All Forum Posts by: Jill F.

I have a late policy that prohibits habitually late rent. (I don't like wondering if this is the time they aren't going to pay). With partial payments and good communication, I will allow no more than 4 lates in a lease period (or calendar year for at-will) , 3 lates in a row, or two quit or pay notices. Once this limit is exceeded I send out a notice that no more late payments will be accepted. I have not had to evict for habitual lateness yet.

Roaches can live for months off wall paper paste , cardboard, anything ... you won't be able to starve them out but if you want to get rid of them use

DUPONT ADVION GEL BAIT

They can't resist it then they die, their friends eat them, and then they die too :)

It will work. You'll have dead roaches everywhere.

Hi John,

No, our attorney did not try to scare us into the idea of an LLC. We do carry a high dollar personal umbrella policy. We feel that the additional risk (of holding the property personally) is sufficiently mitigated by our umbrella policy and was/is preferable to the alternatives of less favorable commercial financing terms or mortgage fraud. We didn't "need" an LLC for property management, however, we hold and manage other properties obtained with commercial financing in an LLC and it is convenient to manage all the properties through this company.

We grappled with this on our first property and ultimately decided to leave it in our names, buy a personal umbrella policy, and to use and LLC for property management.

@Dovid Staples that was really punny!

I am 55 and my husband is 63. We started last buying last August. We are up to 21 units now. We've renovated 7 of the 21 units in the last year and we do a significant part of the work ourselves. By the end of next year we expect to meet all of our income needs from cash flow . It wasn't too late for us. 

Home depot now has FRP "bead board". I think I'd use sika marine adhesive and glue it up on top of all that green tile then paint it a color you like. I'd use 1x4 to trim the top. Then add pretty hooks for towel hangers. You could cut out for the soap dish and caulk around it if you didn't want to remove it.

We have 21 properties; 8 we purchased with residential financing so they are in our names and 13 with commercial financing in the name of an LLC. We have the same LLC manage all the properties. We take online payments through our Buildium website. There is no licensing requirement in Ohio for managing your own properties though many cities do have landlord registration requirements. We still diy initial renovations when we turnover units and tenants tell us that they appreciate the effort we put into making our places nice. We have a PO box and I do not give out my home address to tenants we give out the company PO box for the address.

It seems like Cleveland is seeing a bit of a resurgence. Real estate prices are going up and some areas seem like they are gentrifying. All three of our children moved from Akron to the greater Cleveland area for jobs when they graduated from college (in the last 7 years). Lake Erie is a huge resource and the both the Cleveland Clinic and (case western) university hospitals are world class medical facilities. There is also Glenn Space Center. Competative national sports teams (and also the Browns).

 However, I do worry some about Akron (where I live and invest). Right now, downtown is pretty much the University however, the city is working on redevelopment plans and an artist community... I don't know much about the Toledo area.