All Forum Posts by: Patricia Steiner

The lifting of the cap on Homestead Exemption won't get you until the following tax year and then it will be a blended rate - unlike being based on the full purchase price if you were to go and buy an investment property outright.  

Here's the bigger question for you?  If you sell, you'll lose that rate and payment but you'll have a payday...how will you reinvest the gain/proceeds?  Building wealth is about knowing money and keeping it employed (so it's working for you).  Do the math and you'll know the answer.

Good position to be in, by the way...Best.

I recommend you do none of that...you want to buy the property, not the seller's problems and inherited tenants can be challenging.  I recommend that you write your offer to take 'vacant possession' upon closing.  That will leave it to the seller to give notice to the month-to-month tenant that the lease will not be renewed and to negotiate with the other tenant on an early departure.  It is easier to acquire new tenants at a new price - and on YOUR lease - than to assume the tenants based on the seller's lease which you must honor fully until maturity.  That means that you would only be able to raise the rent on the MTM tenant and not the other one.  

Most contracts have a stipulation that within 3 to 5 days after an executed contract, the (copies of) leases/rent rolls/more are to be turned over to the buyer as part of the vetting process.  You may find at that time that there are no security deposits or actual leases in place.  The closing agent will arrange for the transfer of any security deposits at closing and will prorate the rent.

Again, if you buy a property with the tenants in place, you bought their leases too.  Please consider vacant possession as a condition of the sale and then acquire new tenants on your lease, with security deposits, your rent price, your screening completed, and renter's insurance in place.  

Best...

@Yangyang Jin

I know what I know because I've been where you are now...and you'll get through it.  But don't extend the lease.  You gave notice and their issues are of their own making.  Suggest they contact a realtor for help or move in with friends/family for a while. Hold your position, let them know that the unit has been promised to someone else, and that their failure to move will have consequences that could prevent them from ever securing a rental.  

Fingers crossed for you...

Patricia

Why wouldn't you require it?!!!  It's a cheap date for the tenant, it establishes the expectation that "you pay for what you break' without the fight over money, makes the security deposit fight a non-event, and proves to your insurance carrier that you're the real deal of an investor/landlord.  Gotta have... 

I don't know anything about the Denver market but these two things:

1.  A lot of people from Denver - and Colorado - are in Florida buying property.

2.  The lifting of the cap on property taxes in Colorado has been cited as a reason for not investing there further.

Hope this helps...

Always vet...and I would never ask a contractor for his license; I want to look that up and his complaint history myself as well as the BBB and online reviews. Any contractor with only 5-star reviews haAs a lot of cousins so don't drink the kool-aid. I also want to know what other jobs they just finished and actually driveby (even talk to the owners).  

A couple of things as well:

1.  Get a Scope of Work - detailed, with completion dates on it.  Make sure you're job is going to be done from start to finish.

2.  Don't pay for the work upfront.  A deposit is customary in my market but I pay it when they show up for work the first day.

3.  Pay for supplies whenever possible. It cuts out the mark up and waste.

Best...

The best thing to do is the right thing to do:  pull the dang permits.  This is a big investment and one that skipping a relatively inexpensive step could make it a paper weight.  And, you know how you get caught when you don't:  neighbors, disgrunted trades, contractors who bid the job but didn't get it, a jealous coworker/flipper, a friend of a friend, your mother-in-law - anyone can report 'suspicious activity' without cause that can result in that badge of dishonor:   the bid RED TAG.  

What does your PM contract state on repairs and owner notification?  If open wallet spending is not the cruise you signed up for, insist that the contract be amended to provide for a owner-approved expense.  Without getting into the whole ugly conversation, you are also paying that PM more than you think you are as they are compensated on these repair costs.  

This is a whole lot of not good...

Yes...find someone who will respect you as a landlord and your lease.

The term would not be acceptable to me. And, foreign diplomats are not created equal.  If you're inclined to do it, I would require a large security deposit, an annual rent escalation clause, Renter's Insurance with Landlord As Additionally Insured obtained from a US insurer, and know that their immunity prevents you from taking them to court for non-payment and/or eviction - so make sure the security deposit in your state can be used to offset rent.  Here's some information to know on the topic...

https://www.nvar.com/realtors/...

https://www.dailybeatny.com/20...

https://mentorrent.rs/how-to-r...