What ducks would you have in a row before purchasing 1st home?

Question

Curious how other landlords organized their business before even making their first purchase

At what point did you establish your business organization?

When did you get your pre-approval letter from the bank?

What docs, notices, or agreements do you keep on hand?

Jasper Cangelosi · Answer

I like the idea of having an LLC to protect my personal assets, only so much home owners insurance will cover.  Where I’m from it’s fairly inexpensive to hire an attorney to evict a bad tenant. 300$ tops for the entire eviction process. I just want to know what you and other landlords first did when you realized I want to be an investor, how did you line everything up to make sure it went all smooth before you even bought your first property?

Anastasia G. · Answer

@Jasper Cangelosi what is the purpose of getting LLC? In NJ (Essex county in particular) if you ever have to evict a tenant and if your property property is in LLC - you cannot do it on your own.. you have to have a lawyer representing LLC or other business entity. Here lawyers charge at least 500 to show up in court. Plus obtaining financing in the name of LLC with little downpayment is not an easy task. Build your team of advisers.

Jasper Cangelosi · Answer

@Paul Stewart

I have a personal residence.  I’m just looking to see what other landlords did before they bought their first SFR. As a rental house. Did they have there LLC set up first?  Did they get preapproved from a bank to see how much they can afford?  Besides a lease and rental application what other documents did they keep in file?  I want to be as prepared as possible before I start making offers.

Paul Stewart · Answer

Are you looking to purchase a home for yourself or are your looking to purchase a multi family that you can house hack?