All Forum Posts by: Paul Gupta

Hi @Randy H. trying to pin down the lawsuit protection angle. In your presentation (which was great btw), you recommend putting each property in a land trust so a lawsuit against one does not put the other assets at risk. But in this thread you wrote that land trusts are not a liability shield and it will indeed flow to a LLC. Grateful if you can please clarify.

PS Bonus points for ability to generate 3-day notices from the software, and ability to dispatch physical letters without manually print/fold/stuff/stamp/mail  (ala mailaletter, click2mail)

Hi experts.  We have around 70 doors in management, and still running full steam using Excel.  Its become increasingly cumbersome however to generate reports, so thought we'd ask this esteemed forum some advice.  Can any software such as Buildium, Propertyware, Appfolio, etc. do this:

1) Allocate overhead across properties for property P&L?  Also optionally allocate across only subset of properties, e.g. mowing lawn for a duplex, that charge only gets allocated to those 2 doors.

2) Download from bank and credit cards, and then what's the interface for quick bulk tagging - we currently tag each transaction by expensetype and property so thats 2 attributes per transaction, so how long would it take to tag say 100 downloaded rows all at once.

3) Generate monthly journal showing rent payment status by property so we know who hasn't paid and needs followup text and/or a 3 day notice.

4) Separate out management reports from tax reports.  Tax => I can deduct home office internet, but for management reporting I would not include that expense - to give an example.

5) Sepearate historical perspective from current perspective since rents, late fees etc. change over time.

Thanks for any tidbits from your experiences!  Live long and prosper!

P

Hi, I found a couple properties where the previous owners walked away.  I researched them hoping to get a below-market buy (all cash), but I dont see how I can benefit from this information.  Here's why:

Presumably they walked away since the places are underwater.  If so, it seems the only approach would be to convince them to do a short sale - but since they have already walked away, their credit is already shot from missing multiple payments, so they have little incentive to listen to me.  

Opinions?  Should I let this go or is there a play here?  Thanks.

I had this happen few years back, bought at courthouse steps, owner occupant said it was an unfair foreclosure and its in dispute.  We filed eviction and it was an open and shut case.  Follow the law and be careful of any statements you may make out of sympathy, since they might be used against you.  The owner occupant is very bitter at having lost their home.  You are a rational investor who just wants to make a profit and move on.  Emotional stakes are quite different between the two parties, so be sensitive in your communication.  

Cash for keys: personally never worked for me.  Our $500 or $1000 offer pales if they think a $200k house is at stake.

About 100 days: evictions take pretty long, they will be able to comfortably plan their move before the sheriff comes for the lock out.

Not paying also incurs a cost (lost rent), its just a matter of assessing which is greater.  Say you are open, but keep looking as well.  The commission seems to be worth 2-3 weeks of rent in your case. See if your efforts bear fruit first.

Hi, a house we are rehabbing has a brick outside.  Due to this, my contractor says we have to order custom windows to avoid breaking the brick.  The window sizes are almost standard, e.g. 35.5 x 35.5 (half inch short of 3 ft).

Two things - 1) Any good reco to order such custom windows from?  We were just going to go to Home Depot.  2) Have you encountered such a situation before?  (where std size windows have brick around them which made you go smaller)

Thanks!

Today's 80% is better than the one you are replacing (which most likely is very old, and originally at 60-70 to begin with, worsened over time).  So my tenants typically see lower energy bills with a new 80% eff furnace.  (My philosophy is similar to Greg S above...)

Joe: thank you.

Joshua, I used servicer for one of my loans.  The issue is that their monthly fee eats into the profits.  (

The one I used is charging $40/mo)  

I thought Dodd-Frank allowed us to do the first 3 every year without a servicer?   Could benefit from your perspective on this.  Thanks!