All Forum Posts by: Troy DeLong

@Amy Oltendorf This whole discussion would be worth $200 - $400 to have an hour chat with a local Real Estate attorney by you. Especially if you would like to collect thousands of dollars in damages from your tenants. All of the advice on here is great, but this definitely involves too much local / state law for BP members to give you the perfect path to take. You could definitely put yourself in a legal battle if you start "forcing" your tenants to pay damages. 

Once it's taken care of though, I agree with most people above. Politely part ways with these tenants... 

@TJ Harback Hey TJ. I'm in the Lansing area as well. I'm more focused on 2-4 unit properties but I'd be more than happy to chat with you and see if I couldn't partner you up with a couple colleague investors in the area who DO tackle larger MF properties. Feel free to reach out to me if you're interested. 

- Troy 

@Jordan Szabo Hey Jordan, pleasure to meet you and welcome. I'm a local agent / investor out of Lansing, MI. I'm a little biased, but I think Mid-Michigan in general is a good spot to park your money for now. 

Would love to do a call / Facetime if you want to dive more into the details of Lansing and OOS investing. 

- Troy 

@Skyler Heimer Hey Skyler. I'm a local agent / investor myself and would recommend you reach out to any of these three for Property Management help. 

Sandy Bailey Bristol (Sandy’s Property Management)
(517) 285-5509

Bree Garrett (Good Company Realty)
(517) 706-9294

David Johnson (Simply Live Property Management)
(517) 927-5003

@Catarino Perez Welcome Cat! I'm a local agent / investor in the Lansing area and would be more than happy to chat real estate with you. Feel free to message me if you want to setup a call one of these days. 

@Cris Collins Hey Cris! I'm a local agent / investor in the Lansing area and would be more than happy to chat with you about all of this. Feel free to message me if you want to do a 15-20 minute call one of these days. 

@Hunter Malott Welcome to Michigan! 

I'm out of the Lansing area and would be more than happy to meetup and grab a coffee whenever is convenient for you. Our local REI group also meets up twice a month. You can ask to join on FaceBook, 'Lansing Real Estate Investors' (It'll show about 2,000 members)

@Kevin Howard 

I would be upset with that change as well. Mini-splits have their time and place and I don't think their place is in your new build 3 bed / 2 bath duplex units in Florida. If you're contract and drawings state traditional HVAC then that is what I would expect to get. 

My best suggestion would be to 

1) Request a sit down with your builder and the HVAC tech / owner and discuss the situation as a whole. Why can't you do a traditional system in the attics? What is the major differences between the two? What is the performance and cost difference?

2) Discuss a cost reduction or compensation from your builder if these mini-splits end up being cheaper than a traditional system (it's 50/50 if I were to guess). 

3) Don't let this hold you up from getting the build complete and rented out. Majority of tenants won't care about this. This is more of a future maintenance / resale issue. 

At the end of the project, if you're still not happy with the way things turned out then you can just make that clear to the builder and hope they realize referral business from you will be a no-go. 

Best of luck on getting this squared away! 

- Troy 

@Joey Gorombey I agree with Richard's answers above completely. 

Never leave an adult off of the lease if they plan on residing at one of your units. If you end up renting to them, just have a straight forward conversation with about 'what happens if they split up'. Like Richard said, a simple one page addendum is usually the answer. 

@Gavin Kercher

I like where your head is at (minimizing liability and looking for tax advantages), but you don't want to overcomplicate things. 

Transferring the deed into your LLC while keeping the mortgage in your personal name will most likely default on your lenders 'Due on Sale Clause'.

All lenders will be slightly different, but in my experience, lenders are able to count your properties rental income towards your DTI ratio after 12 months of solid rental income, whether it's in your personal name or LLC. And with most business (LLC) financing you still have to personally guarantee the loans.

Most insurance policies will be more expensive for businesses (LLC) versus in your personal name.

Hope this gets you close to answering your questions! At the end of the day, talk with your lender, CPA and insurance agent about all of these things before making a decision. If you're just starting out, you may want to "JUST DO IT" in your personal name and worry about all of this 'LLC vs Personal' discussion for when you get several properties under your belt.

Best of luck!