All Forum Posts by: Ryan Tyree

15k on back payments to the bank probably means the owner is delinquent on taxes as well. I would definitely contact the sheriffs office to see what kind of taxes are owed. Is the home in a plan? If so, find out what HOA fees are past due.

I see the term Expense Ratio tossed around a lot on the forums. This was not a number I have been using in my analyses so I wanted to gain some clarity on exactly what is included in this number. For instance, I believe debt service is not included from what I have read on the forums. More importantly though, I am having trouble figuring out exactly what is rolled into the debt service number. The obvious one is the loan, but do people also include taxes and insurance as part of the debt service? I tend to wrap all 3 values into the loan and let the bank pay the taxes and insurance out of an escrow account. Do others do this and do you consider this part of the debt service? What kind of expense ratio numbers do you find acceptable? I am using between 50%-55% in my analyses which does not include PITI.

The 2nd question I have regards utilities.  In my market water/sewer is a leinable utility if left unpaid.  Most landlords choose to wrap this into the monthly rent because of this.  Does everyone on BP tend to agree with this thinking?  Water and sewer tend to scare me because of the threat of a running toilet, or a tennat washing cars, etc.  

I appreciate the help and guidance.  Thanks again BP!

My opinion is let her go on the 31st. If you tell her she can continue with the used car business to get through the winter then she may take advantage of this gesture and not be so willing to leave in the spring. The other option may be to pitch her an idea as if it is hers. Something to the effect of “January is a tough time to move bc of weather, I’ll do you a favor and let you stay through March/April”. Something to that effect may work for both parties but I’d suggest biting the bullet and let her leave on her own accord.

www.applianceconnection.com May take 2 or 3 weeks to get them but will save good money over box stores and even local mom and pops. If you don’t need an emergency replacement I highly recommend this website. For comparison, I was looking to spend close to 14k on 6 Frigidaire appliances when we built our house. I got all 6 on this website for 10,500 with almost an extra 1,000 in rebates. You won’t regret checking this place out.

I️ never worry about fees. My thought process has always been if the fund can make me money then they are deserving of their fee. I️ generally look at long term performance and the overall goal of the fund. I️ look for funds where the goal of the fund aligns with the hot market trends. These are typically your best options. I️ look at my 401k on a weekly or biweekly basis but make it a point to reallocate money, if necessary, to the different funds about once per quarter. Another great option is a financial advisor. My guy helps me with my 401k even though he isn’t making money on it. His thought process is that he will someday take over the fund if I️ leave my current job or into retire. He is right.

Info sheets are a much. I've done this on 2 refis in the past 5 years and it worked like a charm on both. You are basically doing the appraisers work for them, then paying them $500 for their time.

I've looked at 4 different food service franchises. All of them had a 40 hour requirement for the owner to work on the business. This didn't necessarily mean in store, but rather reconciling the books, marketing, etc. They all had a 3-4 week training period you had to attend as well. From talking to owners of these 4 franchises I found that they were netting somewhere around 60k - 75k per year after all expenses, franchise fees, payroll, and taxes. This was pretty standard regardless of the name on the building. The only way to make real money is to own multiple locations, all bringing a similar return. At the end of the day I didn't feel it was the right investment for me in my situation.

Auto pay with a credit card to get the points. Water, electric, and gas are likely online accounts that you can print YE statements for tax purposes. If trash is Waste Management they may have the same. If not, I pay my trash yearly instead of monthly to save on paperwork and hassle.

Why knock the 401k? I see it all the time on BP forums and never understand it. I can defer 18k of my annual income into my 401k tax free. 24k when I turn 50 in 15 years. That saves me about 5k in taxes annually. My employer matches 6% of my salary and bonus which was almost 12k in 2016. Employer match + tax savings = 17k. I love real estate, but I don't know of any property that can provide me that kind of return on my investment. If you have an opportunity to investment in a 401k through an employer I highly recommend you do your homework before you scoff at it. Yes, my 401k doesn't send me a check every month, but it returns 6.5% annually and will pay out like a slot machine in my retirement.

I've been using Smartsheet in my W-2 job for several years. We tried Trello but the free version didn't allow flexibility for deadlines and tracking progress via tasks and task completion. When we dove into the costs of this functionality it was Smartsheet that came out on top. I think it works out to about 25$/mo and you can invite unlimited collaborators to your sheets. The iPhone app is slick for updates while out of the office. It's definitely worth a look.