All Forum Posts by: Anna Buffkin

I havent had to replace any in a while, but last time I used Window World.

I own 10 properties, some in good school districts and some in not so good school districts; however, I have 1 house zoned for the best school in one of the best districts in the state.  It's in an older neighborhood built before higher end homes built around it near the lake.  As the vast majority of homes for the school are not affordable for a normal middle class family, it is never vacant and my phone rings off the hook when I do have a vacancy.  

My current tenant has a special needs son.  The district offers the most comprehensive program available for special needs children like her son.  She had applied for an out of district waiver but was denied due to space.  I have a vacancy in May. She came with security deposit and first month's rent in hand.  With an in district address, the school could not deny her son the help he needed and my rental was one of the few properties available in her price range.  

I have a combination of SFH, duplex, and Condos. I generally use street name, but as I own 4 units in the same condo complex I call them by their unit number (i.e. A1, B2, C3, D4). Where I only own 1 condo, I call it by its street name. Don't know what I will do if I get another in the complex. I only own 1 duplex. It's on a long street name, Apple Valley Road. I call the property apple valley, but abbreviate the units as AVA and AVB.

Generally the name comes naturally and I use it as shorthand both in accounting and talking about the property which is funny when I start talking about a house by its nickname to someone else without thinking. 

Zestimates can be all over the place especially for multifamily.  They work best in homogeneous areas comparing apples to apples.   I use Zillow more for historical data than the Zestimate.  Think of the zestimate as asking your buddy's opinion as a starting point, but not a true expert on the subject. 

The first property I purchased was on Maid Stone Road. My LLC is Maid Stone Properties LLC. Any future LLCs will probably be some derivative thereof.

Ironically, the house on Maid Stone Road is still owned in my personal name and not my LLC.

If the tenants want to buy, I'd go ahead and sell it.  If this is your only rental or one of only a few, I would sell.  

If you have enough cash flowing properties which can carry the weight of this property should an event cause it to go from cash neutral to cash negative and you want to speculate on future appreciation or rising rents, I think the answer lies in your risk tolerance and end goals (don't you love the it depends BP answers). 

Also: Schedule E mentioned above is the tax form used for rentals in the US.  The poster assumed that you were  filing in the US.  

There are horror stories in every aspect of real estate.  If one reacts to every one off story, none of us would ever invest.  The best we can do is protect ourselves with a good lease and good screening.  I refuse to believe a large segment of the rental market will resort to criminal activity in the course of paying rent.  

The above scenario about the scammed BP is actually not a worst case scenario in my book.  It sucks that he was scammed, but the tenant left the unit presumably without trashing it.   It sounds like the landlord is in the same place as if the woman had stopped paying rent and he had to evict losing on average 2-3 months rent from eviction and turn over.  While I have not had to evict a tenant beyond filing initial paperwork, which is an anomaly consider the number of tenants I have had and an 8.22% eviction rate in my rentals' county, it is unfortunately a risk and cost of doing business.    File  charges, possible file a civil claim through the magistrate and move on.   

I believe is you take a out mortgage with the intent to deceive, its fraud.  

Now if you intended to live in it and for some reason the plan change do to unforeseen circumstances that would be different.  For example, if you lost your job and had to take another one out of state right after you closed on a mortgage, the intent was not to deceive.

 I hadn't thought about that, but I guess I have been potentially unknowingly accepting credit cards for years via paypal and Cashapp.

Thanks.

What is everyone's thoughts and opinions on accepting credit card payments from tenants?  

I have generally veered away from credit card payments as now the tenant is in debt to my company and the credit card company come the following month but accepted a payment for the balance of rent owed today.  This was a long time tenant and I know the backstory on what set her back financially.   I have never told a tenant no I don't accept credit cards but have also not been asked since I've had the capability to accept nor do I advertise that I can.  I do encourage ACH.   I have no policy currently though I keep a Word document with policies like tenant screens as I come across something I need to clarify. 

My question is, for those who accept credit card payments or who have done so in the past, do you find that it reduces your delinquencies or creates more headaches and issues? 

I'm not worried about fees as I am in a state that allows for credit card surcharges and if I start accepting them, I can write this into the new leasing agreements.

Anyway, from others experience, should I accept credit cards or avoid them?