All Forum Posts by: Mark Langdon

I always use my local attorney here in NJ to form the NJ LLC. I have to make sure its set up right. Recommend you find an attorney especially if this is your first one.

I will PM you and can help you if you wish to evaluate your deal to see if its worth it or not.

You need to hire a licensed contractor who then will get the subpermits (Electrical & Plumbing) stamped by each sub. They typically only let you act as the GC for your own single family home and you have to sign the permit saying that. Even with that some building departments they will ask are you going to live there and if you say no they will make you get the GC etc.. Also once they see the LLC on the application some will say no matter what you need the licensed GC. Sometimes they make you get an architect to submit plans even if its minor. Every town is different depending on the mood they are in and which person you get and how they run their building department.

I sent you a PM. Contact me if you want me to help analyze it for you

Yes; go look at it first as this is your house. If its the vent then its something simple like a damper is closed or its been that way all along or other dampers got opened up which you may have to close partially to force the air up the that room. For best results; the more you know about your home and the way it works the better. You may easily be able to save the HVAC service call if its something simple. If not you will learn what it was and know for the future. If you just call a HVAC service person you are leaving it up to them to decide. You should be there with the HVAC service person if you can. If not then you just have to rely on their word but make them call you before they do the actual repair to get a feel for what it is and how much it will cost to give them the approval. If they come back with something very expensive you can say; please wait and let me look into it further. Now if you want to be totally hands off and don't care what it is and don't mind paying the bill so you are not bothered and can do other more productive items; you can do that obviously also. It really depends on you and how you go about managing your properties and how much you want to be involved.

Its really up to you. Will you get the payback; maybe. For me it comes down to "It's the right thing to do especially in your area". When you sell the home someday the home inspector is going to make this a red flag and most likely you will need to do something. So; are you the cheap landlord that cares about making every penny or are your the landlord that believes in doing the right thing for your tenants. Its up to you. Do as many of the items mentioned in the post that you can afford to that make sense.

Always have the tenants pay for water, sewer, electric, heat etc. You just have to figure out the best way to do this. Its a pain but you can bill them for the actual bill that comes in and divide it by number of units (50/50 for duplex). If you don't want the hassle of that you just have to figure out what your utility add on charge is a month so you don't have to pay out of your pocket. Of course depending on the setup you can add extra meters etc. but you will have to pay a plumber to do that and it doesn't make sense since you only have 1 heating unit; 1 hot water heater etc. So do the utility add-on fee and hope you get it right so you don't lose money if you don't have any history from the utility companies and adjust accordingly and make sure you spell it out very clear in the lease.

Yes Cris left Alive with the PM and started his own company back in November. Don't know yet how established he is. Be careful with anyone especially since you already know the Alive story.

Realtor is best option as they can pull actual places that rented in your neighborhood. Rentometer; zillow; etc. is a first rough guess. You need to know what your competition is charging locally so you can price it properly or it will sit.

Every town/area is different. Some towns I put them up and they never call. Some towns fine you right away. Most towns give a courtesy call first like the trooper. I would say its up to you on your comfort level. Definitely do not put it on the highways that the State Trooper called you on. Try more local areas. Once someone calls do not put them back in the area they reference. Best of Luck !