All Forum Posts by: Lisa Dawson

I just attempted to register my property and pay the $5.00 fee.  As I suspected, it's not $5.00.  They assess a $2.00 fee to process your payment. You must register and pay online, so you have to use e-check or credit card.   So yes, $7.00 to register your property PER YEAR is not that big of a deal BUT they have lied from the beginning about this whole issue.  

First the fee was to be a "one time only" fee.  Wrong.  This is a yearly fee.

Then it was to be only $5.  Sorry.  In my book when you jack up the price of something 40%, that is not being truthful.

This whole thing reeks of a slippery slope.  

The bottom line, and my entire reason for opposing this fee is that they already have the property owners information!  We have to pay property taxes.  The information is right there.  

Total money grab.  I will be waiting until the last possible moment to register.  

@Dave Olverson, the city already has the contact information of the property owner, they have the property tax records.

There is already an ordinance in place that if the grass isn't cut and it gets above 12" high they will notify you and then will send a contractor out to cut the grass, then charge a HUGE amount to the property owner. If there is debris on the property, same thing, they will notify the property owner to correct the issue or they will send a contractor out and charge the property owner.

I'm seeing this as an unnecessary charge and a duplication of services.

I guess I'm trying to figure out why they want to justify this fee by using "having contact information of landlords" as the excuse. And none of this will address the issue of "unofficial" landlords or sublets. It still all goes back to the property owner being responsible for the condition of the property.

See? That's what I see happening. They are pushing this as a one time only, one per landlord fee, with no inspections. They are even saying that by statute the fee can't be raised. (yeah right) I see this as a slippery slope. They already HAVE an accessible list of all property owners. If you own property, you have to pay property taxes.

I really don't see any need for this extra fee. To me it looks like someone is trying to justify their phony baloney job and to collect more revenue.

Indianapolis is proposing registration for all Landlords in Marion County. Is this something that is common in your area? There will be a $5.00 fee and a $500.00 fine if you don't register. I can see issues with both sides. So I guess I haven't formed my opinion yet.

Your thoughts?

http://www.wthr.com/story/25791393/2014/06/16/council-proposes-registry-to-track-landlords

Hi Joel,

I'm also in Indy. I'm new at this too and I've learned so much just reading the posts and listening to the podcasts. Welcome!

Mehran Kamari, thank you for your welcome. Yes, the rent is paying the mortgage, plus a bit extra. The mortgage/property tax/ insurance is around $500.00 per month and the rent I'm charging is $700.00, so I think I'm ok there. I pay the water and sewer bill because if it goes delinquent, the bill gets attached to my property tax bill and a lien can be placed on the property. I don't want to leave that up to the tenant.

Mike D'Arrigo I might just take you up on that. Thank you for your response!

Taylor Jennings It surely was stressful. I was checking on the house at least 3 times a week and working there on the weekends. It seemed like every time I went there, I had to repair something that the little darlings broke or damaged. Luckily, the damage was pretty minor, or I could repair it myself. Twice, they cut the realtors lockbox off of the doorknob, busted into the box and used the door key to unlock the door and go in. My Realtor and I had to have a little chat after that issue.

I have thought about trying to see if I could purchase another house in this neighborhood at a decent price to perhaps turn into another rental. I like the neighborhood and the neighbors are hard working, decent people. I'm just not convinced I'm the landlord type yet. I'm not good at confrontation and I had to keep reminding myself with the bad tenant, this is all business, not personal, when I had to evict her and her thug sons.

Thank you for the welcome!

Erin Weiss I'm on the far east side of Indy. Thanks!

Marco Santarelli Thank you for your kind words! I appreciate it.

Hi All,

My name is Lisa and I'm a fairly new and reluctant landlord. I checked out Bigger Pockets because I would like to know a bit more about what I'm doing. I apologize in advance for my rambling post.

Here's the story. About 6 years ago I had an opportunity to buy a house in a neighborhood that was much better (safer, closer to work, larger house, bigger yard, etc) than what I was living in. Because the house belonged to a friend of mine, he was going to sell the house to me for an unbelievable low price. This was a price anyone in their right mind would never pass up.

Anyway, because I can't live in 2 houses, I put my house up for sale. No problem, right? Well, this was about the time the housing market in this particular area crashed, foreclosures like crazy, the catholic school in the neighborhood moved and there was a well publicised shooting about a mile from the house. Perfect storm? you bet!

This house sat empty and on the market for about 2 years. I lowered the price to where I was going to take a loss on it if someone purchased it. No luck. We are talking a $60,000 house, not really expensive. Foreclosures in the neighborhood were being snapped up in the $20,000 range, so no one ever wanted to look at my house and I couldn't afford to take a $30,000 hit. My insurance company decided they no longer wanted to insure a vacant house, and threatened to cancel my insurance.

Here is where the "reluctant" part comes in. I couldn't think of any other option than to rent the house out. It would solve a couple of problems and maybe then, the kids in the neighborhood would stop messing with the house. The very FIRST tenants I had, I had to evict due to non-payment of rent. The tenants I have in there now are a DREAM!

I wish I would have found Bigger Pockets sooner. This has been a wealth of information for me and I appreciate all of the advise you folks provide.

I have a doosy of a story about the first tenants and a question about my experience. I'll post that in the appropriate area.

Glad to be here,

Lisa