All Forum Posts by: Joe Doman

I was going to have them set it up through their bank but they will be switching in the near future because they are getting married. I will look into cozy.co and follow up with a review.

Thanks everyone!

@Jeff Bridges

Thanks for the post. I am looking into cozy.co and intuit... I guess my only concern would be security/liability. Maybe I am being paranoid but if there was a hack of some sort where the tenants' money was stolen, i would bet the landlord will be held responsible. Where as if the auto pay was done through a bank, the bank would pay for any fraudulent activity..? 

 That's interesting, I haven't heard of anyone doing that. Do you find some prospective tenants being turned off by this? I assume you would need to lay this out in the lease up front?

 I will give this a try... Does this work If I have a different bank? What is a typical fee?

Thx for the response!

Hi all, I just had a tenant request to set up automatic rent payments so he does not have to deal with writing checks every month. This is the first time anyone requested this and i dont have any idea how to set it up (but i like the idea).  PayPal seems to be the most well known..? Does anyone have any suggestions??

Thanks for the help everyone!

For new carpet installed in rental, should I report as expense or capital improvement and depreciate when preparing taxes? 

I've read there can be an argument for either. Of course i would like to expense it but I don't want to draw unnecessary attention from auditors. Anyone have any opinions/experiences?

Hi Shea, I bought a duplex a few years ago and financed through FHA. It would have been tough for me to qualify for conventional because banks requied 20% down on 2-4 family props and cash was tight at the time. FHA mtgs only require 3.5% down so it is nice especially for newer home buyers. You pay for it though... There is an upfront fee of ~1% I believe and the pmi is extremely high. I Payed 192k for my duplex, the up front fee was 2k and the pmi is 167 a month. The worst part of the pmi is (on a 30yr fha mtg) it is locked for 5 years no matter the ltv. After the 5 years, it's not until you hit 78% ltv until eliminated. (Compared to 80% with conventional). on the flip side FHA usually offers the lowest market interest rate and credit scores do not come into play as much as conv. I locked In at 3.5% rate where I got quotes for conv at 3.85% (this was back in 2012).

As far as obtaining financing for an owner occupied duplex, it is no different than buying a sfr through fha.

Another cool thing about FHA, (and I was able to take advantage of this) after a year, you can move out and keep the prop as a rental without changing the mgt terms. You can then potentially get another FHA mtg on a 1-4 family prop which can quickly increase your re footprint. -theoretically, you could have 8 units after 1 year, all with 3.5% down and with a low, consumer based interest rate.

looking back, I wish I could have scrapped together the cash to avoid fha fees, but it got me started in re investing so I am glad I did it... hope this helps! (and make sure you talk to your lender/professional for full details)

Interesting, Thanks!

Hello everyone,

Seems like this might be a question for a CPA, but wanted to hear from BP members.

In 2012 I bought a duplex where i lived in one side and rented out the other. In 2013 remodeled the bathroom for $5,000 then in 2014, I purchased a single family home where i currently live and we rented out our side of the duplex.

Would I now be able to add the $5,000 to my original basis and depreciate now that the side i lived in is rented?? We did this remodel along with other updates to our side with the idea of renting it out.

Looking forward to any advice. Thanks!