All Forum Posts by: Roy C.

I posted CL for my rental, and so far I haven't had any inquiry yet (it's been two weeks). On my post, I included following section

"If you are interested, please send email/text to this craigslist post with following question answered.
1. Your name
2. Your email
3. Your phone number
4. How many people will be living in this house?
5. What is your earliest moving-in date?

6. What is the best way to get in touch with you? (email, text, or phone)"

Do you think I should eliminate this part or keep it? 

Also, any recommendation on any other site for uploading rental post beside CL and zillow?

I have a property with extensive water damage on parquet hardwood flooring as shown below.  The property is about 1000 sq ft and I have three water damaged spots like the one shown in the pic.  The hardwood is lay on top of concrete slab, and this is a ranch singly family house. 

What I am trying to do is lay vinyl plank flooring. Originally, I was trying to lay on top of parquet hardwood but found this water damaged part. So looks like I can take different paths:

1. Rip out entire parquet hardwood and lay vinyl plank flooring

2. Somehow figure out how to repair the parts that's damaged and lay vinyl plank flooring

3. Somehow figure out how to repair the parts that's damaged, and refinish hardwood flooring

Which option do you recommend?

I am kind of in a similar situation. I have never seen so many roaches in my life. I can see roaches running away on carpet when I walk around inside of house.. Not sure how previous tenants lived in a condition like this. 

Thankfully, my tenants moved out so I am dealing with a vacant house with roach infestation issue. I am currently roach bomb, spray, and bait trap from Raid. My next step is to use advion cockroach gel bait and more roach bomb. If these don't work, I will probably end up hiring an exterminator. I am planning to get rid of carpet, cabinet, etc and install new ones. 

I had a similar question couple of years ago which can be found in this forum:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/519/topics/18...

Everybody's situation is different, but what I ended up doing is contribute 401k to match employer benefit and also contribute IRA Roth to max.

As people in this post mention, you are leaving free money on table if you don't take advantage of matching. Once you take advantage of matching, you can use various resource to further optimize your portfolio such as taking loan against your existing 401k or roll into self-direct account if you decide to leave your employer. 

IRA Roth is a no brainer for me, since you can take out your principal anytime you want to. You just can't take out gains, and as i understand it, you can't contribute back the principal you have taken out. So i basically have a personal saving account with 8-10% return (in a long term).

And i still contribute my main resource toward real estate. I think having that 401k and IRA Roth account grow along side of REI gives you cushion just in case REI doesn't work out and they also offer different tools/options for your portfolio. And you still have some option to contribute nonREI portfolio toward REI portfolio in future. Again, what may be makes sense for me may not work/make sense to you.

Good luck and happy hunting!

@David Rosenberg, Interesting. I am actually in the process of learning QuickBooks right now. I am still brainstorming how to implement it correctly. I am currently planning to use Desktop pro version. With your method, do you think Desktop pro is adequate to handle one bank account with different categories of transaction? Or are you using online one?

Hello BP.

I would like to know how do you set up your bank account for rental, specifically for efficiency.

Here is how mine is set up, and any feed back or tip is welcome:

Three accounts

1. Trust account for security deposit - as name says it all, this account is exclusively for tenant security deposit only and independent from other accounts. The money flow in this account should be minimum.

2. An account for acquisition fee and rental collection - this account contains down payment for properties and monthly rental collection from tenants. # of transactions on this account should be highest among three accounts. In future, I may consider separate this account into two: acquisition account and rental collection account. 

3. An account for operation and maintenance - this account contains day-to-day operation and maintenance cost such as repair, insurance, property tax, income tax if any, and CapEx. Certain % of account (2) will be allocated to here monthly. Adequate amount of # transaction is expected.

This is all just theory. Now my question is to you is following:

How do you efficiently allocate O&M and CapEx cost? Do you manually allocate certain % every month? Is there software that helps allocation process?

Do you have any recommendation on property insurance company that covers property with LLC in title?

I currently have Amica right now, and it sounds like their policy covers my primary residence and rental under same policy, which defeats the purpose of having LLC. I want to find an insurance company that offers policy which separates rental from my personal items.

Thanks!

Just for an update, the closing attorney successfully corrected the deed before DD expired. Wheww...

Thank you for your feedback!

@Wayne Brooks

Ah. Completely forgot about the most important document....

"Seller's Failure to Comply or Breach: If Seller fails to materially comply with any of Seller's obligations under this Paragraph 8 or Seller materially breaches this Contract, and Buyer elects to terminate this Contract as a result of such failure or breach, then the Earnest Money Deposit and the Due Diligence Fee shall be refunded to Buyer and Seller shall reimburse to Buyer the reasonable costs actually incurred by Buyer in connection with Buyer's Due Diligence without affecting any other remedies."

And paragraph 8 indicates:

Seller shall execute and deliver a GENERAL WARRANTY DEED for the Property in recordable form no later than Settlement, which shall convey fee simple marketable and insurable title, without exception for mechanics’ liens,and free of any other liens, encumbrances or defects

Thanks for the reminder!

I am in a tricky situation, and I want to hear your insight. Any feedback is welcome.

I have a property under contract, and tomorrow is the last day of DD period. I found out last week that there is an error on the deed. During previous transaction which was thirteen years ago, the closing attorney made a mistake on recording the deed. My current closing attorney is in the process of fixing it now by contacting previous seller to re-sign the deed and re-record it, but they have not given me definite timeline on when this issue error will be fixed. (Understandably, it could be tomorrow or few years depending on the availability of previous seller) The current closing attorney recommended that I request extension on both DD period and closing date, which I submitted to the listing agent. Now according to the listing agent, he is okay with extending both of those dates, and he is supposedly submitted the extension amendment form to the seller.  

Now here are my questions:

Q1: If I don't hear back from the listing agent regarding the signed extension form, would you back out before DD period expired? I am thinking I am going to stay put until an hour before DD period expired and let the listing agent knows that I am backing out, since staying could be risky..

Q2: If I back out of this deal, am I entitle to have DD fee back? I am not sure having a flawed deed can be considered breach of contract. 

Thanks.