All Forum Posts by: Carey Branam

A local broker/investor has recently bought a tax lien for the house next door to us. We want to buy it from him but he has not quieted the title. We have a well known RE attorney here that says we should be able to quiet the title but it all makes us very nervous. If during the quiet title process the original owner comes up with the $5k for the taxes then she can get it back and we’re out $35k. (We agreed on a purchase price of $40k). The investor doesn’t want to bother with doing the quiet title himself, he said if he does that he will just sell at market value. Has anyone had the prior owner come back during the quiet title process and try to reclaim the property? Do I just put all my trust in this attorney (who is highly trusted and very well known all over the state). We really want the property because it’s right next door and would have so much potential if we fixed it up. We already have 2 houses on our lot so it would give us 3 houses right together.

We bought an uninhabitable house in Montana this winter that we have been plugging away at little by little while still working full time.  We would really like to just finish it up so we are wanting to sell one of our rental houses in Kansas.  I’m pretty sure we’ll have to pay capital gains but thought I would look into 1031 exchange.  

Is there any way to sell the rental house in Kansas to fund this project?  We have a 20k note on it and need at least 50k for repairs.  It will be used as a rental as well.  We should have done the 1031 exchange when we bought this property but the kansas property has gone up in value quite a bit this spring.  We really hadn’t even considered selling it until now because it’s a block from a college campus.  

Could we move the Kansas property into an LLC, sell it, then purchase the Montana property with the LLC from us as individuals? We have not set up an LLC yet.

Any other way to use the sale funds for our Montana property and lessen the capital gains punch?

Also- who do you go to for this types of questions?  My accountant is not much help- a lawyer?  Title company?  New accountant?  Not sure who is the most versed in 1031 and tax laws.

If a landlord chooses not to extend the lease after the initial year is up how do you get the tenants out? Am I required to continue renting to them? Is there wording in your lease that makes it easier to move people along? It just seems easier to kick them out after their lease is up than to evict.

What are your "must have" items in your lease agreements?  Tweaking my lease before signing with new tenants.  I definitely learned a lot after last year, but I figured you all would have some items that may be helpful.  Maybe something you wish you had included, or something you added after some bad tenants moved out?

We finally got our toughest tenants yet, out of our house.  Unfortunately they chewed up all of the hardwood floors.  Looks like their couch or chairs did it in the living room and every single bedroom is chewed up from their beds.  I hate that people are so inconsiderate.  My question is, how do I charge for this?  The only way to really fix it is to redo the hardwood floors but refinishing all of the floors would be in excess of their deposit.  Just curious what others have done in this situation.  We are preparing the house to sell.  The hardwood floors would have been a nice selling feature but now it's an eye sore unless we refinish them all.

We have tenants moving out this weekend.  They have been a nightmare, always paid late and have cost us a ton of money by flushing wipes down the toilet.  We are going to sell the property once they move out.  The house needs a new roof and my husband would like to start it tomorrow as the weather will be nice for 4 days straight.  They are telling me they think we should wait until they move out to work on the roof.  He is only doing an overlay, not tearing off, so he won't be in their way.  As long as we give 24 hour notice we are okay to go work on OUR house, aren't we?  I checked the lease and it's not very specific.  I will attach a screen shot of the paragraph that talks about repairs.  We really need to get the roof done and get this house on the market ASAP.  They have caused so many problems and cost us a ton of money.

@Jon_Holdman The septic tank was replaced 8 years ago and it was emptied in October. lt is in the lease that they are responsible for repairs to plumbing if it is their fault or the fault of their children or guests. I want to bill them for repairs, but how do I prove fault? I guarantee they will not be able to pay for repairs and then come up with rent by the time their pay or quit is up. I’m also expecting they will be livid and we will end up with more holes in our walls. And they will just completely trash the house even more. They are on rural water but I should be able to call and get past water usage since we are the home owners, I’ll try that tomorrow.

Please don’t tell me to hire an attorney. We are not able to do that at this time.

I’ve got nightmare tenants in my rental property. The septic keeps backing up into the basement shower. It took a month of doing multiple repairs to septic, laterals etc to figure out the problem. We started snagging wipes with the snake. We have told them to stop flushing any wipes (even if they say flushable). We’ve put over $1,000 into renting equipment, clean up, and new carpet, not to mention probably 40+ hours of labor and the travel time as the property is 45 minutes away. The problem has been fixed for almost a month and it happened again 2 days ago. Out the bathroom and all over the new carpet. When my husband went to the house he found an open package of baby wipes right next to the toilet upstairs. They didn’t pull any out with the snake this time but they did snag a lot of stuff that got pushed on through. So I guess we can’t prove it? We have owned this house for 13 years, we lived in it for 7 years and have never had any problems with this until these people moved in. The other problem is they have the unfinished portion of the basement filled with clothes. Some are in garbage bags and a ton of clothes are just spread out all over. I have no idea what’s going on but maybe she’s running a laundry business out of the house? (Which would be against the lease). I just can’t imagine what all the clothes are doing down there, we can hardly get to the drain next to the washer to work on the pipes. They are getting lent when they snake. So maybe the laundry is related to whatever keeps clogging the pipes. We really just need to get them out. There are holes in the bathroom door upstairs we just replaced when we remodeled the bathroom before they moved in, there are cigarettes everywhere in the yard, they pay their rent late every single month. *they always pay before their 3 day pay or quit is up So, how do I get them out? We are in the process of flipping a house but haven’t been able to touch it because we have to work on unclogging their drain every time my husband is off work. This is literally going to break us & we’re sinking fast. We can’t keep cleaning up their **** (literally), but I don’t know how to prove it’s their fault and how to evict them without proof. Help!

I have to serve my first pay or quit tomorrow. What’s next? Can someone link me to the KS laws describing exactly what I need to do to keep this eviction moving? On another note, how long does it usually take to get them out? Any tips?