least 6 months and you're now expecting them to tell you the truth? I know late payments aren't indicative of a fibber but your tenant has every incentive to lie to you about the PM to paint themselves in a better light. 

It is hard to think clearly when you're thinking emotionally. Carefully read your contract, if anything I think this is more of a case of a disorganized manager, not one that is intentionally trying to scam anyone. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

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PS: Same deal with the security deposit. Do you know that is why they kept the security deposit? How do you know? If your tenant damaged your property more than what is covered by the deposit, your PM isn't responsible for that. You can sue the tenant for damages. 

Nancy, some property management companies keep the late fees for themselves to cover the additional overhead and manpower to collect rent. Letters, additional follow ups, site visits, etc. You should review your contract and see where the late fees were supposed to be sent.

Are we just meeting up or ordering food too? HAHA

Send her the number for a psychiatrist. 

Landon, I own a construction company and property management company in NY. I have seen that the largest problem most have is finding competent contractors to flip their properties. Let me know if you'd like to partner on a deal in the future perhaps, let me know what kind of construction you're familiar with. We run 16 guys right now and the toughest to find are good drywall finishers and good trim finishers. 

I am not a lawyer lol, I do not know the legality of what I recommended but in my case I went to the Syracuse IRS office and asked if I could do it and the guy told me it would be fine. I do EVERYTHING I can to not have money sitting around in the bank. There is always room for expansion of business or expansion of investments and most of those profits turned into expansions are tax write offs. 

Michael, I hate the requirement for tax reported income. We write off everything, office & equipment depreciation, office use, everything we can legally write of. This brings my taxable income pretty low, so when I was buying my own home and wanted a mortgage for it I had to intentionally NOT claim my deductibles. I ended up paying $30k in taxes just to be eligible for the mortgage. After we closed, I amended my tax returns to claim my deductible and I received a refund. 

I'd recommend having your partner talk to an accountant and see if they can take off their deductions, to essentially raise their taxable income / agi just so you can qualify for the REFI by amending the return, then after closing, amend it again and get a tax refund. 

@Louis Solomon, shoot me over a PM with property addresses and asking price please. Thanks!