All Forum Posts by: George Skidis

First thing you need to do is memorize all the protected classes. They start at the Federal level but there can also be State, County and local municipal protected classes.

After that Source of Income is a protected class in many respects. My concern would be proving her sources of income. Does she receive enough income from all sources to meet your established rental criteria. 

You need to establish your rental criteria before listing a property for rent. This can vary by type and location of the property. IS this an A+ rental or do you work in a low-income area. Establish a minimum credit score. minimum income, time on job and whatever else you need to consider but have it in writing and apply it the equally and fairly to every applicant who wants your property.

After receiving their application go see where they are currently living. Pigs are pigs and they only thing you can do is change the location of their pig-sty.

Finally, be careful what you put in print. Who knows when an attorney can subpoena your social media accounts. 

I am not an attorney and don't play one on television. take care.

Every state has their own rules about incorporating or chartering a new city or municipality. This answer will be brief and not all inclusive.

To become a municipality the local residents must band together and choose to create one following state guidelines. They must establish boundaries and elect officials. The officials can be paid or volunteers. 

Generally speaking unincorporated areas are sparsely populated and cannot meet the state guidelines for incorporation in regards to either population density, or they are located too close to an area that has already incorporated. 

There will always be exceptions. My father and I used to go to Jadwin, MO to rent canoes for float trips. Jadwin Canoe rental was owned by the Jadwin family. The Jadwin family home was pretty much the entire town back in the 70s.

In short unincorporated just means that nobody ever bothered to incorporated the location due to the cost and hassle. So they never formed they are unformed.

Check out our affiliate the Springfield Area Landlords Association (SALA).

As a Register Income Tax Preparer with the IRS I prepare 150+ income tax returns each year. You are up against two issues here. Both of which depend on how you set up your LLC.

As for tax purposes IF you applied for a separate tax ID number or FEIN what did you tell the IRS as far as how you wanted to be taxed? If you told the IRS you were a sole proprietor then you file the LLC income as a disregarded entity for tax purposes on Form 1040 Schedule E. If you told the IRS you are a partnership then you file a separate partnership return. Same for S-Corp Form 1120 -S and C Corp Form 1120.

The other issue is what does your operating agreement say. Does it say one member or multi member. Did you get one of the custom deals which allows husband and wife as a single member.

As an insurance agent in Illinois, clarification is needed. Rental properties are covered by rental policies. The home you live in qualifies for a homeowner's policy. Since this is your third property is it safe to assume this is a rental property?

The market of last resort in Illinois is the Illinois Fair Plan. FAIR is an acronym for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements. You can insure the building with the fair plan. If you plan to live in it, then you can add liability insurance to the policy as well. If it is a rental property you must get the liability coverage somewhere else, like an extension of coverage from your homeowner's policy.

As an agent I would be glad to help you. PM me for details.

Just south of you in Saint Clair County. Make sure you have properly served the notice and you have "Proof of Service" properly filled out. Even though the law does not require you to be at the first hearing you should be there. If tenant fails to appear you might win right then. Have your ducks in a row. Take a copy of the lease, payment history and if you have one your receipt book. The other thing is do you have a business entity. If you have an LLC or the property is owned in a land trust the judge might decide you need an attorney. Corporations, S-Corporations, Partnerships and trusts must be represented by an attorney you cannot represent yourself. As this is your first I recommend an attorney even if you are a sole proprietor. Don't have an attorney call me for some options.

Housing Regulations could mean any number of agencies.

Section 8: The Housing authority will inspect the property before they agree to a resident leasing it. They will normally inspect it again once a year to look for violations. Certain repairs and violations will result is a notice to fix the issue and a time frame to do it in and a follow up inspection.  A violation of the Housing Authority Regulations by the resident can result in in the resident losing their assistance and being booted off the program. Your only issues would be either collecting the full rent or getting them evicted. An example of this is letting a convicted felon move into the residence.

Code Enforcement: The rules vary from one city to the next. Code enforcement will inspect the property before granting occupancy. At any time, they can issue tickets to the landlord for grass cutting, garbage disposal and other exterior issues. They normally do not go back inside of the unit unless there is a change in occupants or occupancy. But this can change if there is a police report and Code Enforcement is requested to perform another inspection to get rid of anyone the city "thinks" is a problem resident or landlord.

Residents with special needs (veterans, deaf, mute etc.)  may have an agency representative looking out for their best interest. These agencies normally do not have the power to issue tickets or fines. They can pull the residents out and leave you with a vacant unit that needs repairs.

Good Luck and Good Investing

LLCs are not bullet proof. Failure to follow the rules gets them set aside in a heartbeat.

1. Make sure the money earned by the LLC is deposited into that LLC's business account. Never co-mingle funds. If you purchase something for the business on a personal credit card then submit a reimbursement request to the LLC. You should do this once a month.

2. Your LLC must either be set up in the state you do business or pay foreign entity registration fees to do business in that state.

3. For tax purposes there are two types of LLCs. Disregarded entities and the others. Income from a single member LLC and in some cases a two member LLC between spouses can be reported on your personal income tax return (Form 1040) and is disregarded by the IRS. Check with your attorney and tax preparer. Multiple member LLCs need to file a separate tax return from you. Multiple member LLCs can be taxed as a Partnership (Form 1065), S-Corp (Form 1120 S) or C Corp (Form 1120). These forms are normally due to the IRS on or before March 15th. You must also file a state business return in every state where you do business. There are some states that do not require a personal income tax return. Your business entities do not get that privilege.

4. Even though you chose an LLC, always treat it like a C-Corporation to keep the corporate shield. Follow what are referred to as the "Corporate Proprieties'". When it comes to the courts ALWAYS treat your business like it is separate from you and follow all the rules or a judge will set it aside.

5 Always purchase liability insurance of at least $500,000 on each property. Then get a personal umbrella policy and a commercial umbrella policy of at minimum 2 million. It is better to have to much insurance rather than not enough.

6. Every state you do business in will require a registered agent physically located in that state. Be prepared to pay the registered agent fees and the state fees at each location.

Possible reasons in Illinois. 1. The prior owner appealed the real estate taxes and won. 2. Their appeal was based upon a demised property and based on the pre repair value. 3. The prior owner had connections you do not. 4. The prior owner received one or more of these discounts: Owner Occupied, Disabled Veteran with less than a 70% disability, 65 and older Senior Freeze. 5. Non-Vet Disabled Homeowner Discount.  In Saint Clair County, Illinois Real Estate taxes are re-assessed every four years. 6. How much did the property go up in value due to inflation and sellers' market circumstances. 7. Is the new RE tax based upon your purchase price. 8 the local county increased the rate. 9. It went from owner occupied to rental and caused the loss of the owner-occupied exemption. In Cahokia a homeowner would pay $1,100 for the house but if converted to a rental it could go up to around $2,000 You should always appeal.

Rule #1: Join your local REIA and volunteer to work there. Get to know the established investors verses the wanna bees.

#2: Read everything you can and ask the establishes investors what they read and who has a worthwhile course.

From my viewpoint there are too many gurus selling recycled information something they learned from someone else. You should look into Lou Brown's Whole Enchilada. It is a tad expensive but a less than 1/5 of the price of these weekend guru programs and it covers 100% of the real estate investor info you will need starting out.