All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Simmons

@Scott Beal

I’m under an NDA on one now. My partner and I will probably make an offer in a couple of weeks.

@Javier Cuevas Santos. In Florida any interest on the deposit has to be paid back to the tenant. So I got interest free checking - made it a lot simpler. Deposit went into the checking account that I used for the property. You just have to make sure the balance doesn’t drop below their deposit amount (hence my reserves being in the same account).

You might want to check out WAVE accounting on line - they do books for free. I used them for a short term rental business I had and you can set up multiple entities (businesses)

@Javier Cuevas Santos

When I had one property - I just opened a separate checking account and all rent/deposits went in and all expenses came out. It was super easy to do taxes at the end of the year because I could just download transactions into excel from my bank - categorize each transaction and boom! - ready for tax accountant or tax software.

If there was a capital expenditure (new AC or roof) - I’d fund the account (owners contribution) and then pay for the expense out of that account.

I’m pretty sure you have to account for each property separately as a landlord so a separate account for each property would make sense.

I’ve never used accounting software. If the account has more $$ at the end of the year than the beginning- I made money. If it doesn’t I lost money. I also kept my reserves in that account (3 months of expenses).

I'm leaning towards the purchasing of "essential" small-businesses (like micro) mom & pops that were on the margins before this and just aren't able to handle the stress of this current situation and want out.  Since I have a lot of experience doing turn-arounds in larger companies; I feel like I have more control over profit/growth and it helps keep small business open and their employees working.

@Nick Troutman

Get referral on a good home inspector from another investor. I’ve only run across one good inspector over the last decade.

@Trevor Aydelott

An investor will require an agent to work 5 times harder for a low commission. That’s why I got my own license.

I had one that would help me but I felt bad taking 2-3 hours of her time a week for months and she only made ~$2500 in commission.

Also understand the cash flow difference of flipping vs. rentals.  I used flipping to build cash fast, but it doesn't have residual income or on-going appreciation.

I used flipping to build capital and then use the capital to buy rental properties.  Also some properties are better rentals and some are better flips.  One I am finishing up now is a better flip in my mind because I had to do a complete gut (seriously the only thing that didn't need repair was interior structure, foundation, and the pool).  So I was going to spend ~$50k on the renovation and I could spend $5k more to double the size of the kitchen & put in stainless steel appliances and it would be the best property for the money in the neighborhood - but it wouldn't get me more rent (plus a pool is a liability nightmare in a B- neighborhood)

Good luck - those Podcasts listed earlier are awesome

I had to recently cancel a stay I had booked because the state banned them.  I wasn't able to leave a review when I put in the cancellation request - it was cancelled.  So are you sure the review issue is valid?

Is she a truck driver?  If so - I would look at 2 years tax returns which takes into account mileage and expenses vs. revenue to see how much she is actually earning with all expenses and all modes of income.