All Forum Posts by: Tim Miller

Not sure about TX law but a judge might not look favorably if you denied her the opportunity. Does it mean that she will actually show up for it, no. Of all the move-out inspections that we have scheduled, not one person should up for them. We scheduled them from 6pm to 8pm weekdays or on Saturday. No tenant can ever say we schedule it doing working hours and they couldn't get the time off.

I would wait until I was sure she was gone and then send a notice that the inspection will be on this day and at this time. This inspection will not be rescheduled for any reason. On that day, I would use your phones camera as soon as you get to the property. Keep it going from the time you get out of your car, to the apartment and through the whole walk through. If the tenant shows up, most likely she will object to it but tell her she can leave if she doesn't like it. Record everything! Sometimes you have to really CYA. Good luck

I'm 99% sure that most lenders will not even consider your rental income. Because it's so new, you would need at least a year rental history and then they would only consider about 25% of the income. It took about 5 years of rental income from our basement apartment to get the bank to use 75% of the income. I wouldn't count on the rental income. Good Luck.

I don't see the FED slowing down until maybe by the middle of 2023. Your market mustn't be getting hit hard yet. The FHA/VA rate here in the DMV area is over 7% and conventional is just over 7.5%. I do not see 4% let alone 5% rates next year at all.

Hi Preston. Congratulation! The first one is always fun. You do everything in the LLC name, you want to maintain the separation between LLC and personal. Good Luck

Welcome to Landlording School of Hard Knocks. (Lifer here) We had a different issue with a repair service that found out there was no issue with the lights. It was a bad light bulb, after the tenants swore on a stack of bibles that they tried several different bulbs. Along with the ceiling fan not working, oh they didn't turn the light switch on for it.

Yes, we gave them the bill and one tenant want to know who the service repair company was because they didn't agree with the results. That is a BIG HELL NO! Our service people are contracted with us, any issues you take them up with us. Just tell her to go ahead and sue. If she doesn't like it, please provide your move out date.

You didn't say if she was month to month or in a current lease. Either way, M2M give her the required 30 or 60 day notice of non-renewal or the required notice time for end of lease and get her out. She's only going to continue to be a major problem. Good Luck.

You're really asking this question? You approved tenant 1 and advised that the lease was being created and would be sent to them for signing. That's it! Get the lease to them and let them know they have 24, 48 or 36 hours to complete the process. If they don't complete the process in that time, then you can move to the next applicant. 

@Peter Morgan As others have stated, either your rent is too low or the voucher holder thinks their voucher amount will pay the monthly rental amount. Learn more about how your local Housing Authority works and how they calculate rent & utilities. This will help you to better understand what's going on and how to handle these people going forward.

Here are just a few items in the Housing Assistance Payments Contract that keeps us from accepting section 8

1. The owner must give the PHA any information on rents charged by owner for other unit.

2. PHA shall not be obligated to pay any late payment if HUD determines that late payment by PHA is beyond the PHA's control.

3. HUD shall have full & free access to contract unit, premises, & all accounts & other records of the owner that are relevant to HAP Contract.

4. The owner must grant such access to computerized or other electronic records & to any computers, facilities & must provide any information or assistance needed to access the records.

5. PHA failure to pay the owner is not a violation of the lease. The owner may not terminate the tenancy for nonpayment.

6. Must give 90 days notice to vacate

As you can see there are a number of reason not to take section 8. We will not allow them full access to any of our computers, smart phones, office and so on.

You can't raise the rent after the fact. We had a similar situation, we took the ad down. Than we processed all the application and lady luck was with us, none of them past our screening process. We refreshed our add with the higher rental amount and posted. At the next showing a few people did ask if the rent went up. We told them yes it did, do to market condition. As @Carrie Young stated, do a better job with your market research. Good luck.

I would have to error on the side with @Nathan Gesner I would also remove these cameras as they are "Mounted to Downspouts". Depending on the type of material the downspouts are made from, the wind is going to do a number on them. I would also be keeping an eye on this property until the end of the lease. If they must have cameras, then you need to advise the tenants where they can be place to do the less damage.

@Trevor Marvin You can do whatever you like but you have to weigh the risks and costs. If you buy a property in your name, it's going to cost a few grand to transfer it to an LLC and that's only if the mortgage company will allow it.

Some will say it doesn't manner, just put the property in your name and get extra insurance. Now the risk is, if you get sued. Will the insurance pay? Will you have enough insurance to cover the judgement? Having a property in your name means, all of your personal property is at risk. Not just your rental property.

Creating your LLC now has a lot of benefits and some pain. Nothing worth doing is ever easy. Having an LLC helps to keep your personal property (including your W2 pay) safe from a lawsuit. It also allows you to have the LLC address listed somewhere other than your home address. Now you won't have tenants doing a Google search for you and someone knocking on your door.

As for having the LLC in one state and buying property in another, that is not an issue. All you have to do in most states is to Register your LLC as a foreign business entity.

Just for your info, we setup our LLC about 3 months before we even found our first property. For us, it was 100% the right choice to make. Good Luck