All Forum Posts by: John Teachout

In most cases, an LLC will not impact tax write offs. Business expenses are deductible whether they're in an LLC or not. As mentioned previously, using a HELOC increases your debt and this will of course impact your credit status. My credit score is high and when I use the HELOC it has an effect but not of any significance.

Different people follow different paths in real estate. Not everyone has interest in what it takes to find off market properties and they would rather focus on what they are good at such as rehab, etc. To turn it around, why don't you rehab and flip all the properties you find?

More baths would be nice but I don't think it would keep it from renting. On our long term rentals we have 7  2/1 properties and they stay full. We even have a 4/1 that's not had vacancies.

The AC works, you didn't have to replace it. Thus I don't feel the seller owes you the credit. They did pay the repair. It's almost impossible to predict the failure of HVAC equipment. It may last 36 days or 6 years. Just have funds available for when it needs to be replaced...

Not sure what state the property is in but that makes a lot of difference. In Georgia, the property contents is to be moved to the edge of the property. Last set out I did I was instructed to not do anything to the stuff for three days to give the tenant/family and opportunity to get what they want. If you put stuff directly into storage, even if it's for the potential benefit of the tenant, I would make sure the local landlord/tenant law allows this. And if it's not "required" for you to store it, I certainly wouldn't bother. The tenant has already had the opportunity to remove what they wanted from the property when they were given notice of eviction.

Is there anything in georgia state law that says the set out can't take place as scheduled? Unlike some other states, once the property is removed from the premises under supervision of the court, there is no responsibility for those items on the part of the landlord. ie, the tenant doesn't need to be present or available to be present. The serving of the writ is after the eviction was already legally in place and a result of the tenant not complying with the requirement to vacate by a certain date.

Free rent is probably not the solution in this case. Either your units are not up to expectation (for the price), you're pricing over market rates for the area or your marketing isn't capturing the right potential tenants. My guess is you're asking too high of rent. When we have a property and aren't really confident in what the market rent is, we usually start high and then make reductions until the interest level is appropriate. The rental clientele is continuously changing so the people looking this month aren't likely to be the ones looking last month. Sometimes the wording of a listing can turn people off so maybe have someone review that too. We've found that a strict no pet policy will reduce the number of applicants or get you an ESA. So consider that as well.

I should add that the lender (if any) may require a survey if there's any question. Title insurance company wants certainty too. 

The county or other municipality should have a plat, plot or subdivision plan. If you can find a record of an older survey that lists what the corners are marked with, that can be helpful. I usually find out what the setback is and then with a long tape measure and a metal detector can usually find property corner markers. (they're usually, but not always buried) A survey can locate corners but that's an expensive way to get the info. Asking neighbors where the property lines are can be helpful too. (helpful, not definitive, lol)

Unless I'm putting up a fence, in most cases it's just not that important...

Yes, the set asides and reserves should go up as the rent does because the costs of everything is increasing so you're essentially just maintaining what it was.