Hudson, OH · Member since 2016 · 48 posts · 9 votes
Hi All,
I know it's standard practice to count a certain percentage (I've heard 10%) of the rent you get from a property as going towards repairs. However, as I'm sure everyone is aware, these can be very "chunky". You could go several months with no costs whatsoever, and then get hit a $3000 air conditioning bill.
My question regards how people handle this with capital. Is it standard practice to just continually put away that 10% in a special account that's for "repair funds" for each property? Do people just have a capital account that they keep at a certain level and replenish from the rent from all of their properties when it dips below a certain level? If so, how do you calculate what that capital amount is? As a percentage of the assessed value of the properties?
Any insight on this is much appreciated. Thanks in advance for the advice!
Guy with Great Hair · Austin, TX · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 4k+ votes
10y
I take all the funds from rental income and dump them in one account, pay all the bills out of it and just keep letting it grow until it hits a number that I can safely say will take care of any unplanned expense. Figure a couple grand per unit while accounting for economies of scale (not all will go wrong on all units at the same time).
whatever is leftover OVER that amount, I use to fund next deals.