All Forum Posts by: Kristin Caras

@David Brooks you are certainty not alone! Spend time on this site and utilize it's resources, like the podcasts, and check out books The Book On Rental Property Investing and Long-Distance Real Estate Investing.  I guarantee if you spend one or two months reading those two books and listening to podcasts (I can knock one out per day on my drive to and from work), you'll feel a lot more comfortable. 

Also, remember that it's free to utilize a real estate agent to check out some properties, hear their insights and have them set you up with automated emails that will alert you when a property goes on the market that meets your criteria! It can be intimidating at first to call an agent and ask, but they should be more than willing to set you up with this service - it's free for them and they'll know they have another possible buyer.

Best of luck!

@Kevin Hunter @Michael Ablan thank you both! Since writing that first post, we bought a four plex in Watertown as a house hack where my boyfriend is currently living. Right now we are still in the process of removing two of the other three tenants (I think we finally made it, aside from a junk car left on the property) and working towards getting the place fully rented. We're hoping to appeal to the military population, but as you said Kevin, no luck so far. 

@Zac Boelkow June-September is a good time, not only because of the nice weather, but also for families moving around to be in a certain school district before the next school year. You can do shorter term leases (6 months or 9 months instead of 1 year) to get on schedule for a June start going forward.

Thanks everybody!!

Thanks everyone!

@Lucas Carl @Theresa Harris thanks! I definitely do not want to micromanage and am more than willing to let the PM do his thing because I do trust him - just curious as to what other people consider “late”.

This is our first month of collecting rent on our first rental property. Rent is due on the 1st of the month, which on this month fell on a Sunday (9/1), then followed by Labor Day (9/2).

I called our property manager on 9/2 and he said he wasn’t expecting payments on time being that it is a holiday week and wasn’t sure if rent payments had come in yet.

Being that it is our first month with inherited tenants I want to make sure things go smoothly and we are enforcing our lease, but I do understand that banks are closed these days.

If the rent has not yet been paid and they come in today, Tuesday, 9/3, would you consider that late? In general, do you consider it late if the 1st of a month is a Sunday and the payments come in on the 2nd (Monday)? I don’t want to be unreasonable but I just want to make sure we are doing the right thing on our first go around. Thanks!

@Chris K. That is really helpful, thank you!

My partner and I just purchased our first rental property by Fort Drum in upstate New York. The property is in his name as a house hack with a VA loan. We are looking to purchase a second in another state (DE or PA) and we think down the line when the second property is purchased we would like to incorporate all our properties into an LLC. We'd also like to get a CPA to assist us with itemized deductions on the property.

How do you recommend we structure our CPA and lawyer if in multiple states? Should it be one team per location or keep the properties and team state specific, or a mix? 

@Paula Willis that’s awesome! I am interested in these facilities also. I have heard of Gene but haven’t done too much research into him but I am familiar with Group Home Riches. Anyone have any experience with Gene or Group Home Riches?