All Forum Posts by: Libby Baugher

Hi all, I have a third question now. I pay my property manager 10% of the tenant rent each month. So for instance, if rent is 900 then the property manager gets 90. I've noticed recently that the property manager is now charging a maintenance fee for the following in her words

"running around buying products for the homes for repairs, getting quotes for work, being there to let contractors in, invoicing for the repairs, sending checks etc. there would be 10% charge on all repairs."

I need to know if this is normal to pay on top of the 10% monthly fee or should these tasks be included in the property management fee. I'm also paying 500 dollars when a new tenant is placed in one of my properties. These fees are adding up.

Thanks for any input!

LB

Hi all, yesterday I posted a question asking if your property manager does inspections on your rental properties and if yes, how often. I forgot to ask another question in that post which was, how much does your property manager charge for those inspections? Right now I pay 10% management fee every month. Should the inspection fee be included in that management fee or should the inspection fee be in addition to? Right now I’m paying 100 dollars for each property to have a quarterly inspection. I’m thinking this is way too much, especially 4 times a year for each property. Thoughts?

LB

Hi all, I have a question for anyone who would like to take the time to answer. Do you have your property manager do inspections on properties? And if yes, how often do you have them perform inspections? Once a year, two times a year, quarterly? My rental properties are single family and duplex.

Thank you so much for any input on my question!

LB

Hi! Do either of you know of people in the Peoria, Illinois area who are private investors? I live in East Peoria and have 3 properties/4 units now. However, I'm looking to purchase more properties and am trying to see what other options I have besides traditional financing. My bank only finances 4 properties. So, I'm looking into other banks, private lenders and creative financing. I am a buy and hold investor. 

Libby

Hi julie! I’m so glad I saw this post! I’m in the same boat as you! I’m single and 53 years old. I just got laid off from my job and now need to decide what to do with my 401k which will be between 58000-60000 after taxes. I’ve already got 4 units (two single family and one duplex). I’ve been seriously thinking of cashing out the 401k and purchasing a couple more properties or using that cash to do the brrrr method over and over instead of rolling it into something else. I’m glad I’ve found someone else who is thinking like me!

Libby

I’ve recently been let go from my company due to downsizing. I have around 68000 in a 401k and am trying to decide what to do with that money.  Options are leave it in, transfer to another account or pull it out(getting taxed if I pull it out). What are everyone thoughts on pulling it out and using it to purchase more rental properties? My rental properties are for cash flow and not appreciation. I have 4 units right now. Im just not sure how much I trust the stock market and hate the fees associated with 401k,ira, mutual funds, etc. 

Any thoughts would be welcome! Thanks!

Libby

My mission statement is the following....."Purchase real estate properties to be used as buy and hold rental units as a way to supplement my retirement income".

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the best ways to analyze a package of six properties, all sfh? I am a pro member of Bigger Pockets and use the calculator for analysis of sfh individually but have not done it for a package of them. I did do analysis on them individually and everything looks good but I used the same inputs that I used for the previous properties......25% down, my banks interest rate and loan years. I got my desired monthly cash flow for each of them using that method. However, I'm thinking this would be a commercial loan and so need to figure out if I will still get my monthly desired cash flow for each property. Any help would be appreciated and thanks!

Libby

Thanks all for your replies and help! Much appreciated!

Hi all, 

I finally purchased my first rental properties this past Fall after researching and learning for the last 6 months. I have 3 properties (2 sfh and 1 duplex). Now I’m ready to setup my quickbooks so I don’t have such a headache at tax time. I’ll probably have my accountant set it up for me but I’m not sure when I’ll be doing this since it’s now the holiday season and I don’t have much free time to spare. I’ve been playing around with quickbooks the last few days and feel I’m getting the hang of it however, I am curious how others who use property management company set their quickbooks up. I’m not sure how much detail people put into theirs but I do want mine to cover income, expenses, property purchases, how do I setup property management company data,etc...as much detail as I can get. I am a computer forensic analyst so I’m all about detail. I’ve looked through previous posts and found a couple that did cover how to setup quickbooks for owners who use property management company however those were a bit old and I’m looking for something more recent. The vast majority of quickbooks setup posts are for self managing and for the actual property management companies.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post, any replies would be appreciated! Thanks!

Libby