All Forum Posts by: Alice K.

I live over 800 miles away, but what's more important to me is the time zone and having people I know are near the property that I can trust to watch after. 
As a night owl, having a property in a time zone 3 hours ahead would be nearly impossible for me to deal with.

On the other hand, I have a friend who does his W2 and loves the 3 hour time difference so he deals with that in the morning and then works at the "normal" hours. 

@Brian Burke - Your answer was incredibly helpful. As far as the LLC structure for "sophomore class". Would you recommend a member-managed / manager-managed LLC structure?
Purpose: I'd do the work, they'd be passive generally, but are non-accredited and are friends.

Wanted to make it a bit more formal for folks without getting too complicated with legal work, yet set it up in such a way that makes sense for the future.

Thanks in advance!

@Brie Schmidt & @Dave Foster -- Great thoughts on loans / due clauses.
@Israel R. - What I've noticed froom a privacy-perspective is even if you put it in an LLC, it won't make much of a difference since one could just search for you in the CA business entity lookup.

Another thought as was mentioned here, I don't see too many LLCs holding residential properties in the Bay myself (I haven't done a lot of looking outside), a lot more trusts... Which isn't really protection, but how more advanced people seem to hold title. Or, maybe they're just all fools. Ha.  

But, yeah once you go 5+ or full on commercial, many are held by LLCs.

Since your name is already on chain of title, people will know if they look up the address in the public records.

Since it costs $800 / LLC here, perhaps it would be better for you to just up the insurance you have / liability. At least for this property if you're worried.

Been racking my brain on this topic.

I try to keep these thoughts in my mind, often conflicting because today, this very moment, things look crazy:
"The best time to was 20 years ago, the second best is today." (easy to think)

"Don't get emotional, invest in projects where the numbers make sense." (not so easy to do)

"Cash is king, cash flow queen"

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"Adding value" is certainly something I've been looking into. Acquiring atm for residential seems to be ludicrous in many locations in the Bay and now even, other locations in the country I invest in. 

I keep digging, but it's been tricky to try to invest my few hard-earned dollars wisely when it feels like most of the deals are gambles.

Then I see highly-leveraged projects / development-plays from some aggressive investors -- also more intense and scary than I'd like. 

Eg: San Francisco / Oakland flippers. Maybe I'm just a giant chicken. Actually, no, I am. (ha) 

BUT, like you said, I still want to, and I'd prefer to do it now than 20 years from now (assuming no natural disasters / other things one cannot predict). 

 "The word no is money in the bank" -- I need to apply this to my personal life for time-sucking friends. Haha. Thanks for the share!

The last crisis we had was spiders. We asked other landlords who said, "yeah, spiders are a thing, I hire a pest guy."

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I like to keep relationships good but yeah, some others have really irked us in the past. It sort of depends the rent level charged (A class v C class).

What my property manager and I do these days is:
- Prioritize the list (when you get multiple requests)

- Think "do other units have this?" 

- Do I really need to do this lease-wise?

- How are they as tenants? 

- Is this likely to be the last request?

If it's a big fat question mark / no, then we try to politely say sorry.

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Agreed with @Chris Youssi about not renewing the lease for complainers of things that are not normal. 

I tell my fellow city-based renter friends not to complain unless it's a leak / important and the landlord may very well not raise their rent. I know I'm more keen to keep things the same if everyone is at peace. 

Looking forward to catching up with BP folks! It's been a hot minute. 

No. lol. Better off not rented. 

Unless these are some insanely classy tenants with Paris Hilton pooches. (I'm certainly not one of those and I don't know anyone who is.)

Better off paying the mortgage than 1 year's worth of damage from 4 dogs. 
Forget it. 

@Jon Crosby - Thank you for this! Love how this spreadsheet includes snow removal. In 2016 I was pretty much negative cash flow due to snow removal on the roof and water for the lawn. 

@Leigh Ann Smith - It's great your husband can do it. I was thinking of hitting up the kids in  the cul-de-sac for a hand with things as I have no concept with lawn care. 

A few ideas:

* If you KNOW every home inspector on earth will find the issue you could state it up front in the agent MLS notes with the proposed solution / cost to fix. It's a typical thing in SF where everyone is in litigation / properties are selling as if everyday is Black Friday. (E.g.: I can't think of a 10+ yr old $1MM condo I've shown that hasn't gone through a lawsuit... Yet, every time a home buyer hears "litigation" they panic. Sometimes it makes sense, other times it's the usual 10 year builder v homeowner battle...)

Potential issues: Could be the kiss of death, but if it's a known, for-sure problem, not saying anything is... omission and can get you in trouble. 

* You could get your own inspector to give his/her blessing and see if someone offers without their own inspection. (Unlikely if your market is cold, but maybe it isn't...)

* Say sorry, lose the deal / get

* Fix it, write it off, and stop paying the holding costs

* Negotiate to fix their most critical issues

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Random Thoughts 

From a buyer's perspective-- as people above mentioned, newer buyers tend to want a flip property that's PERFECT and have a hard time wrapping their head around blowing through savings and then ALSO having to fix it further... 

Idea 6: Wait until your market is so insanely hot and has low inventory like San Francisco, oh and a "Not In My Backyard" mentality... Where people are paying 700k and likely going to bid over hot, sultry properties like this. 

"Still loanable" !!! haha

Sorry though, about the unortunate line items you seem to be encountering. :/