All Forum Posts by: John A.

Screen them like they are moving in with your daughter!

But seriously, put everything in writing and require all agreements/changes to be in writing and approved by the Landlord/PM.

Andrew Dooly, You're probably going to hear this from many more responses. If you plan on renting this house out in a couple of years as an investment, what you like to live in should not be your first consideration. You should look at income potential as a rental. What do rental market conditions in the area look like? What will the PITI be compared to rents?

In reply to your original question, getting a loan for a second or third house is easy if a) you have the down payment b) your credit score is good and c) your debt to income is reasonable. The banks generally won't consider the rental income on your first property until you can show two years of rental income. But I wouldn't worry about house #2 until you find a good INVESTMENT opportunity in house #1.

Good Luck,

Really, you're losing money. The house is depreciating and you are losing your cost basis by the depreciation each year. If and when you sell the house, you'll be taxed on the difference between the selling cost and the reduced basis, unless you use a 1031 to buy another investment property.

Experts - am I correct? Or am I seeing this wrong?

You can have your contractor repair the damage. Then bill the tenant for it. Be sure to explain why they are being billed and provide a copy of the receipt. Don't wait until they move out and take it out of their deposit. If you wait until the end of the lease, you may have more damages than the deposit will cover.

I agree. To protect myself, I would keep a log of all actions with date/time of processing. It would show when I sent a verification request and when it was received. This would allow me to process multiple applications.

Like others have said, first application that completes processing gets first crack at the propery.

I'm going to try and use Intuit Payment Network this month and see how it turns out. They charge 50 cents a transaction. Credit card payments are more, but you can disable that feature.

Good point. I meant in general terms of how a warm beverage may influence a buyer.

This topic made me think of how sensory input can affect behavior. Look at this article about priming: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/340408/description/The_Hot_and_Cold_of_Priming

This could lead to some interesting experiments when showing a house. Scented candles of apple pie in the kitchen is a good idea. What about offering a cup of coffee or hot tea? The sound of a crackling fire in a room with a fireplace?

I have a water softener in my home. I would not put one in a rental. If I bought a rental with one in it, I'd take it out.

Like Steve and Jay stated, the renter will probably not keep it supplied with salt (about 40 lbs a month, give or take).

Most water softeners installations include a bypass valve. So you could just bypass the inoperable softener and unplug it. Or you could remove it completely.

I don't know for sure if a new softener would be damaged by not refilling the salt, but I wouldn't take the chance.

Steven Hamilton II

Sounds like we agree it is deductible. Now I need to verify how it's deducted (Schedule A or Schedule E).

Thanks! I'll look into this more.

John