All Forum Posts by: Weston Desormeaux

Thanks, that sounds like a lot better idea and a lot more manageable.  I can tackle it one house at a time, and ultimately achieve my goal faster.

I bought a lot of SFH rentals a few years a go and on average the rents are 30% under HUD FMR 2022. I have researched local prices and they are comparable to the FMR. Need recommendations on bringing the rent up to match FMR so i can just start keeping it there. Notes and/or current plan below. Please critique and send all ideas.

Current plan

Spread the rent increase up over 3 years.  Go up $150 a month across the board starting in June.  Then 1/2 of remaining the final 2 years. 

New one year lease and rental agreement.

Save 5% of rent for updates. Every March we will review possible updates with the current tenant.

Start using Rentredi to streamline payments, maintenance and communication.

Notes

Some of our Tenants are HUD and will have to coordinate increase with them.

Neighborhood most of the homes are a lower middle class neighborhood in the middle of town.  Neighborhood has increased in value and desirability in the past few years.

Not to worried about people moving out, we usually have our homes rented with in a week.

Questions

Does anyone just follow HUD FMR and match rent to that?

Don't have any idea what I'm doing as far as raising rent, give me the dirty deets?

Thanks, Wes

Well i got Quickbooks and left Buildium, i like quickbooks a lot better because it serves the need i had.  i just didnt realize at the time that i wanted something for the books a lot more than a management software.  i think i just did it backwards.  While i can still manage my units on my phone pretty easily i should use quickbooks and get a firm grasp on my books then once my hold begin to get a bit much then add buildium in the mix along with qucikbooks to manage everything properly.  thanks all for our help!!!!!!

@Daniel Hyman thanks for the info

Ok so I got Buildum and I'm not sure about it. Want some honest thoughts. Thinking of swapping to QuickBooks.

Keep in mind we are a small time operation an I do a lot of the hands on work my self 🛠️🛠️🛠️. I feel we have built a solid base for our business and we are about to try to move to the next level (level 2, haha). In this transition phase I'm trying to move more in a "work on, not in my business" role. I'm wanting something to grow with us, something that can help with books and payment.

First I got it to take some things off my plate but I feel like it added more.... The main push to get a program is to help with rent collection and the help automate the books and reports in our business. But I feel like I'm learning a new system that is more complicated than our Excel and I'm not seeing a lot of plus side. Im I being a lazy? Do I need to learn system better? Virtual assistant? Just need to get QuickBooks.

Second we build and flip houses also and I don't think that it will work well for that. Anyone have any experience with non hold property accounting in buildium?

Is QuickBooks a better option for us?

Wes

First year investor, bought 1 house renovated it and put a renter in it after i put it on the market for a little over a month and it didn't sell.  Still reno'ing my second house should be done in feb, already have 2 people in line to rent it so thats great.  closed on some land about a month ago and everything is rolling with the bank to build 2 houses, so first year is great, hope to keep the momentum up.  I also have a full time job and my bus partner and i do about 95% of the renovation work.

Heres to a good progressive 2019

Thanks Andrew, i didn't think about that 

Plan is to BRRRR and Flip, question is how so set up the structure with a "silent partner", AKA relative that has a little money they want to invest and help with work when they can but doesn't want any real stress or responsibility with decision making. Im thinking right now set up a LLC and a DBA for me, buy houses in DBA then remodel and manage with LLC. Deposit rent/profit in DBA then put working capital in the LLC then the silent partner and i split the rest, after bills. Im going to talk to a Tax professional when i get home, but just want some input... yall be honest that sound stupid or that a good start or what? Im trying to figure out the best way to keep Partners, mine, and working money separate.