All Forum Posts by: Steve C.

Thanks Kyle and Marc for suggestions. I agree. I think it also applies to open house for home selling. Not many people have enough imagination to see potential for the house which is not up to date. That's why home staging is so effective for selling houses for top dollars. 

My current unit is occupied by current tenant and it is definitely not in a tidy state. What do you do in this situation? Do you still show the unit to potential tenants?

I posted pictures for the unit when it was staged 2 years back, so potential tenants have good impression about the unit. But I am worried that they might be disappointed by actual unit. If I wait the tour until current tenant moves out, then potential tenants might not wait for this unit and I thought it would be difficult to find good tenant in short time window. 

Any suggestion greatly appreciated! 

Can someone share their experience accepting online rental applications with Cozy or Zillow? Or any other recommended place?

I am already using Cozy for maintaining my tenant, so I am leaning towards to use Cozy. 

Here are few differences I found. 

Cozy

- $39.99 for credit & background check (Seems little bit expensive to me. Looks like $30-35 is standard in the industry.)

- There is character limit with description for the listing.

- Renters need to create a Cozy account for submitting rental application. (I think this might not be very convenient for renters.)

Zillow

- $29 for credit & background check

(It seems that people can reuse this fee for applying other units at Zillow within 1 month.)

- No character limit with description for the listing.

Thank you very much Carl, Brian, and Jeff for detailed feedback! 

What criterion should I used to select a self directed IRA company?

I do see multiple companies from below list. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/self-directed-ira-real-estate/?utm_source=search&utm_medium=internal&utm_campaign=selfdirected

Many of them look pretty small. What happens if these company goes out of business?

Is it FDIC insured up to certain amount?

Thank you for any insight.

@George Blower

Thank you very much for detailed info!

I recently went to one meetup event from one investment group.

They suggested to buy land in Southern California (Antelope Valley near Los Angeles) area. 

About 2.4 acres were sold as 4 units and you can buy 1 unit for about $40K. 

It was suggested to use money after rollover 401K to IRA account.

I never considered land investment before, so this was an eye opener for me. 

Also, it was good opportunity to learn how your retirement account can be invested for real estate. 

But I wasn't sure how to evaluate this deal, so I just passed on. 

How can I evaluate this kind of deal in the future? Any advice?

Hi, 

I bought one rental property last year and need to prepare tax return with it this year. 

I have been preparing tax return myself and using Turbo Tax recent years.

Now, I have one rental property, which I think will make tax return complicated, 

so will it worth to work with a CPA?

My CPA charged me $500 just for my return before without rental property before, 

so I am worried that it might become $1000 with rental property. 

Or is there any recommendation for CPA in San Jose area?

Thank you very much.

Steve

Hi, 

I currently have rental property with mortgage 6.125% rate. I am considering to refinance it with home equity loan since I only have 3.5% rate on it. I assumed that it will give me good rate hopefully 4.5%. Will this be a good idea?

Steve