All Forum Posts by: William Baumann

Unless the fire damage is minimal, there is no way a full gut rehab is 45K.  I rehabed a 760sq, full rehad, minimal gut, and it took 55K, no structural issues.  I think your repair estimates a very low.

I am thinking the same thing as @Steve Vaughan said "Hopefully a full title and utility and tax and permit and code violation search was done? Or was this a quitclaim on the hood of a car deal?"  

You seriously need to get answers to those questions, or you might find you bought a huge debt pile.  Normally I would say do a cheap fix up and turn into a rental.  From the sounds of it, you picked up a hood rat house, one of many on the street?  If so selling is going to be hard, you might not even be able to give it away for free depending how bad the area is.  

Do you actually own the property?  Not to be a smart ***, but do you have title to the property in your name filed with city/state, and was it sold by the lawfull owner?  You havent really given us much information as to what Due Diligence you have done.  

Honestly, bit the bullet, help your property and your tenant and put in a proper A/C unit.  Remember the mentality of your tenant is a reflection of the property.  Treat your property like crap and that you don't care, your tenant will have the same mentality about your property and treat it like crap.

I paid $1400 in Milwaukee, WI for a HE gas water heater,  new exhaust, removal of old, install new.  All done though sears.

I have been looking at a series LLC setup myself. I have 1 rental property in WI, and am looking to add more in the future. I found https://www.kgrlaw.com/ in a web search but i don't know anything about them but they claim to know about setting up series LLC's in Indiana. I haven't yet talked to them.

Also, if it is in a park, are you going to have to remove it?  Some parks do not allow "sub-letting", meaning you cannot rent the mobile home to someone else in their park.

I would follow @Jim C. advice and talk to your insurance company.  these 2 factors will help be a deciding force in your decision.  The bottom line is if your insurance company won't cover you, it really doesn't matter either way it is a no go.  If they do but the insurance rates increase you need to increase your rent and deposits to cover for it.  Also you need to decide if the damage risk is worth it.  If the tenant leaves in 6 months but does $20K in damages that you have to repair before you can rent again, it probably isn't worth the trouble.  

I understand that your getting vacancy panicked, but you really need to weigh the pros and cons in this situation, as well as your liabilities.  On a side note, i always require that a renter with animals have renters insurance.  It is in the rental agreement that they carry it, as it give me protections and recourse if their pet does extensive damage.

Honestly I would go after option 2 or 3.  The owner can drag things out for over a year, and then there is the whole squatter potential.  All this ties up your time and money that you could be spending on your next deal.  

I would recommend setting up a separate checking and savings account.  Deposit your rents into the checking and move your deposits, insurance and maintenance from the rents into the savings.  Create a simple excel spreadsheet to track everything.

@Stan C. it really makes no difference. As stated a DBA gives you no protections or anonymity. The only reason to use an entity is liability protection, and some level of anonymity. If this is for a rental on a property with no mortgage then you might want to consider forming a LLC to protect your personal asset from your rentals liabilities. If the property will have a mortgage you most likely won't be able to put the property in an LLC anyway without the bank calling the loan, so again no point. If this is for a flip then it really makes no difference as you should have it turned over before you accrue any real liability. However, on a side note, you might want to open a PO box to help keep your personal address a little more private.