All Forum Posts by: Scott K.

My tenant just moved out. They pay for heating and left with a 300 gallon oil tank half filled with oil. At $3.23/gallon, this equals $485 in value.

I have a new tenant moving in on May 1st that I'll have buy the remaining oil from me, but market price is likely to be lower at move-in date.

My inclination is going forward to specify in the lease that if you end the lease I shouldn't have to compensate.

How do you all typically handle this?

Hi there, my STR in the Hudson Valley, NY is currently insured with Proper. They're pricey, and I'm keen to do some comparison shopping. Is anyone else aware of reasonable alternatives?

Hi there, when my family and I travel, we simultaneously use that trip to look at potential investment properties. I was wondering, are any of those travel expenses tax deductible?

@Jaron Walling really appreciate your response. My wife would be on board but we'd want to discuss once we have together considered all of the factors.

Question: what do you mean we can exclude up to $500k? What does that refer to?

My family and I have owned a 2-family home since 2016 where we've always rented the 2nd unit. It's been very helpful with our mortgage payment.

We're looking to move, and I'd love to find a similar multifamily property. My wife is more open to purchasing a single-family home instead where we keep our current home and rent both units. So we're looking at two scenarios:

Scenario 1: sell existing home. Buy multifamily home. Single mortgage payment, single rental unit. Two units to maintain.

Scenario 2: keep existing home. Buy single family home. Two mortgage payments, two rental units. Three units to maintain.

Although I need to do the math, scenario 1 strikes me as more economical as there are shared costs gained with a multifamily property. Scenario 2 is technically not house hacking, right?

Has anyone else experienced a similar situation? 
 

What have you found to be a simple but effective way to make a budget for your personal finances when you also have expenses related to your properties?

I often find myself asking questions like "Can I afford this improvement this month?" or "Can I afford to take my family on this trip or buy tickets to this event?"

I want to make sure we have X allocated to categories like:

- RE properties (maintenance, improvements, etc.)

- Personal savings (529, index funds, etc.)

- Monthly fixed personal expenses (utilities, groceries, etc.)

- Fun/non-necessities (tickets for events, dining out, etc.)

Have you found a good system for this? If so, how often do you update your plan? What tools do you use?

Awesome will DM you. The AVM or comps from an active agent would account for hypothetical improvements?

I wouldn't use it for a loan. I would use it to decide whether we do the refurb work or not.

If the appraiser comes back and says we can't cash out refi for that much money we won't do the renovation.

If it turns out we can refi for a substantial amount, we'll pull the trigger on the work and then the bank will use its own appraiser.

Hi there, we purchased an older farmhouse we're looking to rehab and reside in.

We anticipate that renovations could be fairly costly, but are hoping they will improve the home value such that we can recover a sizable portion of the capital via a cash out refi.

Do any of you have experience hiring an appraiser prior to renovation work? We want reasonable certainty that we can indeed recover the capital outlay (and the expected amount) before going ahead with the renovation.

Thank you!

I did this, but my note was ignored and they chose to not pay rent on April 1. I do think they'll leave without damaging the property, but I can't imagine that the law would let something like this go unpunished. How else would these things get enforceable outside of recovering damages?