All Forum Posts by: John K.

So I received a call in the middle of the night a few months back, and the furnace was out and it was -20 outside so a true panic call. I had to replace the draft motor in it, for about $1200 (middle of the night on a weekend).

My accountant said that since this extended the life of the property, it could potentially have to be a depreciable asset - I on the other hand thought this was more of a repair since it was fixing a broken furnace. Has anyone else had this issue?

What other odd things that you had to depreciate when you thought it was a repair?

Thanks everyone for all the advice, I think it's an honest mistake, we have talked on the phone with the tenant. I'll probably just add it to the tenants security deposit at the end of the term.

This one is a puzzler. So I have a tenant who is overpaying by $2/month. The tenant receives a weird amount (for round numbers for this example), lets say 101 dollars from housing assistance, and then also mails a check for 101 when the rent is 200, so a over payment of $2.

A few months back I sent a letter explaining the over payment, and that tenants should apply a $2 credit towards the next payment, and then I showed the math for the correct amount.

At this point, the tenant has about a $6 balance after months of over payments. Should I just wait until the tenant moves out at this point and add it to the security deposit when it is returned as a "Credit for over payment of rent"?

I've never really been too happy or seen anything that has truly been a GREAT product for small property management operations. It seems like they are all over complicated and lack features, it seems like the topic of PM software comes up frequently on BP.

My last binder was 209 pages, which included all financial statements, all assets (even down to my paid off car), info on credit cards, etc.

Here is my rough index, I took out a bunch of the in depth details. I know my banker always loves it when we give him everything at once and its always a clean simple organized format.

1) General
a) summary of property
b) leases
c) documents from Realtor
2) Member 1
a) All Financials
b) Pay Stubs
c) Taxes
3) Member 2
a) All Financials

b) Pay Stubs
c) Taxes
Appendix A: Car Values (we had no loans on cars)
Appendix B: Current Construction in Progress (I was building a garage so had lots of large transactions coming out of my bank account, so I explained it)
Appendix C: Detailed Info on Consulting I was doing, since no one ever understands it

I just listened to the latest BP Podcast (55) and I'm shocked that everyone does not go to a bank organized when applying for a mortgage. I have a few duplexes, and each time I have put together a binder with section dividers and everything organized with a table of contents for my banker. What have others done to impress banks when going in to apply for a loan?

I'm looking for a sample letter to include with a municipal fine I'm going to mail a tenant. Our lease on file states that tenant is responsible for municipal fines, and they failed to remove snow at one point and I received the bill.

Does anyone have a sample letter that you would mail with the fine explaining it? Or how would you go about it? Would you mail a copy of the lease page with the section highlighted, along with the fine? Finally, would you request the tenant pay the fine directly or should I just pay it and have them reimburse me? (I don't want to be charged interest if they fail to pay it).

Thanks for any feedback!

I usually shoot for 10% on paper, that way you always have wiggle room since everything always costs more in real life and takes longer.

I met with a lender who was great and knew my family - when the deal came along for our first property we were confident that the financing was not going to be an issue. Having a great working relationship with a lender is KEY.

You need to probably work with the title company so your LLC appears everywhere instead of your name - then you just sign docs as a member of your LLC.