All Forum Posts by: Trevor Lohman

I hate to Dave Ramsey somebody on BP, 

But until you marry her she's your roommate. Or tenant I guess in this case. 

So have her sign a lease and pay you. 

Not sure if I could do that if it were me, but it's another perspective

@Paul B.

Got it! Thanks Paul. 

Trevor

@Jon Holdman

Ah, I understand now. So at 150k MAGI there is no longer any allowance for deduction. That's for both spouses?

Thanks for the info guys. 

@Paul B.

Thanks for bringing this up,

I had never heard about this until now, and I am really bummed. I hear about depreciation all the time as an additional benefit for buy and hold, and although it's not the main reason for getting involved in cash flowing properties, it was definitely a big bonus for me. 

I am a big tax novice, but I want to make sure I understand this, 

My W2 is 140, and my wife's is 100. So this means we cannot deduct any depreciation unless we could get our combined AGI below 130k?  Is that 130k AGI limit for both spouses combined? Yikes.

Huge day wrecker! Wow. 

@Brian Garlington

Wow, 66 a month? That boggles my mind. That doesn't cover much more than trash here. Well that is great to find out. 

I really like who I'm working with so far but yes I'll PM you because it's always good to know the local options. Thanks Brian, and thanks everyone, tons of good info. 

POS sort of caught me off guard when I started looking in the Cleveland area a couple weeks ago. I thought man these must be some really bad properties if they all have Piece of s!*& reports. Haha then I realized what they were actually, and at first I almost decided against the area because of it. 

Trying to make my down payment money go further kind of thing. 

As I thought about it some more though, it became one of the reasons I liked the area. I'm sure it keeps everything looking a little nicer right? Haha as I was looking at the POS report for a house I just put in escrow I realized my primary residence had most of the same issues (weeds, crack in the driveway, clean up all the toys in the backyard, etc). 

I know my street would look nicer with POS! 

Man I love this website, thanks for all of the awesome info,

So it sounds like while it is not technically law, it is advisable to put it in the owners name. Also, thank you all for the estimates. I will use 100 as my number for now, and hope that I can raise these rents with time to accommodate. That said I think the deal works as is. 

Asking 60k, purchased 54k, 5k in POS work, 950/month rent for existing tenant. 

I think the rent is a little low maybe. Hasn't been raised in years. It is basically a 2bed 1 bath home in front, with a completely separate 1 bed 1 bath in the back with a kitchen and everything. It is still considered an SFR though.

I'm wondering if that rent could be pushed up a little closer to what a similar duplex would rent for, which would be more like 1100ish (I believe). 

Anyway the home is in escrow now, so I'm sure I'll have some more questions for you guys. Thanks for helping out a new cleveland investor. Hopefully I can do one more before 2017 is up. 

Thanks again,

Trevor

That's awesome thanks @Gwen Fyfe,

Yes the home is in garfield heights. It looks like Cleveland water has some rate info on their site and it looks like garfield heights is on the higher end of their breakdown. It's a SFR, but from what I've heard Water (maybe sewer as well?) needs to be paid for by the landlord per code. Not sure if it's cleveland specific but there seems to be some consensus on this from what I've read so far. I'm hoping 100 a month or less, but the deal doesn't pivot on that...

I'll give Cleveland water a call tomorrow, thank you for the good info Gwen! 

On a different note, how did you choose the particular towns in Northeast Ohio that you've chosen to invest in?

I had this same question, glad you asked it. 

I  just asked in the local market forum for some ballpark guesses. I wonder if calling the utility will get us anywhere? Look forward to seeing what everyone says. 

Hi guys, 

I know there is no way for anyone to accurately answer this question. 

I'm just looking for a ballpark average monthly cost for water and sewer in a cleveland SFR in your experience.

It sounds like in Cleveland (maybe all of ohio?) the owner pays sewer and water. I'm just looking for a ballpark figure for an SFR so I can run some cashflow estimates.

I was guessing 100 a month? I really have no idea other than  to guess it's a little less than my own residence out here in California... Which is about 150 a month. 

I'm also curious if anyone has had problems with this. Any horror stories of a tenant leaving the sprinklers on for 2 weeks or something... and how did you handle it?

Thanks for any feedback you guys can provide!