All Forum Posts by: Brandon Shaw

@Nick C. 💯 % accurate. Also don't get overleveraged and get wiped out in a slump. Slow and steady, build generational wealth.

Havent seen anyone reply on BP about the ramifications to landlords who dont want marijuana grown on thier property or in their rentals. I just bought a house in WA state, and with the passing of this law there is gray lattitude a mile wide for tenants to possess and use marijuana in my rental, which down the road could have legal liabilities on me as the landlord.

Now that its "legal", I dont think I have a right to evict someone unless I have it specified in my lease they are not allowed to have or use marijuana, but is that legal? The feds are dragging thier feet on any responce to the States rights to legalize it.

I'm not saying marijuana shouldnt be legal or not, thats up to the courts to decide, but the states have created a total mess by legalizing the drug without the laws to define how/when its appropriate (ie sobriety test while driving...).

Those of you landlords WA/CO (or CA/OR for that matter) doing to address this issue?

Thanks for the replies, indeed it is a rental, should have my first renters in there this week, fingers crossed.

Completely concur with Jon K. In this day and age, with everything down to the toaster having wifi capability, internet is considered a RIGHT, not a privilege. Just think how many times you get frustrated with hotel wifi or cant get signal with your cell phone, you become the customer service rep for the internet company. People are going to get annoyed and call you to fix it.

There is still dial up service for super cheap like 10-12 bucks a month, it gets the job done if they need email. If you offer internet to your clients, expect to be hassled for any outages or slow downs. If they pay you for it, then they should expect you to keep it up and running like the internet company itself. Its not like they can call the internet service provider (ISP) themselves, its in your name.

On the liability side, expect it to be abused. If you give them the password, expect them to share it with others, its going to happen. Torrents will get you threatened for lawsuits for downloading copyrighted content. It probably wont get you fined or sued, however the ISP will cap your data rates and could terminate your service, its in your name so your responsible.

Hello all,

Because I'm a new buyer and located out of state from my property, I used a Power of Attorney (POA) with my lawyer to sign and review all my documents in WA State for me. I have to use him for purchasing due to my job requirements overseas and my schedule is so uncertain.

Are any/all of these fees for doc review, signing and meetings tax deductible?

Thanks for your replies!

@Charles Perkins It seems to me you need more than an individual planner, you need a coach for each market, be it REI, Market, Insurance etc. As you said everyones situation/goals are different. Each person has to decide what mix they want, because each FP in whatever field you approach believes or pushes their's is the best and pitch the product that will put the most $ in thier pockets. I dont blame them, but there doesnt seem to be a place to go to find independant advisors who just want to help outside of forums like these. If anyone knows of one, please forward thier link haha.

But back to your original question, why FP's dont push REI for portfolios, I think a previous post hit it on the head, theres no gain for the FP if you buy your own property. Seems like that could be a niche though, open a hybrid firm with RE Agent/stock broker/financial planner haha. One stop shop for a truely diverse portfolio.

"More and more I find that buyers need to know a lot about what they buy AND from whom they are buying."

@ Yeats, I think this is the most important part of the equation. I've struggled over the past two years with this problem with financial managers. Love him or hate him, Kiyosaki's point in Rich Dad series that everyone needs a financial education, and its not being taught in schools remains true. But when people wake up and try to find competent help to find financial advice to plan for retirement, its the same advice over and over, diversify your portfolio, buy mutual funds and max out your Roth/IRA/TSP/401K. Its good advice, but most of the time however the guys are pushing their company funds. Many I've used have been far to conservative and after 10 years my market/TSP/IRA accounts basically broke even.

I for one will no longer give money to someone else to manage. No more blind trust that someone else is looking out for my retirement. This year I started trading on my own, bought my first rental property last month and have tried out some alternative/social investing like lending club. Win or lose, I'm paying for my financial education and doing it myself rather than hoping the guy I'm giving my money to knows what he's doing. If I'm competent on the mechanics, then I can easily tell if someones blowing smoke. I'm kicking myself for getting this far in life without getting educated.

I'm also not hoping my pension will still be there in 30 years, I think everyone in their 50's-60's is sweating that right now. It will be nice to have a pension, but I'm not planning on it being there, as with social security, if I do things right I wont be eligible for SS because my investments are carrying me through my life.

End state, I want to work for myself. This site is basically 100,000 financial advisors, and I want to learn from your experiences and make my own way rather than putting $ in a piggy bank. I think if I figure out Yeats 4 step plan myself, Im ahead of the power curve and then bounce it off you all and can make course corrections. I just wish I had the resources I have here and now 10 years ago.

Thanks for the information, I've been trying for days to find an answer to this question. I am in the same boat starting out and am in the process of starting up an LLC for my first rental purchase. My plans are to buy and hold multiple rentals over the next few years, do you recommend the same entity structure (holding entities and management entity) for a single owner?

I plan on using a 3rd party property management company due to being out of state and out of country a lot. I get confused when people call their own LLCs the PM, is this only for people that manage their own properties? Since I am utilizing a 3rd party property manager should I forgo the PM LLC and just have individual holding companies for my properties?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this.

B

I have the same question about how to start out. I'm in the process of forming my first LLC to purchase a rental property under as the sole owner/manager. I plan on using a property manager as I live out of state.

Do I/Should I put a holding/management LLC between myself and all the LLC(s) that would be below it that hold the individual properties? So it would go Me->Management LLC->Rental property LLC(s).

CPA's and lawyers seem to have conflicting views on this topic, I'm also curious on how you fund the property LLC's, I am guessing you have to flow funds to the Management LLC, then down to the the Property LLC?

I could really use some guidance on why or why not this structure would benefit me.