All Forum Posts by: Mitch Dowler

I have worked with Mark Kohler on asset protection and also on tax matters.

http://markjkohler.com/

Ouch, I missed out on this! Hopefully there will be a next time.

I will be at Brad's event this next month, will any of you be there?

My rental contracts are written so that funds collected are posted to fees before they are posted to rent. In this case the tenant would still be in arrears on rent but the fees would be paid up. It is always tougher to collect on fees than rent so fees should have funds applied to them first.

I would not bend if you can successfully rent without allowing pets and you told other tenants in the property there are to be no pets. In no case would I ever, ever waive a security deposit. Accepting very short leases such as six months is a good reason to increase the monthly rent to accommodate increased costs for frequently turning the property.

I see comments about "Emotional Support Animal". Landlords are required to accept "Service Animals" trained to perform certain tasks for a disabled person but you are not required to accept "Emotional Support Animals". There are various terms that have been invented by pet owners or folk who "feel" their pet is something more than a pet to bypass no pet policies and make a landlord believe they must accept the animal because they have a doctor's note.

I have been using Quickbooks for years but Quickbooks has cut back on the functionality of the desktop version and it is a whopping $40 a month for the online version needed to do classes. I used Quickbooks initially for my rental properties but back then the functionality was not sufficient for me. Maybe it has improved now. One function I use a lot is splits. I use a cash transactions account for some items or services to split the expense among several rental properties. Can Quicken Rental Property use the splits function?

Doesn't the seller have to pay the excise taxes? I appreciate your referral to Ticor but I am not sure if they would consider an investor for that purpose as I mostly buy and hold out of state and I am not constantly creating churn to make them a profit.

I have a single family investment property I may possibly be able to sell to the tenant. My family used to live in the property and when we upgraded it wasn't practical to sell at the time and it has been a break even as a rental. I want enough out of the property to pay off the mortgage and closing costs and this would give a modest below market savings to the tenant if we avoid Realtor commissions.

I have heard that I should allow 7% of the selling price to pay closing costs, does this sound reasonable accurate so I avoid bringing money to the table just to sell it?

Thanks for any advice on this.

Steve K I found a link on the City of Tacoma web site on their licensing program. I have purposely stayed out of Tacoma investing. Tacoma is not nearly as restrictive as Seattle there are those who would like it to be.

http://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_departments/finance/tax_and_license/rental_business_license/

I see the Joint Base Lewis McChord military market as staying strong. Yes there will be some lay-offs and force reduction but it cannot be too significant as so much money has been spent developing this installation and it is still ongoing. JBLM is a power projection platform meaning our military forces can be projected throughout the world via the C17's at McChord and nearby naval stations.  Military tenants tend to be very reliable but know they will move every 2 to 4 years. The good thing is I can easily turn my properties to a new tenant in a week's time.

In Seattle the city council is constantly looking for new ways to gouge landlords and would have already implemented rent control if it were not illegal at the state level. It is an expensive and highly regulated market to enter. Tacoma has implemented licensing and inspections as well so I stay out of Tacoma.

I am hoping to move into small commercial multifamily in an area surrounding JBLM. I see properties available that could be better managed and need some amenities added to attract higher quality military tenants.