All Forum Posts by: Roger S.

I used to be a member of the MMM forums, but I got banned for life during a political discussion where I argued much less forcefully my conservative point of view while being insulted and name called by the more liberal posters.   I did enjoy the forums, but a huge percentage of the participants are EXTREMELY liberal and very willing to attack any viewpoint that doesn't march in lockstep with theirs.

Many of the posters also seem to the think MMM is a demigod who is deserving of their worship and if your money tactics don't 100% agree you will also be ridiculed and insulted.

Leased a house to a young couple the other day.  My ad clearly states, no big dogs, no pits, no cats.  The backyard of this house is fenced, but it's not very tall.  When my wife showed them the house they said they had a dog, but his sister was going to keep it for him.    So, they signed the lease, paid the money and started moving in.    Today, they texted my wife that sister couldn't keep the dog, but not to worry it's crate trained and only goes outside on a leash.   And, oh yeah, it's a Great Dane.  

So, I told them in no uncertain terms, NO.   If you try to keep this dog, I'm cancelling the lease immediately, and refunding the money.   They asked if they could pay 100 bucks a month more and I could inspect the house monthly.  Again, I said no, I don't need the extra hassle of every month going to see if this horse has destroyed my house.

I think they thought we would roll over, and I may have when i first started out, but now I've learned better.   I'm almost positive they did this intentionally, because they then asked what kinds of dogs were acceptable as they would have to get a new baby after they get rid of the Great Dane.   

You're tilting at windmills here.  Lighten up, Francis.

I do it every winter, I live an hour North of Dallas.  A little hassle to save a possibly big hassle.

Fill the tank, spread the cost of the next few months of rent, and then don't renew in June.

Every time we buy a house we get a letter from the county appraiser requesting purchase price information.  I'll let you guess how quickly that goes in the shredder.

I have 10 class B- C homes, values between 60k and 130k. I set aside 1k per month in my all purpose Capex/Maint/Vacancy account. When the total account value exceeds 30k, I feel like that's sufficient and I feel like I can spend that money in other ways. I do all my own repairs except HVAC, so that's a considerable savings.

When looking at Capex, most of my houses are 900 square feet or less. So Capex is much less than larger, Class A or B houses. They have one water heater, not 2, several have window unit AC's, less than 75 bucks on Craigslist if one goes out. 4 of them have vinyl siding, so no paint costs for the foreseeable future. I can reroof a simple small roof by myself in a weekend, and around here, we get enough hail storms that insurance will usually provide a new roof every 10 years or so.

This works for me.  Everyone's situation is different.

Same caveat as above. 

Yes, absolutely.  If the cost is under $2500 I believe you can expense it, if it's over, you will have to depreciate it.

You can also run an auger down the vent line on the roof.  I've had luck with that.

Add an abandonment clause to your lease forms to help settle these issues in the future.