All Forum Posts by: Thomas Swindell

Thanks guys.

I’m doing a 1031 exchange selling 2 single family rentals and looking to buy my first small commercial multifamily. How can I estimate closing costs on commercial properties? Are they capped at a certain amount or is it like single family homes where closing costs are usually a specific percent?

I'm not sure if this post should go in the marketplace or a general forum. Please feel free to move this post. My wife Ashley Tate Swindell just listed a property Downtown Orlando on the outskirts of Delaney Park. Needs a lot of work, cash only type of purchase, however I think this would cash flow. The numbers probably won't work for a flip. We currently have our cash tied up in another renovation so it's not something we can buy. Check it out on the MLS or Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. It's been listed less than 24 hours and she already has a handful of offers but I'm not sure how competitive they are. If you are interested give her a call or text her at 407-687-5481.

Thanks again to everyone that responded! This helps a lot.

Thanks for pointing that out Dana. I'll do some research and see what Florida allows.

Jeff, so you don't collect last months rent in addition to the security deposit, correct?

What requirements do you guys have for when the tenant moves in for the money to put down? For example do you request first months rent, last months rent, and a security deposit? What is the security deposit usually equal to, the equivalent of a full months rent or half months rent?

Thanks to all of you for your responses above. We ended up doing an open house yesterday, had five groups of people show up with a couple good prospective tenants. I'm doing another group showing tonight after work. Definitely priced right, lots of traffic, just have to find the right tenant!

I have a lot of requests for showings on a rental I just listed. Should I be getting applications completed by each prospective tenant prior to showing everyone the property? What's the best way to initially screen these folks so I'm not wasting time showing the property to folks I wouldn't rent to?

Originally posted by @Cuong Le:

@Mark Hu , we like things simple. We use Intuit's Payment Network system which charges only $.50 per transaction no matter the amount. There is no setup, monthly or cancellation fees so you can start and stop when you want.

There is no fee for the tenant and the money is pulled directly from their checking account. We setup monthly invoices that are automatically sent to the tenants every month so it's pretty mindless. The money gets deposited directly into our bank account so no need to go to mailbox and then to the bank to cash them.

The other cool thing is that it syncs up with Quickbooks so the process is seamless. You can't beat $.50/transaction. Let us know what you end up using.

@Cuong Le, is there a monthly fee for the Intuit Payment Network service? I looked on the website and it didn't appear there was a fee. Does your bank charge you monthly for using this service?