All Forum Posts by: Steven Pool

@Justin Scott

I use Zillow and Realtor and sometimes rentometer. I make sure that I use the right comparisons regarding how many bed, baths, square footage, amenities, and definitely location.

@Ethan Mastrodonato

Congrats on your almost 2nd deal! I've also only closed 2 deals,1 sfh and 1 duplex. But I've analyzed around 100 or so. I use boy an Excel spreadsheet and the BP calculator.

Some things I've noticed that other experienced BP'ers like to see in order to help newbies like us analyze deals are monthly costs of insurance, capitol expenditures, maintenance, vacancy, mortgage, property taxes, and utilities.

I've learned a lot from what the more seasoned investors have said about how much each of these costs should be estimated at. That way I don't underestimate my cap ex or vacancy.

Hope that helps!

@Obed Bermudez

I'm going through this right now in Wisconsin with a duplex.

I spoke with the utility company and they said it was pretty common and there weren't any fees associated from their end.

The city has their normal building permits that are required for pretty much everything but these are included in the contractors quotes.

For me to split the water it would be about $2600

For me to split the electric it would be $1700

Considering the average monthly utility bill (they're both wrapped up in one bill) is $350, I would recover my costs pretty quickly once I transfer the costs to the tenants. I plan on knocking their rent down by about$150 to offset it.

@Scott Mac

Thanks Scott! That's what I was planning on doing so it's good to hear that I'm not the only one with this mindset.

I wonder if other people in BP have handled it differently?

So I've purchased 1 duplex and 1 sfh each with inherited tenants; I also have 4 more duplexes and 1sfh on contract to close at the end of this month and each of them have inherited tenants

Of these, only 1 has a year long lease while the rest are on month to month.

What I've done with the tenants I have so far is to keep them on a month to month lease until I can see what type of tenant they will be after which I can decide to end the lease with a 30 days notice.

There are definitely flaws with this approach so I'm wondering what most of you have done when inheriting tenants?

Thanks in advance for the help!

@David Moore I'm glad i found this thread. I've been using YNAB since 2013 and it definitely changed the way i looked at and saved money. I can honestly say that if i hadn't started using YNAB i wouldn't have been able to save money enough in order to even start renting properties!

I bought my first rental in November(and second in February) and immediately set up a YNAB budget for it. I opened a separate checking account for all rental income and expenses in order to track that.

@Darius M. thanks for sharing what you use in the Payee field, I use cozy.co for all of my rentals and it comes over to YNAB a bit odd so i will also start inputting the address/tenant that paid.

@Jason Lee

The security deposit, like the lease, goes with the property when it's sold. So if there was a security deposit then it should have been given to him at closing.

@Nathan Simons

To be honest, that's most people's first answer and it may be the right one.

I found myself in this situation where the inherited tenant has lived there for 12 years and after I bought it was late 3 months in a row. Really late. Come to find out he had been in the hospital for a couple weeks then laid off and was going through the process for unemployment. So I've put him on a payment plan that he'll start next month and will have paid the rest of his overdue rent in 6 months.

And I don't have to deal with turn over and listing the property

I think it depends on your situation

Hope that helps

@Nathan Simons

I would check out this site and get familiar with the laws for Wisconsin:

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/704/17

It's pretty easy to understand but you have to follow it to a tee.

Good luck!

@Kalli Alexandrou

Good luck to you on your hunt for a great house hack! I just finished my second deal in Superior and have been looking at the Duluth market lately. I'm not that familiar with Duluth real estate and this post answered a lot of questions for me so thanks for posting!