All Forum Posts by: Jim Bentley

Wow, $1850? I'm envious; I just got a quote for $6200 to install central heat and air from scratch. That's for a 2.5 ton unit.

@Ryan: If you install AC for your tenant, you might first warn her about the cost to run it. Otherwise, I predict a future post titled, "My tenant is complaining that her electric bill is too high!"

@Al: You might want to replace it with one of these:

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=449505-94325-LP8255LWH&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=4754426&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

It has a protective cage, so if another blade randomly flies off, it won't hit anyone!

The tenant's been there for 1 month, and will probably pay another month's rent by the time you close, so there will only be 10 months left on the lease.

The tenant is paying $500/mo for a house that should bring at least $1400/mo - a difference of $9000 for the next 10 months.

You said you would be willing to drop up to $200/mo for perfect tenants - that's $2000 for the next 10 months.

What about asking the seller to drop the selling price by $7000 to make up the shortfall in rent for the remainder of the lease?

Furthermore, from what I'm seeing with further reading, it looks like Title Insurance is superior to an Attorney's Opinion. Is there any reason to get an attorney's opinion that wouldn't be covered by title insurance?

Thanks for the replies. I am definitely planning on getting title insurance. However, I have an older friend who is advising me to have a lawyer examine the abstract - he has done this for 50 years in lieu of title insurance. I am correct that this would be redundant?

I just made an offer on a fixer-upper, and it was accepted. The seller is a company that flips houses; they have too many going, and are selling this one as-is so they can concentrate on some more recent, larger acquistions. I'm going to fix it up and then rent it out.

This is the first time I've bought a property without a realtor. Is there anything I need to look out for? The seller is going to email me a purchase contract. He says that we don't need to bring the abstract up to date because it was done about a month ago when he bought it.

To expand on Dawn's question, if something (tornado/fire/someone driving their car into the living room/etc.) makes the rent house uninhabitable for an extended period of time, who is responsible for the tenants' housing?

- Do I, as the landlord, just say sorry, good luck?
- Does the lease make me responsible for finding them a place to live?
- I assume if the house is destroyed by something not their fault, they would automatically get their deposit back?

@Will, Thanks, I'll calm down, sit tight and take my time.

I've decided that trying to work within the IRS' rules is like doing busy work in elementary school. It's confusing and obviously pointless and stupid, but if you don't do it right, you'll flunk.

Well, shoot. It looks like I should have gone with a solo 401k, instead of the SDIRA/LLC:

- $17.5k./year instead of $5k max contribution
- No UDFI/UBIT
- No LLC

I just converted to the SDIRA/LLC a couple of months ago. Do I want to go through the pain of rolling it into a solo 401k? What happens to the LLC? (My accountant is going to hate me.) I have a day job - Can I say I'm also self-employed without having a real side business?

I think I'll do more research and then start a new topic.

Thank you both; that make sense. I was hoping to finance two more properties, leaving enough in the account for repairs and vacancy coverage, but I'll have to re-think that with this new information. I'll do more research and talk to my tax person, as suggested.