All Forum Posts by: John Chapman

I purchased a property a couple of years ago.  I expensed the personal property-- appliances, flooring, window coverings,etc.  I am now selling this property and want to know if I should have the personal property amount separated out from the real property on the purchase and sale agreement.  Would that help me reduce my taxes?

I have a broker who has a number of my properties and they are under one umbrella.  I have another 8 properties with Liberty Mutual and I have a personal umbrella for  those properties and auto coverage also.  My local brokerage was bought out by HUB which is a large company but they still seem to have problems finding coverage for all my properties.  I have 4 apartment buildings and 20 1-4 family properties.  I agree that I probably don't need a consultant-- just a better broker.

@Ian Shinnick

Thanks, Ian.  Part of my dilemna, is that I can go to Liberty or State Farm and they will take 8-9 properties and give me a decent price, but when I go to an independent agent, they have a hard time finding a carrier that will take all of my properties or when they do the premium per property is a lot higher.

Thanks, John, but I don't know of any consultants.  I don't even know if there is a consultant that doesn't sell policies.

I have over 20 properties-- from apartment buildings to single-family.  My properties are insured by five different carriers and I have two umbrellas.  Can someone recommend an insurance consultant that I could have review my policies once per year or so to make sure the premiums are reasonable and there are no gaps in coverage?  Ideally, someone that did not sell policies.  Thanks for any help, BP community.

@Jason Bott

Could I have a link to the article on umbrella's also.  Thanks.

Thanks for everyone's comments.  I was not clear in my initial question.  When I say discounted, I meant less than market rate.  I would never reduce the amount of rent for even an outstanding tenant.  But because I give only small increases to good tenants, over time the good tenant might be paying 10-20% below market rent.  After thinking about it and reading everyone's comments, I'm thinking 5-10% below market is the most I'm going to allow even a great tenant.  I like @Adrian Stamer idea of increasing rents but doing something extra for the tenant-- paint a room for example. @Connie Chan had a similar idea, perhaps a gift card to show your appreciation-- but keep the rents at close to market value -- perhaps 95%.

How much of a discount do you recommend for longer term renters that are good tenants?  Should you keep the rents up to market or nearly so or give your longer term tenants a substantial discount (10% or more).  What are your thoughts?

I'm interested in how other counties in Washington are assessing properties.  We have a new assessor in Whitman county and they are now assessing properties that have sold recently at 95% of the sale price.  Previously, they increased properties that recently sold more gradually.  One issue I discovered though, is that they are not consistent.  I checked on the assessed value of a number of properties that have sold recently and only about one-third to twenty-five percent were increased to 95% of the sale price.  The others were adjusted 2.5%.  I asked the appraiser at the county about this and he said they didn't have enough staff to do all the properties, so they did what they could.  BTW, the increase to 95% of sale price is only for multi-family properties.  No single-family properties were increased to 95% of sale price.  He said next year they would look at single family properties.  The assessment on an apartment building I have increased 21%.  I'm wondering what others would do in my situation and if other Washington property owners are having issues with assessments.

There is no state income tax in Washington.