All Forum Posts by: Jerry W.

@Theodore Tongue, welcome to BP bud.  There is no crystal ball for your problem.  You might try to talk to a realtor or others to see how strong the market is.  None of us can tell from the outside here.  Market demand will ebb and fall with that big of a population swing from season to season.  With a duplex you have a little more of a safety margin.  The adds are probably based on the season.  If you get this property try to get ready in time to catch some of the heavy summer season.  One thing I must stress however, be sure to screen carefully.  It is easy to get desperate and take anyone with money to fill it after it has sat empty for awhile.  No renter is better than a bad renter.  Take my word on that.

@Carrie Herring, maybe you could articulate why you want a partner instead of doing it yourself?  Don't have the money to rehab it?  Don't feel secure running a vacation rental?  If your deal is a very good one why don't you want to do it all yourself?  Once we know your reasons maybe we can help you figure it out better.  For example why not refinance it to make the repairs yourself, or even take out a second mortgage?

It is a scam.  Why are they going t bless someone with a very cheap house who needs it by giving back, but make them pay $50K?  Absolute scam.

Hi @Gary Walker, welcome to BP.  you are in a great area for both STr and long term rentals.  Feel free to jump in and ask questions where you can learn and answer questions where you have experience.

@William Pratt, I have long term rentals and short term rentals.  A lot is going to depend upon your area and how good your property is and how well you run it.  Just like long term rentals some people do well in a market while others fail or do poorly.  What you spend to acquire a property and how much it costs to run it, and how good your reviews are will definitely impact how much you make.  It often takes awhile to build up business in some areas.  I am finding that I am getting some repeat business from the same folks year after year.  In most markets you will make a lot more money doing vacation rentals, but not every market.  You are going to have to do your due diligence for vacation rentals just like long term rentals.  Figure out the cost of cleaning between guests, how much to spend on amenities like coffee, shampoo, towels, bedding, etc.  Figure in the cost of your furnishings and wear and tear.  I think you can make a lot more money on STRs, but it is also a lot more work in my experience.  It also has more risk, what if the local city council puts restrictions on them?  Can you still make it as a long term rental?  Higher risk can lead to more profits if you are successful, or losses if you are not successful.  After you get established you can automate some systems to make it less work, but in the beginning count on spending more time on them.

@John Martin, I pretty much agree with @Vitaliy Volpov in every detail.  In my state if your wife has no ownership[ in your properties and does not participate in running them she will not have any liability to claims arising from them.  The question on whether her assets are liable in my state would depend on if you have any ownership in them.  If they have a good claim against you then if you have an ownership right in them they can go after your share of ownership.  There is an exception called tenants by the entireties.  That is a rule that says the property is owned entirely by both parties and unless both parties are liable for the debt, then no debtor can attach any part of it.  You need to check with a local attorney who knows your state laws to see if the laws of your state are the same or different.  It is their job to know.  Since laws are entirely created by humans they can vary wildly from state to state.  I am sure that attorney can help you get things set up to limit your wife's liability from your real estate dealings.

I won't list the jobs when I was very young.  I stacked hay, drove tractor, balers, seeders, and other farm implements, broke horses, trained race horses, jockeyed, trimmed trees, shoveled snow, worked at several gas stations, painted houses, painted coal dredges, security guard, roto tilled yards, planted flowers and gardens for folks, raked leaves/yardwork, eventually worked oil field when it was booming, even crawled in tunnels installing coaxial cables and fiber optics, loaded explosives in seismic testing holes, eventually a lawyer, and landlord.  Oilfield work paid the best.  Probably painting and law work helped me the most in becoming a landlord.  I bought and sold several trailer houses and pieces of land during all these part time jobs.

Lingo, You don't need a Wyoming CPA for your taxes.  Wyoming has no state income tax, so you would only be filing federal income tax, so they could be based anywhere in the US.

Nice add.

@Jeremy K., I am going to disagree with most of the folks giving you advice here. First for example, the cost of forming an LLC in Wyoming is $100, next the annual fee unless it is worth many millions is $50 per year to renew it. I would at most have 2 LLCs. You are at 7 rental properties now. If it costs you $300 per year to renew your company that is an additional $2,100 per year and if it costs you $1,000 to form each entity you have lost over a years worth of income from your entire portfolio. It almost makes it useless to have companies if they bankrupt you. Next you MUST have a separate bank account for each rental that has its own LLC. You must have separate books, separate names, separate depreciation schedules, separate your legal costs, and depending on how how you structure your entity separate tax returns for each entity. The extra cost and work is staggering. I am an attorney and would never ever do that. I have over 30 doors at the moment and have only 3 companies, and one of those is strictly for high risk activities. It is safer to have separate entities, but not practical. It is safer to not invest, not drive, not fall in love, not travel places on vacation, etc. but is not practical. I would do 2 entities at most. @Steve Hall has some very valid points, but your comfort level of investing might be different from his. I am mostly SFH myself, because loans are easier to get,my tenant class is usually much better in SFRs than in apartments, and my length of stay 5X longer in houses than apartments. Resale is much easier, and so far appreciation is much better. I do have some apartments and would like more, but to each their own. Keep your books and accounting separate in each company. While I like not having ALL of my eggs in one basket, it is more economical to just use one basket. There is always a trade off.

I think you have done very well.  I very much disagree that you don't know enough to do this, you clearly know enough, you just proved it by acquiring 7 rental houses and seem to be doing great.  You are here because you want to learn more, that also means you know enough to get better at your business..  Congratulations on experiencing the growing pains of having a successful business.  Having multiple properties and trying to figure out how to protect your investments best is a vastly superior problem to trying to figure out how to buy your first property.

Good luck on your next step.