All Forum Posts by: Sara Barb

So I’ve gone around in circles a few times and I’ve decided I will likely set up rent payments through Cozy or the like and provide a link on my website. The only way I could figure out monthly payments through the website was with PayPal which neither offers ACH nor the client paying the processing fee. Other than that, I’m at a loss for making it work. 

Hi Tim,

I am at the same dilemma. Were you able to figure this out? 

Thanks,

Sara

I guess another question to ask is what does success actually look like during a recession? Keeping a sustainable business? Growing your business even? Or just holding on for dear life and weathering the storm?

There is SO much talk of the market coming to a peak. Markets cycle. That’s what they do. What a coming recession might look like, how long, how bad, etc...that’s for another discussion. For those of you who have been in the game awhile, what did you do to succeed THROUGH previous market recessions? How many market cycles have you been in the real estate game? What are the lessons you can pass on to a younger generation? If there are other threads like this, please post a link! I’d love to read words of the wise and experienced! Thanks for your thoughts! -Sara Barb

Thanks Nick! September's speaker was very helpful in making sure our plans are aligned with today's market! Can't wait to see what you have planned next! 

@Frank Yang, thanks for the words of caution! This gentleman is a friend of the family, like an uncle. Of course we have an exit plan and strategies planned to protect both him and us. I am more curious about if there might be any difficulties I might expect since the money is coming from Canada, or if it will work just the same as getting a loan from the next door neighbor. Thanks for your input!

Curious to see if anyone has used a Private Money Lender from outside the U.S. I am communicating with a gentleman from Canada who would like to invest in us, 0% down and only 5%-7% interest, depending on the deal. Meeting with my CPA and Attorney this coming month, but I would love to hear of any experiences you all have. Was it structured the same as a local lender? Were there any hurdles you had to leap because the money came from outside the U.S. Any insights would enormously helpful. Thanks!

@Andrea Collatz Reading the details on the SmartMove tenant background check. It says it runs a criminal background check on 45 states. Which states does it exclude? We landlord in Idaho; a background check that excluded the state of Idaho would not work too well for us. 

Thanks,

Sara Barb

My husband and I just purchased our first investment property, a little run down 4-plex that we will manage ourselves. We were hoping to use this strategy we came across from Scott Smith here on bigger pockets: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/llc-lending-problem/ Buy in our name, transfer to land trust, deed to LLC. However, while in the process of closing, our attorney told us this really doesn’t get around anything. It would be the same as just transferring to the LLC and the bank could still call that a sale and the mortgage would be due. Ok, so perhaps we keep the property in our name, but we don’t exactly want the tenants to know we are the owners. Our attorney suggested we could form the LLC as “property manager.” Would this make sense? We would approach the tenants saying, “we are ‘property management services, LLC.’” Keep all the money going in and out in an account under the LLC to keep it separate from our personal accounts. Obviously, if someone wanted to know who owned the property it’s real easy to look up online, but at least there would be a buffer between tenants and us as “owners”. My next thought following would be, transferring money from an account held under the LLC to the mortgage held personally, is that like transferring money between two individuals? Would I be taxed after transferring over $14,000 to myself from LLC? Maybe I am WAY over thinking everything, but we are just starting out and I’m a bit confused. Any advice or insights would be appreciated. Thanks! -Sara B.