All Forum Posts by: Jerry W.

Two that jump to mind.  First water heater not working, it lights then goes out.  I come over to light an ancient water heater.  Wow this things was green and white Montgomery Wards.  I light it, runs a few seconds, goes out.  New thermostat installed, lights, then goes out.  I go get a new water heater, install it, light it, runs then goes out.  Now I get a sinking feeling, go out and look at gas meter, yep there is the lock.  it has been shutoff for nonpayment.  Must have a terrible leak by.  The water heater would run about 20 to 30 seconds before it would go out.
The next, the new tenant sent dire message of life or death safety issue.  When I went over, her complaint?  The apple tree outside had had blossomed and there were a huge number of bees on the flowers.  Either all the flowers needed removed, or the tree needed to be cut down.  I assured her that the blossoms would only last a week at most, but I was not going to pick every flower off.  As to cutting down the tree, it was there before she arrived and I assured her it would be there after she was gone.
Same tenant also complained she could not figure out how to turn the dishwasher on.  She had never had one before.  As this was like request number 10 or 12, I told her to google it, or call a friend.  When she was moved out later at my firm request to the judge, I didn't think about it.  Two months later after new tenants are in they ask could I look at the dishwasher it wasn't working.  I couldn't get it to work.  Took several hours of trouble shooting I finally figured out some guy I had told to wire in a new GFI had just stuffed the wires in the back and had not wired it at all.  that fed the outlet to the dishwasher.  It really had been broke before, I had just tired of the crying wolf.

Depending on the age of your children a trust is very important.  If something happens to you, it woud not be good for each kid as they turn 18 to get a lot of money.  What would you have done when you turned 18 if you had no parents and $100K?  My guess is that it would involve a fast car and a lot of alcohol and girls if possible.  Have someone else in charge of the money and maybe get half at 25 and the other half at 30 or 35.  Make them get an education of some sort, and make them learn to earn money.  Maybe even an earning trust where they only get money from the trust based on how much they earned.

@Nathan Gesner, pretty much every place in WY that sells salt also sells Magnesium Chloride.  Another trick is buy a crushed gravel sand mix.  It is very effective for getting embedded in the ice and providing traction.  it does nothing to melt the snow, but does a lot to increase traction.  it will not really harm lawns unless you really bury the grass with it.  The toughest option is just scooping the snow off as soon as you can and having it moved as far from the sidewalk as possible.  The huge problem is melting snow flowing onto the steps/sidewalk then freezing.  That stuff is wicked slick and must be removed every day until you get the piles done if it freezes at night.

In Wyoming there are a LOT of companies that are willing to create your LLC and act as registered agent for a pretty cheap price.  I suspect that most states have that.  While Trusts can give anonymity, I am not a fan as they actually provide no liability protection.  it is actually pretty easy to slice through anonymity with discovery if you do anything with the business at all.  Someone has to sign checks, sign insurance policies, someone has to call contractors and meet with them, someone has to interview tenants, someone has to call the plumber, or even appear in court for an eviction.  You see what I mean?  Besides all the "networking" you are supposed to do and to attend local REAs, etc. all put you out there.

@Matt Arden, your CPA needs to address the federal income tax, but I can tell you that WY does NOT have a corporate tax, or an income tax.

@Kevin Horton, you didn't give us enough information to know if it is a good deal or bad, I understand you want advice about pay cash or use a HELOC. My 2 cents is use cash. here is why. You pay interest on a HELOC when you use it. It is an added cost and you wont get anywhere near the rate from a savings account or a CD. When you find something else you want later then use the HELOC. It also keeps your DTI in better shape.

