All Forum Posts by: Corey Duran

Please share the best way you have found to handle water bills. I am trying to find the most hands-off/time-saving approach. I will share my current approach now and if you have suggestions please share them.

(My process now)

Where I am the water bills are mailed to my PO Box as they do not have an electronic option. The bills come at all different times of the month so I input all of them near the end of the month at one time. I first enter them as charges to the properties/units (expenses) and then enter them as charges to the tenants (utility income). I put them in one by one to each tenant account which is the most time-consuming part. I let Buildium send the beginning of the monthly statement, they can see then what the water bill amount was. I also send a bulk message to all the tenants to alert them that their water bill was charged after inputting all of the bills. If they ask for a copy I will send it then (they do not see the actual bill without asking to save myself time..)

Any input is appreciated!

Quote from @Kirsten M.:

Quote from @Corey Duran:

In the same process as you. I am leaning toward the hub and spoke model for my business structure/asset protection plan. Following to see if you get any good recommendations. I can share my contact if I find one..

 I have a contact who does the hub and spoke model. Would you like his info?

 Yes please

I'm sorry that I didn't clarify. I meant how much have you been finding the test to cost? To get it certified assuming nothing was wrong and it passed the inspection just fine. Do you just pay a company/person to inspect and they file everything with the city? Is there a list of certified inspectors somewhere? I have been told it was $300 from two different sources. Has anyone found it cheaper or a discount if you give them multiple rentals at once?

How many of you have gotten your properties compliant? How worried are you about this? What is the average cost of getting a property compliant? I have several investor friends who own about 220 doors in Toledo (collectively) and none of them talk about this or even seem to care..

Quote from @Dave Poeppelmeier:

Quote from @Corey Duran:

I own 14 doors in Toledo and haven't had anything come to my mailbox yet about needing to have my properties inspected yet.. I have been hearing for years that they are trying to pass something but haven't heard anything in over a year.

Should I be concerned? Following to see what you find in case I need to start prepping.

 Yes, you should be concerned, depending on where your properties are. They're not going to send anything to your mailbox, they want your fines I'm sure: 

Rental Registry and Lead Safe

The city has an active lawsuit against it regarding this ordinance, and the attorney has filed an injunction it appears since the city announced on March 1st that the first 2 census tracts whos deadlines have passed are now due on March 31st. 

My properties are all due in June. Are they actually doing anything if you do not comply in time? I read that the ordinance is there but no enforcement of this. Is this something that they can come back and enforce after the fact? Let's say I got it all done in Aug.. could they come back and say "hey it wasn't done by June here is a fine."?

I was given

Quote from @Christopher Sandys:

Hi @Corey Duran, there is another thread on Bigger Pockets that specifically addresses the execution of this law.  The summary is: it has been stuck in lawsuit challenges for many years.  It seems that Toledo City Council is having a hard time writing a legal law.  Less than two weeks ago City Council stated that enforcement would commence at the end of this month, March 2023.  An injunction was filed with the Court to prevent them from enforcing the code, because it is still being challenged.  Some people HAVE received letters in the past week.  I think it largely depends on where your rental units are located.  Go here to see where in the queue your rental homes are:

Rental Registry and Lead Safe (arcgis.com)

If you are in the red zone, your time is now.  Maybe.  It depends on how this injunction goes.  Remember, the penalties for failure are criminal, as in - a criminal record forever.  Permanently shut off from going certain places and doing certain things.  That concerns me.  I am doing my best to get my single house in order as soon as possible.  My tenants will pay for the upgrades in the form of increased rent, which is proper.  

The orange and yellow zones are on-the-deck.  Yellow is not until the end of December, but remember, you can't paint your house during the winter, so it is effectively the end of fall this year.  

The thing that is working in your/our favor is that this is just too much for incompetent city bureaucrats to effectively enforce.  At least, not right from the start.  In time, people will comply, and they will focus their efforts on identifying the non-compliers.  

To me this is a lot like the State of Connecticut passing an assault rifle and high capacity magazine registry.  Citizens had to willing comply, or face a felony.  State Police in CT estimate that only 4% of the necessary people registered within a year, and there was nothing they could do about it except keep threatening people with a felony.  But this situation is a little different.  In time, Toledo will be sending inspectors knocking on doors of suspected rentals, and your tenants will become your snitches.  

Thank you for the detailed response.. I want to look into this more. Seems a bit more serious/soon than some people have mentioned. I know some investors with 150+ doors in toledo and they haven't said anything to me about this. Maybe they don't know or care yet.. Perhaps they will once door-knocking starts to happen. Do you have a link to the other thread? I am new to bigger pockets so I do not know where to look for this other thread. Is that how you have been staying on top of this info? Do you have other sources for me to stay up to date with these changes? I would appreciate anything else you are willing to share.

Quote from @Rachel Mazzanti:

Hello!

Just trying to understand something.

So we have multiple LLCs for operating things such as consulting business, accounting business, and others that were created before a Holdings LLC was created. These are all single-member, is there anything that needs to be done to show that the Holdings LLC is the parent one?

Thanks. Any feedback will be highly appreciated.

I have been seeing you a lot on these forms. Sadly I do not have an answer but I am curious to what you find. I am asking a similar question myself. How do you link these companies in the hub and spoke. I also have my one LLC now that I want to have under my parent LLC. I'm curious to what I or my attorney would need to do. I am also looking for a new attorney if you find a good one.

Good luck and I hope you get the answer you are looking for.

Quote from @Eliott Elias:

You can do this yourself. 

 Should you do it yourself though? Genuinely curious.

I am setting up something similar but with more holding companies under. I'm curious how you plan to do the banking portion for each LLC? Will each have their own bank account? Curious how your attorney is advising you on this. I will have about 7 under one management LLC and really don't want that many bank accounts. Some say I should, some say I do not need that many..

In the same process as you. I am leaning toward the hub and spoke model for my business structure/asset protection plan. Following to see if you get any good recommendations. I can share my contact if I find one..