All Forum Posts by: Samantha Klein

My question is for the CPA's here...

I bought a duplex on July 11th this year, both sides were rented when I took over. I gave notice to both sides because they were under market by several hundred dollars and both units need some rehab. My question is since the property was in service when I bought it and was rentable, can I expense repairs made to the units during the vacant months? Some items are depreciated such as new kitchen cabinets, and flooring but other items like painting, subfloor repair, HVAC maintenance, locks, door handles, ect, can I expense those?

This property will have been vacant for 3-4 months total so very little income for the year.

A handyman should be able do install gutters and replace rotten facia. Of course there's also the liability of hiring an unlicensed guy on a ladder too. Find a licensed contracter that will work for $40-50 an hour if you provide materials.

It depends on the systems already there. If the plumbing is galvanized but in good shape,  I would leave it and just monitor. Replace with Pex when the time comes. Upgrade the fuses to breakers, I assume theres knob and tube as well. You likely won't get a good insurance rate when these in there or insurance at all.

I personally would pass unless the deal is very good as properties that haven't been updated will likely turn into a nightmare unless you do a full gut renovation and bring everything up to code which of course will be expensive. 

You should look at other apartments of similar size and see what they're charging with in unit laundry. That's really the only way to gauge where your new rent should be. I would imagine you could find an appliance resale store and negotiate a discount on the purchase of that many, or go buy new. Home depot may even give a 10-20% discount given the bulk quantity. 

I've had them for insurance and the customer service in my opinion is not the greatest. They messed up refunds, take almost a week sometimes to respond or don't respond at all. I have a commercial policy now with a different company and like it much more.

I've been buying the 9 year water heaters lately from Home Depot and have been thinking about purchasing the 12 year heaters from now on but is there really that much of a difference between a 6 year and a 12 year other than the warranty? I've heard they use 2 anodes in a 12 year. Is it really worth the extra money, sometimes over $200-250 more than the 6 year tank? I plan on flushing all my heaters once in the spring and once in the fall every year and replacing the anodes every 3 years or so. I've done some research and found many people say the 9 and 12 year tanks are just a rip off. I want to buy the best product for the value. What do you put into your properties and generally with proper maintenance, how long are they lasting? 

I see alot of 12-18 year old tanks in the properties I purchase and aside from being limed up, they function. I just replace them with a new one to save hassles later.

I would absolutely document that they have vacated and take pics. I would go secure your property asap. If a homeless person moves in then you have even more problems.

Do you not want to continue investing after you find a duplex to live in? If you do want to continue purchasing, it would strongly be in your favor to carry some debt obviously as long as you run accurate numbers and can cash flow.

I know you don't want to carry a mortgage but your actually losing alot of opportunity value by accumulating dead equity.

A common strategy is to purchase some properties with 20% down, say 5 or so and then if you really want to have no debt then you can snowball the debt with all of your cashflow. I'm one of those refi til you die because having too much equity to me is losing opportunities and money.

If you're concerned about her being on the streets as opposed to her living there without paying, you should rethink why your a landlord. This is a business and its not your fault rent isn't being paid.

Take your business seriously or else you won't be in business long. I know its harsh to say when she has two small children but she is doing it to herself.

They fill out a deposit slip with their name and address. I can view an image of the slip online. All of my rentals have different rental amounts but if some were the same, that's how I'd tell them apart. I tell my tenants to send a text when they made the deposit too. Some do, and some don't.