@Account Closed, I am in the middle of Wyoming and it may be different where you are at but here is my information on immigrants, some legal some not.  First you must keep in mind that your social mores and values are not theirs.  Next when you rent to one family it is VERY common to have a huge number move in.  They tend to depend on each other a lot due to the cultural differences they have and lending a couch can be permanent to a lot of friends and relatives.  You will get a lot more trash, a lot less of it makes it into the garbage, and being considerate of neighbors as to noise etc. is something they are not used to.  If you explain a few times they often get it, but expect a few phone calls from neighbors until they get trained.  you will never get your money if they move out, but while they are there you will get paid and in cash.  you can expect having difficulty in communicating.  Some intentional, some not.  Simply telling them that certain behavior might result in the cops being called is very effective.  There a fair number of really honest ones, especially if they think of you as their friend, but there is a fair number of dishonest ones.  you will not be able to tell the difference.  I agree that ones with a family are much safer than the group of single guys.  The same is true of every race and creed, hell it applied to me 45 years ago.  They will not expect as nice of a place as most folks will.  They are very willing to fix things up and will work hard at it, but are often lacking in understanding on how to fix it properly.

I have found them to be more reliable than most in paying their bills.  The longer they are here the harder it is collect rent.  They will push the limits as far as you let them, you must be firm but fair, same as to every tenant.  For example, I had one tenant who his industrious family set up an illegal taco stand.  They did pretty good, but I got a call from the city and instead of them dealing with it they wanted me to talk to them.  I convinced them they had to do it legal, and they got a permit and opened up near the highway in town.  It took months and finally an expensive plumber bill to convince them that they couldn't cook all the food in my apartment and pour the grease down the drain.  Their place was meticulously clean and they paid on time.  I had to communicate through their 10 year old.  After a couple of years, I got about 3 days notice and they were gone.

We do have a fair number of immigrants in this area due to beet farming and the need to hand hoe the weeds out of them at certain times.  Some are migrant, some stayed.  probably close to a third of Worland seems to be hispanic.

@Josh Quinn, some markets are tougher to find cash flowing deals in than others. In my market I pretty much have to find a distressed property to have any chance of making it cash flow. If a standard SFR off the MLS in decent shape I will lose money on it. Find one with a little fire damage or has been flooded, or had a hoarder in it, etc. Good luck

@Pinkal Shah, not until you know the cost of having it fixed.  It might not be covered.

OK I will dig out one or 2 for fun.  I nearly always answer the phone, for one reason because my job for many years had a lot of REAL emergencies, however I missed one call at about 12:30 a.m.  When I listened to it the next morning it was basically that there was a huge life threatening emergency in the house next to mine that I owned.  It was a matter of life and death.  Apparently her son had been stung by a bee.  The tree in front of her yard was in full bloom, it was a crab apple bee.  It was gorgeous, and smelled really nice.  By far the prettiest tree in the neighborhood.  The tree needed to be cut down or all the flowers removed she told me.  I had vetted this gal before renting to her and her family.  She was different but ok, and had rented for 7 years at her prior residence out of state.  Her prior landlord said she was strange, but paid on time was polite etc.  there were a few other weird things from her, like another life threatening danger, a string on one of the window shades was apparently long enough that her 7 year old might be able to walk by and entangle himself and die from it choking him.  Then the call asking me how to make the dishwasher work, as she had never had one before, I finally told her to google it.  I told her that the tree was there before she arrived and would be there long after she left.  As to the string I showed her how she could put a knot in it and make it so tall her son could not get hung in it unless he climbed a ladder to get to it.
She apparently had gotten off her meds and within 2 weeks was removed from the home and sent away to be helped.  I did keep half her deposit after helping the father of her children load their stuff and depart because she had taken every curtain blind in the basement and threw them outside and they got wet and ruined.  they were really nice.  She did a 40 minute Utube video and on facebook of my rental where she went from room to room and explained the death trap it was.  I had just remodeled it and it look very nice.  I got a lot of calls from friends telling about the video and commenting on how nice the place looked.
As a very sad note about 6 months after she left the new tenant told me they couldn't get the dishwasher to work.  Turns out the power was disconnected from the outlet to it when someone installed a GFI.  No idea how it happened, but I felt bad that I never checked it out, I was convinced she was crazy and never looked into it.  She never mentioned the dishwasher in the video.