All Forum Posts by: Oren K.

This should be her decision. For all you know, she may need those funds for some other purpose.

She is the lender and has already offered, I assume, more favorable terms then originally agreed to. If she is willing to fund your next project, that is a separate decision / transaction. Also, especially with any friends / family borrowing, making good on the original agreement builds trust / confidence / reputation / etc. (holds true for anyone).

Not sure what good pictuers will do.

Lets say you get excellent pictures, you then have to identify who they are and serve them with notices. My understanding is (please double check) that to be charged with trespassing, you have to be 'caught' in the act. Another picture is NOT sufficient. 

Understand your frustration but also understand that this is not at the top of the polices priorties; patroling an unused treed lot.

No useful solution comes to mind.

I don't think the POS in and of itself would be unconstitutional, rather the penalty associated with it as in the quote; criminality is questionable. IF POS is unconstitutional, then you could also say that any inspection is also unconstitutional; electrical, plumbing, etc. Also I think, similar to permits, a 'reasonable' fee would not be inappropriate.

In my opinion, a municipality can and should do periodic inspections (external only?, common areas?, Unit?) and if something is not to code (e.g. blocked fire exits), require the owner to fix.

Where they do not provide any service and just impose a fee (e.g. occupancy fee with out doing any inspection), that is an infringement of ownership rights.

YES - If this is truly a project HUD building where HUD 'guarantees' rent for all units then there are very specific / screening / reporting / inspections requirements that you must meet; tenant income thresholds, REAC inspections, etc.

You can do this yourself (HUD has to approve you to self manage) but most owners elect to hire a PM who is licensed / knows the systems / paper work / HUD office contacts. This is a sub specially of property management and many firms will not take it on.

This will likely increase your operating costs to some degree over a non-project HUD building. The flip side is the more secure income.

Eligah,

Is this friends & family or arms length? Is there a contract (verbal / prospectus / partnership)? How long have you held onto their funds? Were the funds held in an interest bearing account?

If there is a contract, the contract should cover this situation and should be complied with. If there is no contract, then it is really your discression but if it were me and I earned any interest, I would pay it out. Having  said that, $5K @ 2% over 6 months is $25 and probably not meaninful to the investor. lt is more about being upfront / transparent.

Oren

Nina,

Not an expert but some knowledge.

Firstly, @Account Closed is not wrong but using LLC's is possible as long as you instruct your US tax preparer to treat it an a corporation. That way, the IRS & CRA will be treating the entity in the same way.

Second, Double tax is thrown around a lot but many times incorrectly. On any income from the US, you must pay your US taxes via the IRS. You then report the income in CDA and a credit for US taxes paid. Any taxes still due are then paid to CRA. At the end of the day, you are paying at the CDA tax rate only. Where double taxation does happen is if you use an LLC and personal tax rates in the US. CRA will treat the LLC as a corporation; basically a mismatch.

Thirdly, 1031's should NOT be used by a Canadian citizen paying CDN taxes. It is available and defers taxes in the US but CRA requires you to report any holdings worth over 100K(?) and when the property is sold, regardless on 1031 status, all profits are taxed that year with no credit since no US taxes were paid. Eventually when you do sell without a 1031, you will pay US taxes but will not be able to use all the tax credit with the CRA.

Finally, this is not an area to get advice  from non professionals (like me :). Before investing, find a cross border CA / CPA tax specialist and get him to review anything you want plan to do.

Oren

Dotun,

To me 7 years ago is worth considering. Make sure you check more recent landlords regarding on-time payments and any other issues (e.g. nuisance calls).

As long as you are abiding by the Fair Housing Act and not making a decision based on any protected class, I think you can ask anything you like (e.g. do you play chess at the grand master level? ;).

Oren

Lindsey,

Assuming they are joint obligated, it is generally the total income of the people signing the lease. So if the rent is $1,000 per month and landlord is using a 3x, then they need jointly to be making $3,000 (it sounds like they more then cover).

How they split it up between themselves is between them; perhaps the lower income person / lesser contributor gets the smallest bedroom?

Oren

Justin,

As through as you were, it just shows that that it is difficult to catch every potential problem; I wouldn't have. Depending on how extensive the cracks are and exactly where they were located, not sure even a smoke test would catch it.

One more thought, was the work done with a permit (probably not)? If so, did the city inspect it (and would this even show up on a permit inspection)?

Sounds like one of those 'lessons learned' situations.

Good luck,

Oren

Shout out to @Austin Tam regarding the Cleveland water portal. Signed up and downloaded the recent 2 week period for my 39 unit MF property. What it showed was there was NO hourly period  with 0 usage which suggest a leak. Having said that, there are many periods with only 0.001 or 0.002 MCF (not surprisingly all in the early AM) which is 1 or 2 cubic feet. A toilet flush on a 1.6 G is 0.21 cubic ft so it would take ~5 flushes to run 1 cubic foot.

Assuming there is a leak of .001 cubic feet per hour, that works out to 8.736 MCF per year or ~$367 for the water + $782 for the sewer; total ~$1,100.

Going to discuss with my PM. If it is one find-able leak, well worth plugging but what if it is a bunch of smaller drips. Just the cost of isolating where they are may be a lot of $$$.

Oren