All Forum Posts by: Ann Miller

The prices here in Washington are beyond crazy in Western WA. We invest in Eastern WA where prices are lower but that is starting to change. Last year you could buy a house that was on the market for a while under asking price. Now there are bidding wars and cash is king. Our first duplex was bought with a traditional mortgage with 25% down at 4.2% since it was an investment property. We were lucky enough to get it without paying over asking price of 280,000. We rent out one unit at $1150 and the other at $1175. (Different rents because we used the amazing advice of offering 3 different choices of lease renewal which is in the "Book of managing rental properties") We actually scored since there were already tenants and they have been great. The last SFR we bought was a foreclosure that we also offered a bit below our top offer after using the rental calculator, but we did pay cash since we knew it would help us get the home. We got it well below market price though at 160,000. We are going to hold it but if we did want to sell it we could get at least $195,000. We are renting it for $1340 monthly. We did decide to allow the tenants two small dogs even though we had other good applicants. We charged an extra $20 per dog and a $200 pet fee in addition to the deposit.

We just signed our newest tenant to our new single family home that we purchased as a foreclosure. We have had such great advice from BP and are pretty passionate about the real estate business. We were lucky to find great renters after reviewing  many applicants. We started with no pets but ended up going with a couple with 2 small dogs.(after doing our due diligence with past landlords.)  We used the information from BP about pet fee's and added $20 per dog to the rent. We only signed a 12 month lease so we could raise rent as needed for insurance, taxes, etc. After following the knowledge of BP, we feel that we have established good guidelines with the tenants and they know that we run this as a business and have requirements and rules. Running this as a business and not a hobby is one of our first rules we always abide by. We decided to pay cash for this home and paid about 25,000 less than the market price and we will net close to $1100 per month. This added to our other rentals will bring us  to $2600 monthly net. We usually let the cash build so we can use it for other purchases if we find something. 

Interesting. You might ask in the help section. Mine are very readable, Literally life savers, No reinventing the wheel. Good luck!

If you buy The Book on Managing Rental Properties all of the information you are looking for is included. I have referred to this book so many times it has been a great resource for all problems and questions. It includes in each section what you need and has a PDF to go with it.

Thank you for the replies. We didn't go to the door because we believe we have to give them notice that we are coming to do an inspection. They have been tenants for a year and we also felt we had to check on legalities to protect us. 

We have a SFH that we rent in a town 100 miles from home. We drove by the house today and one of the cars on the driveway on the side of the house has graffiti written in red with the word "whore". How do we approach the renters about this car? Legally what are our rights in dealing with this?

We also are looking in the Phoenix area but I agree with @Bud Dwyer that prices are high right now. We are sitting back and waiting. Lots of great information to soak up on BP though while we are waiting!

I have recently been introduced to Rootstock. Do any BP members have any knowledge of this site and if so give any feedback or comments on it?

I would shop around for a better umbrella policy. Ours is $270 a year and we have a lot to cover. 

Can you elaborate more on the loan you got using your LLC? We have an LLC but our first multi unit property was bought under our names (regular bank) because they wouldn't give us a loan under the LLC. Were you able to purchase under your LLC because of working with a local bank? As you can tell we are newbies and would like to learn how we can purchase under our LLC.