All Forum Posts by: Nathan Waters

I am having issues with a tenant right now with a water bill. It's on account of her grandparents housethat has the water in her name. She can't afford to make it current and put the bill at my house in her name. It shows poor money management and if it showed up on her screening, i would have moved on to the next person. Unfortunately it only recently became delinquent. 

congrats. I'm curious about management as well. I self manage a house croon 1200 miles away bit would not recommend it to others. I have gotten lucky but plan on selling when the current tenant moves out. How have you scaled so quickly? What's your strategy? 

Forming the LLC is the easy part. I don't know what the costs are in Tennessee but in Illinois I paid about $750 to incfile.com. The cost was basically the state fee plus $50. Well worth it compared to going through an attorney. As far as who you have on your team, are you referring to employees of the LLC? I don't think you would need any employees starting off. I use contractors, real estate agents, an attorney, etc. But its just my wife and myself that own the LLC. As of now we are to small for employees. I think that will come with growth. Unless I'm missing something.

@Account Closed 

I haven't read it yet, so take my advice with a grain of salt. But the book written by Amanda Han, "Tax strategies for the savy real estate investor." Its in my cue of books to read. The only reason I recommend it without having read it myself is that both of her podcasts were great. She has a wealth of knowledge in this area. And she explains things on the show that anyone can understand. If her book is anything like her interviews, its gotta be worth it. If you have any others you hear about or if you do read this one before I get a chance, let me know how it is.

@Kimberly H., That is similiar to what happen. I was not aware of the issues with the water meter when she moved in. It came up a week into her stay when I was informed they couldn't transfer the bill to her. So I told her I would pay for the charges until it could be transferred but gave her a specific deadline. I gave her an estimate of what the charges would be so she could set it aside. 

Thanks for the advice everyone else. I have drawn a line in the sand and told her that I will expect the payments immediately. She is putting the water in her name on Monday supposedly. I'll have to follow up with the utility. @Michael Noto, She is a typical tenant that has poor priorities. Brand new 70" HDTV from rent a center, 22" chrome rims in her basement. I have no idea why she has them. They aren't even on her car, just sitting in the basement. She got all her furniture from rental store rather than getting stuff from garage sales or craigslist. She has family in the area. From the sounds of it, its a family tradition considering her grandparents water bill is in her name. Nothing flagged during the screening other than no rental history. She is young and its her first place on her own. Hope it doesn't become her first eviction.

I bought a small 1BR 1Bath HUD home back in September. I got it rented out in March. I know; the turn around was slow, but it is what it is. Learned a lot and got what seemed to be a good tenant. She got the gas and electric put in her name right away. But I had some issues with the water bill due to a broken water meter. It took me about 6 weeks to get it resolved before she could put the water in her name. I paid the first 3 months of water and told her she would be responsible for it and gave her an estimate. Now she is making excuses about a water bill at her families house that is in her name. She can't afford to bring it current to put my house in her name. To top it off, she says she can't afford to pay the water bill that she owes me. i came up with a reasonable payment plan to get her caught up. Any advice? Sound off BP.

Sent a message. Look forward to hearing details. Thanks

@Nicole Cicero

Welcome to BP. I spent 10 years in the military as well. The whole time dreaming about getting out and working on investing in real estate. This site has been great for my motivation and confidence to take action. There is no other resource like this. What area of investing are you considering? Good luck.

I have a buildium account. Its $60 per month if you have 60 or fewer units. Its useful for property management but also has tenant screening for around $15 per background check. It does criminal history, credit check, and eviction report. Downside is that it takes 2-3 days to get results back.

The numbers look pretty good. I haven't done any short term flips yet, but its something I'm considering to raise capital to purchase more rentals.