All Forum Posts by: Steve R.

I would wait until it's done. The average home buyer doesn't have much of an imagination. Also, just mentioning the word asbestos will scare some people off.

@Roger S. I charge a $25.00 pet fee, per month, per pet. Charging per pet discourages those who want to have their 7 cats.

Hi Michael,

I usually get insurance on the cash value. It is usually much cheaper than replacement cost depending on the house and the insurance company. If I need to file a claim for a total loss I will just take the money and buy a similar property elsewhere. I keep my deductible at $1000 and I up the liability from the standard $300k to $500k. My cost is usually between $500-550 per property.

@Thomas S. That bit about the bacon grease is funny! Thanks for the chuckle!

@Nicole A. Thanks for the tip on the "street address" box. I'm going to check that out.

I'm not sure if you can legally do DIY electrical work on a rental property but the fix is usually pretty easy. You will need an outlet ground tester like this to find the problem outlets. If you pull the outlets out you may find the ground wire is just not hooked up. If it is just a two wire system with no ground wire you will need to install a GFCI outlet on the first outlet in the series or install a GFCI breaker on that circuit and put the included little stickers on the outlets that state that it is protected by a GFCI breaker.

I'm not sure what to tell you on the roof. It sounds like they were just being cheap and trying to get by with tar paper. Maybe you can upload a pic?

I started using cozy.co on the last couple of properties. They do a credit and background check for $39.99 which the applicant pays for. I take the fee off the first months rent if they are accepted as tenants. You can also collect rent through them for free which is working out great for me.

I personally don't do get anything in writing. We just agree verbally on an amount to take off the next months rent. Getting it in writing would only protect the tenant. If they did not go by your verbal agreement there is still the lease in place that specifies what they owe in rent.

Do you have a lot of equity in this property? If not, I would just go with the insurance. Once you go with an LLC it will cost you more to get your taxes done, you will have to hire an attorney to do evictions, and borrowing on your properties is more difficult.