All Forum Posts by: Dan Vleck

I wouldn't.  But then, I never hire an inspector.  Looks like the water heater repair covered your cost of the inspection.  You should have reserves for paying for future repairs that will come up.  If you do have it reinspected, I would recommend hiring a different inspector, who will see different things.

@Marty Reardon I'm curious how many different banks you have talked to.  The banks have been very willing to work with me.  I'm wondering if the banks are not cooperating with you for some specific reason.  Work history, income, credit score, etc. are important for new investors like me.  They don't look at rental income for first couple years.

Posted in investor psychology, more like Psych 101 from college.  Meant as a fun end of year topic.

I have been having more and more nightmares in my sleep.  Some are homes I'm looking to buy and others are tenants doing things to my houses.  For example, one nightmare was a house I was fixing up to rent and every time I went over to work on it someone was there.  They would break in after I left and I'd have to kick them out every day.

Does anyone else have nightmares from REI?

I am also a fan of Dave R. I have mortgages, but often wonder if I should start paying them off or buying more with loans. I've decided that I'd keep buying more with loans until the banks stop lending me money. Then I will pay them down. This method provides me the best rate of return. After reading The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, I decided there was no right way to do REI. People have become wealthy many different ways, regarding how they financed.

I hope your success continues @Calvin Thomas.

I talked to a landlord in mn recently with an llc who said he did an eviction himself.  I also went to an rei meeting where they gave a method for a llc to appoint the owner as an agent, and somehow this allowed the owner to do the eviction. Wish I knew more. 

I did my own, but I don't have an llc yet. It gets expensive,  so try to find how to diy this.

I don't know about others, but I am fixated on rate of return. I tried the stock market, and could not beat the averages-indexes. I like doing home improvement projects,  so rei was a good fit. I see my houses as little oil wells pumping out cash. Looking to retire from engineering within ten years.

I meant depreciate 2/3 of costs for building improvements. 

Congrats.  Others will know more, but I think you can only deduct expenses for the rented units. Also can depreciate 1/3 of capital expenditures for building components, like new roof.  I recommend you get a copy of the NOLO tax deduction guide for landlords.

Try using the search feature.

It is hard to understand what you're thinking. So, I'll guess. Perhaps you want to buy the property and rent it to your mom and let her be your PM. If she bought at peak of the market and you are paying market value, you might be renting at a loss. Or, you will buy it in the short sale, let your mom move out and rent to someone else and hire your mom as the pm. I don't see how this benifits you or your mom. My advice, not knowing the numbers, let it go on the short sale, support your mom by helping her move and supporting her emotionally.