All Forum Posts by: Ron Todd

Hey Margaret, if you wanted to get an investment property and be legal, why not buy a new primary and move into it and rent your boyfriend's house out? Lying on loan docs will probably lead to lying on taxes will probably lead to a new 1bd/1ba in jail. 

One thing to keep in mind is you are probably going to want a property manager to help with your property. There won't be much time in basic to take care of any issues that pop up and (assuming active duty) who knows where you will get stationed. If the numbers make sense with management factored in, why not go for it? 

The VA loan is amazing. I've done exactly what you are looking at doing, twice now. I've got 3 VA loans running concurrently. It works because I lived in the homes then rented them out when I PCS'd.

Hey Sean, you cannot use your VA loan to buy a rental property. You can however use a VA loan to buy a primary residence to live in, then rent out when you move.

I have a septic at one of my rentals. It's not a big deal, I just made an information letter about septics that I attached to the lease and told the tenants what to expect. Certain cleaning chemicals should not go down the drain and I let them know they should be looking for chemicals marked septic safe. I get the system cleaned annually for a couple hundred bucks.

I created an LLC with two other partners. The key to success is to have a solid operating agreement (OA). Who owns what portion, what are the roles, what do you do if a partner isn't performing how you expected, basically get all the awkward discussions out of the way and signed into the agreement. It's important to remember that you are running a business and should try to leave no room for ambiguity in the agreement. It has helped me to have a thorough OA when I discussed performance with one of my partners that wasn't holding up his end of the partnership. As for joint bank accounts, the three of us have access to our LLC's account, nothing cosmic there.

I've used legalzoom to form LLCs both with and without parters. It's very simple and cheap. You can take care of the 75/25 split in your operating agreement (just Google one for your state and you can get an idea what's in them). 

I've heard of people using the 1031 to sell a rental and buy the primary they want but instead of moving in immediately, they rent the primary out for a year or so. This works because you are exchanging a rental for a rental. It requires patience, but can work to avoid capital gains.

I wish I could take credit, but my buddy turned me onto the idea and it's worked well so far!

hey Kaleb,

since the glue down doesn't lock in place, it's easier to replace a damage piece in the middle of the floor vs having to disconnect the interconnected pieces back to the wall.