All Forum Posts by: Jeff Bridges

this guy knows about how to do it. read and contact him if you have more questions.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4240/blog_posts/40047-hack-of-9-29-14--how-to-wholesale-a-hud-deal-without-a-double-close

Bank is not always aware of the same deficiencies you are. I have been in a short sale negotiation where bank countered, and I raised my original offer by $400 (essentially staying the same but creating a slightly higher number) just so it would show as an actual counter offer in their computer system and look like good faith negotiations have been made for investor to approve. When I countered, I provided list of Non-cosmetic repairs required and cost to justify my offer. Include copies of the liens if you have them and the cost it will take to rectify the landscaping and tear down the un-permitted patio if its unsafe as well as other key house components that might not be obvious. I include pictures of items in very poor condition to show how hard it might be to sell the house over time and wait it out for another offer, the spreadsheet of total costs and put them in a tidy PDF along with the offer. If you are bidding against other bidders, it will become more about being the highest offer rather than convincing the bank to accept your only offer. Sometimes staying put with your original offer (and adding a couple of hundred) might work for you for your consideration. Good luck!

 I use the Quicken Rental Property manager (PC desktop software). This has worked well for the 2 properties I manage with the software and I only spend a few minutes each month to categorize/ label and check transactions. There are plenty of online based finance tracking software but many charge a monthly fee whereas this one is a one time software price and it will interface to all of your online accounts at banks/ credit cards etc and download transactions. The software cost also gets listed as a business expense:) 

http://www.amazon.com/Quicken-Rental-Property-Manager-2015/dp/B00M9GTJLY

https://ipn.intuit.com/ -this is the service that my tenants all use to pay rent with bank accounts.

You'll have to issue yourself a check from the rental property operating account for the 10% operating fee and categorize it as a property management expense in your software. Then yes, the quicken software has a report generating feature that creates your Schedule-E report that you will email to the accountant that does your fathers taxes at the end of the year. This is recommended given the IRS troubles he has had in the past. You'll just pay personal taxes on the property management income you earn. If you get sick of doing management at any point, a property manager would end up doing the income/expense tracking for you for his 10% fee and issue you a schedule-E at the end of the year. You have the flexibility to choose who does this. Good luck!

First off I'm not an accountant, but I'll tell you how I think through my rental income. I use Quicken rental property manager btw and have my tenants use online payments using intuit Payment network (IPN) which charges 50 cents per transaction for that service. All expenses and income are associated with that rental is logged in the software or downloaded from the bank account/ credit cards and I spend once a month categorizing each of the downloaded transactions. At the end of the year, I generate a schedule-E form for rental income in the quicken software and hand that to my accountant, who prepares my return and then tells me how much tax I need to pay. This helps me track all of the expenses I incur throughout the year for repairs. Just because you have x income and no mortgage interest to deduct from your income, doesn't mean your taxes equal your tax bracket based on your total income (i.e. 30% for example). You get to subtract from your gross income all home depot expenses, supplies, unplanned contractor repairs, legal and accountant fees from your income to determine how much taxable income you will be responsible for at year end. The accountant cant also apply property depreciation to reduce your taxable income further that I for the life of me cannot compute on my own.

If you don't use software, hold onto all receipts related to rental property and calculate at end of year, but really you would benefit from implementing a system early like quicken that you can grow to help you track multiple properties when you get to that point and categorize everything and assign the expense to each property so your end of year organization becomes something simple like handing over the schedule-E forms to your accountant. If rental income is all you earn or will be in the future, you're best off interfacing with your accountant to develop a plan on how to pay taxes on a regular basis, but most people their full time job deducts most of the taxes throughout the year and settle up at the end. Lots of great forums on BP about taxes and favorite accounting software from all of the landlords. I recommend reading up more and decide for yourself.

Homepath goes through their website online offer submission process so the bank is able to have transparency with the process so the realtor can't cherry pick his offers. He really does have to pick the highest offer. And usually they don't blow smoke when they ask for best and highest after mentioning other offers. It should be your strongest offer you are willing to pay if you want to secure the property. When I submit failed offers when there are multiple bids and I dont hear anything within 24-48 hours, they are usually waiting for the winning bidder to send in all signed contract paperwork during that timeframe and will update the listing on MLS after they get the signed paperwork and all is final. If you dont hear anything during this timeframe, its likely you weren't the highest bidder or strongest offer.

This could have been their intent the entire time to rent since they did not expect to get an offer so quickly and needed the rental money to make ends meet. Assume the worst that they did not do adequate tenant screening and picked just anyone who would be willing to rent the place in its current dilapidated condition. I would have your agent relay a message to the seller agent that the offer is only valid on unit being delivered vacant at closing. I would not settle on buying with the existing tenants as you'll have them for another year potentially and they could cause additional damage and problems. If it's not too late, have them work out with the tenants not to move them in. Reconsider your offer if they will not deliver the unit vacant. Baltimore can be a rough place to have crappy tenants that won't leave, wont pay rent, or won't take care of the place.

Rentometer is helpful to visualize rent comps as close as possible to the subject property, or do a quick analysis on a neighborhood I'm not familiar with. The caveat is it's really is just another source to confirm the trends you see in your neighborhood. Journalists and researchers use multiple sources to verify facts and trends and you should do the same, leveraging Craigslist and MLS if possible. Downside to rentometer is you can't see the original listing or property type or condition to compare apples to apples down to finer detail beyond bedrooms. Your agent can also help you pull rental comps and current listings for the neighborhood that do a better job showing the historical rental data and current competition. That is a gold mine when you are finally ready to purchase a rental and want to make a final analysis prior to making an offer or make a rental listing.

Redfin is only as good as the realtors who update their own listings and since it pulls from MLS, it will update as realtors do on MLS. MLS is pretty strict about realtors keeping their listings up to date but not all may take it seriously. I think most are up to date and kept current. They should still be active sales, but you can confirm against zillow to double check. Further, if you have an investor friendly buyers agent (costs you nothing) you are using to purchase these units, then you email them the redfin link, and they double check their MLS access for you to confirm if there are any contracts against them or realtor notes to explain further...

You aren't chasing your tail. You are chasing leads, some of which lead to a dead-end. It's a highly competitive market, so you'll have to put some exceptional effort in order to create results, none of which will fall into your lap. Here are some creative ways below:

6 Smart Tips for Getting the “First Look” at Every Hot Deal

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/05/08...

The Highly Effective (Completely Free) Marketing Trick Newbies Overlook

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/05/18...

She's also accusing you of not reporting your rental income as taxable income on your tax return immediately after moving in. This is not her business what you do with your personal financial management. Further, reporting your landlord to the IRS to be subjected to auditing is the lowest of the low and you might want to consider de-escalating the tension and state that those actions would not set a friendly tone in the tenant/ landlord relationship, given that she will have to interact with you regularly for repairs, rent checks and other issues. But if she wants out, certainly allow her to do so. she sounds awful and has chosen to be the self righteous citizen IRS agent/ crazy pants.

Next time, be sure to do a walkthrough with tenant before you hand over keys, perhaps at lease signing while unit is vacant, and fill out a unit inspection sheet (check the BP forms section). This way tenant signs over acceptance of unit condition and condition of all items will be listed. These complaints would be unfounded by the tenant if there were an inspection sheet signed by tenant.