All Forum Posts by: Andrew S.

You could sell it and buy $30k / $50k / $100k worth of index funds that should all give you > $1200 per year in dividends & gains. And no maintenance calls. 

My individual buildings have $300k liability and I have a $1 M umbrella policy.  I'd probably be willing to have $0 liability on the individual policies (which I assume is not allowed from the insurance company) and have a $1.5M umbrella policy for liability.  Will your insurance company / agent allow $0 on a building's policy?  Your generally legally required to have an insurance policy, but not an umbrella. 

Sounds like you're changing the zoning of your building from R1 to R2 (single family to 2 unit), per the names in my area. Permitting will have a cost and probably time delays.  For something like this, yeah you should. For replacing a piece of drywall, I'm sure the city would take your permit money, but I'd guess not everyone pulls a permit for just replacing a hole in the wall. 

-Agreed that asking for letters is weird. You should make the calls yourselves. 

-Have them fill out an application, if they pass that - landlord references, employment verification, etc than have them fill out a background and credit check. I'm not going to pull my own credit then send that out to landlords or banks, etc. 

-I get the majority of my applicants through facebook marketplace. 

-Asking for first month's rent, security deposit, and last month's rent can be tough for folks. Maybe skip the last month's rent, unless they are a high risk tenant (bad credit, etc)

Your unwillingness to clean up "a lot of trash" and clean the place will probably give some benefit of the doubt to the landlord. I've seen that personally in court, regardless of the receipts, dates of communication, detailed receipts, etc. If you put in a good honest effort cleaning the place, then maybe you have a case. I respectfully hope the courts side with the landlord. If I had a tenant do nothing, leave a lot of trash, and destroy the carpets, then I tend to have less empathy than if they would have tried. Karma?

I would keep the utilities in your name, split them every month with the tenants. Look online at other rentals in your area. Maybe most landlords are paying the water, garbage, sewer bill like in my area. So I just pay that and it's included in the rent. I'd keep it as simple as possible vs a formula. Your utility company might do "budget billing" which they average out the years bills so they're the same every month. That might be easiest for tenants to budget and plan for every month. Also, so they can give you the utility payment right away vs waiting for you to divide the bill by 3 or whatever.

Looks like expected brick cracking from over the decades. Does not look concerning. A 1/2" wide crack might be. I assume that brick is many decades old probably, only hairline cracks is probably a good sign. You can buy a boroscope waterproof camera off Amazon for < $100. They work pretty well. Great for looking behind drywall, etc.

Hey BP,

I'm a newer investor, house hack a duplex for 2 years and have had a 6 plex for a year. I have like $40k in reserves and access to my $50k HELOC. Debating purchasing another property, ideally another small multi-family house hack. Could also do a single family. Think it's too risky to spend half of my HELOC or half my reserves to purchase a cash-flow break even single family? The single family would have good potential for sweat equity/ forced appreciation and long term appreciation.

Thanks,

Andrew

You could get an electronic keypad lock on the front door and just tell them the code. Then change it later on. 

Welcome to capitalism. What they do with their house or business or lives shouldn't be a concern or something you try to control. Spend the time writing a lease instead of worrying.