All Forum Posts by: Travis Lloyd

Rich LeClaire, LeClaire Heating & Air Conditioning. Great plumbers, I use them at our multi-families in Bridgeport. They do 24 hour emergencies as well. If you happen to get Rich himself, tell him Travis says hi! It doesn't want me to post the phone number, but its an emergency so 203... 735..... 1700 

#1 - check with your accountant (or get one)

#2 - could this not be written off as sunk costs on schedule C?

#3 - repeat step #1

Welcome Gerry! Brookfield! You're all the way up there! We have monthly Fairfield County meet ups down in fairfield at Anna Liffey's hosted by @Jonathan Makovsky (and occasionally myself). They are the at 7pm on the last Wednesday of every month at a wonderful bar called Anna Liffeys and it is just a great chance to meet everyone active in the area, network, and have some fun. Hope you can make it and welcome to BP!

 Keep my number handy... you know I'm always down to take a look at these... prefer Westport to Wilton if we're going over $1m...

It's funny you bring up following the market. New release from MSNBC highlights CT as one of the most profitable centers for doing so at the moment. Was pouring over the data from this over the weekend. Link

@Rick Santos is usually have an attorney put them together, but I tell them all of the components that I want. An attorney just helps you write all of the necessary legalese so that it holds up. I've worked a lot in NYC where the rules were much tighter, so I've carried over as much as I can from there (as much as an attorney would allow!).

@Brian Hyla we have a monthly meeting at Anna Liffeys in Fairfield. It is the last wednesday of every month, at 7pm. There is no pitching or formal presentation at our meet ups, just networking! We get a lot of investors from all over Fairfield County, including Ridgefield and Danbury. Not saying you shouldn't have another meeting in Danbury - but I hope you will come just us for the next meeting in Fairfield! Feel free to reach out to me or @Jonathan Makovsky for more details!

Congrats on having your first rental ready! A few things to remember for your lease:

Specify a late fee (grace period is 10 days in CT), and note that payments will be applied to late fees first, before being applied to unpaid rent charges.

Specify that toilets/drains clogged from anything other than deterioration or failure of the pipes will be billed to the tenant.

@Jonathan Makovsky nailed it on the pets. Don't forget to contact your insurance company - as breed/weight restrictions can vary from carrier to carrier.

I usually suggest adding a section in the lease that is a notice to the tenant that the insurance on the property will NOT cover the tenant's personal belongings or their temporary housing in the event of a catastrophe. In order for their belongings to be covered, they would need to independently purchase renters insurance. Have a space where they have to sign this disclosure - and verbally stress this section when they're signing. Cannot tell you how many people I've had come back and try to get their stuff covered, or have me pay for a hotel due to a problem.

Make sure that the lease is a 12 month lease for the full annual sum (i.e. $9,600) to be paid in 12 monthly payments of $800, rather than saying the lease is for $800 per month. Helps if someone should try to stiff you.

Depending on your clientele, you might want to include a page with a description of the condition of the apartment and/or photos, and have them initial and date each item / photo at move in. Though this would not be signed at the same time as the lease.

Good luck!

@Arthur Banks I cannot stress to you enough that you should check landlord/tenant law in your state before making any changes to your grace period. Most states have strict requirements, and the only thing you would be allowed to do is give the tenants LONGER than the state minimum (but who would want that?).

While it can be a red flag, it might also just be a cautious tenant who wants to explore their options without making their intentions known for one reason or another. Best way to handle this, in my experience, has been to go through the rest of the screening process and, assuming all else checks out, offer them a conditional approval. I will tell the applicant that they are accepted for the apartment, pending a reference from their current landlord. If they are trying to hide something, they won't accept my "acceptance". If they were being cautious but want the apartment, they let me contact the landlord.

I can agree with this myself, as a long-term renter. When I last moved, I went to look at and applied to 4/5 places. I did not need all of them contacting my current landlord (he was sad enough to have me leaving - didn't need it rubbed in his face). So I essentially made the "conditional approval" offer in reverse to my prospective landlords - letting them run their entire process except contacting my current landlord. When I made my decision on which place - I gave that landlord my current landlord's contact info.