All Forum Posts by: Debra R.

Check out cozy.co.  I'm happy with them.  They automatically take the rent out of the tenants account and put it in my account.  No one has to remember to do anything- except to have enough money in their account.  The drawback is that it takes a few days to move the money so although they pay on the first I don't get the money in my account for a few days.  

They're very good at responding to questions.  Email and ask them about partial payments - I don't think it would be possible but don't know for sure.  

He wants to sell but not enough to send pics or answer questions?  Something's not right.  

If you're a BP pro member, you can go to the tools tab and choose rental property calculator.  It'll include some expenses you may have forgotten and it'll include the costs of buying the property.  The BP calculator lets you choose the annual percentage that you think you'll need for cap ex.

- go to the tools tab on BP, choose tenant screening 

- search "tenant screening" on BP

-look for a local landlord association - they may have all the forms you need, will be able to answer questions and may have tenant screening.  I joined one for my first year of landlording and even at $300 it was worth it. 

- and  

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/rental-applications-and-tenant-screening

The mortgage eats up nearly all the rental income leaving about $200. Taxes and insurance will eat over half of that. There is also repair expenses, closing costs, business license (possibly), LLC fees maybe, Insurance to protect you from claims made by tenants, vacancy and there are other expenses I'm sure I'm forgetting.

If you go pro on BP there are calculators to help you analyze deals including a rental property calculator.

I needed an LLC right away at a time when CA was moving very slow. The best thing to do would have been submit 3 potential names and then have the state research whether any were already in use. That was going to take 6 weeks which I didn't have. My other option was to apply for the LLC and hope that no one else had the same name. I ended up choosing the street number and name of the property bc it was unlikely that someone else would already be using it. If I'd had more time I'd have chosen a shorter and more anonymous name.

Hopefully the previous tenant had a pet with fleas.  Once the pet is gone they will bite people.  

I've read that bed bug bites come in rows of three.  Do your bites have a pattern?  

There are glue traps that you can put down.  They won't get rid of the bed bugs but will catch a few and then you can verify whether they really are bed bugs or something else.  Here's a link to a sample of those types of traps - https://www.amazon.com/ClimbUp®-Interceptors-pack-passive-traps/dp/B0028Z0LDQ

The pluses that the first house has for only an extra 20K seem to outweigh the potential future negative of the anchors.  Assuming that the anchors are inspected by a professional and found to be sound I'd go with the first and nicer house.  I'd should add that I don't have any experience with foundation wall anchors and there may be some aspects that I didn't consider.  

I'm looking for recommendations for good roofers in the Oakland, CA area.  The building is an old Victorian with a very high, steep roof. 

If you're still looking, contact Tom Auterman.  He's here on BP, but if you have trouble finding contact info, pm me.  I've worked with quite a few realtors and Tom is definitely the best buyers agent I've worked with.  He understands what investors are looking for, he's very timely in his communication, he's patient enough to answer all my questions and there's no hard sell.  He doesn't try to talk himself up or any particular property.  He's just really intelligent, helpful and knowledgeable.