All Forum Posts by: Austin F.

I prefer mixed sex houses, haven't had any issues. Be very upfront about the living situation and expectations, have a system for chores in place and if anyone causes drama of any variety deal with it fast and effectively.

Edit to add: Don't rent to a family and live in a room with them, that's just weird.

Thanks @Andrew Tucker sent a message your way 

I've decided to go with Dext for receipt storage, organization all that jazz, and Xero for accounting. I can get the two apps for $54/mo total compared to the 80/mo for QBO so that was the final deciding factor. My accountant is familiar with both, and it seems both are pretty equal when it comes to features and abilities. 

If I dislike it I can always change services, though the next step is more likely into a Buildium or Yardi style product.

Ceiling white matte, walls Navajo White eggshell, trim base white semi gloss. 

I don't think the property is as far off as some are leading you to believe. These older houses will never look as clean as the built in the 80s stuff will I don't see anything a little elbow grease won't fix.

Clean the place better, the snow shovel laying on the garage floor is a bad look. Arrange everything and make it look like you cared, sweep the leaves out. Toilet seat down, no crap on the counters (roller cover?). All the junk in the basement goes in the trash. Make the place look how you would give it over to your tenants and then take pics again.

Figure out a way to fix that garage insulation, and then don't take a picture of it. Same for the plaster issue in the closet, omit that picture, its a deal breaker for someone scrolling on their computer, but probably not for someone who comes and tours the place.

Picture quality, find a way to improve it. Pics look like they're taken off a flip phone. One of your friends has a fancy iPhone with a wide angle lens, get them to take pics for a beer, then make sure you upload the full quality images (should be at least 10mb) to the listing site.

When I look for places I don't use that listing site because its all institutional apartments and I don't want to live in one of those, list on a different site.

Looking to start a new accounting program with the new year, and one of the most important parts of it is to be able to catalog receipts virtually. So far I have narrowed down my options to Xero or Quickbooks. Xero's online receipt management (HubDoc) has very underwhelming reviews, while Quickbooks seems to be somewhat average at best.

It is possible to connect Quickbooks or Xero to something like Recieptbank (now Dext) but I worry about fighting with integration issues for a non-native platform.

What is everyone else doing and how do you like it? Remember that I do not want to store physical copies of receipts, and I find the scan into google drive method slow and annoying.

Michigan BCBS, awful coverage (7k deductible), high prices, poor service.

I've tried to find anything different but every place I look has large coverage holes or exemptions that bring me back to BCBS. If anyone has anything else I am listening.

Find the studs, attach the brackets to the stud, attach railing to brackets. Shouldn't charge tenant for an improperly installed railing.

Studs are hard to locate in plaster. Chances are they are still 16" on center, find an electrical box, figure out which side the stud is on, and measure out 16". Drill some test holes to confirm. Holes should be small enough to quickly fill with spackle after.

In my area knob and tube is very common, have not had an issue with insurance. I would recommend calling an insurance provider and asking if they will cover before you chop up the whole house.

Knob and tube is perfectly safe as long as it isn't disturbed, same goes with asbestos.