All Forum Posts by: Shain Ismailovski

Depending on local laws and regulations you should be allowed to ask for a security deposit for a weekly rental. It would basically work out like a vacation rental in a sense if you have someone new renting it out each week. It's common to ask for around 10% of the rent for security deposit, but that again varies based on local regulations. Make sure you are allowed to rent on a weekly basis also as some municipalities don't love it.

Hi Juan -- there a few options out there by Cozy.com is pretty popular with a lot of landlords I work with. 

https://cozy.co/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=branded&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuda95fT25QIVApSzCh2sDwZIEAAYASAAEgJZS_D_BwE

Thanks for sharing! Good luck and much success on your journey!

Hi Aaron -- I'm not too familiar with real estate rules and regs in the Chicago region so take this with a grain of salt. In my market sellers are supposed to disclose all latent defects on a property that are significant to the habitability and structural foundation of the property. NJ is a full disclosure state so this is written into the law and mandated. If the seller is being weird about that, especially by not stating that everything was done to code that should raise a large bright red flag to you. Because if you close and find out then that there are a bunch of things not up to code you could find yourself in deep trouble throwing your own money into the mix to fix the problem. If possibly check with the municipality to see if inspections were reported to them. Are you also able to get your own home inspector in there before close? Your attorney should be able to add that into the contract if it isn't already. I would proceed that way and see what they come up with. Better to hammer this out now before it's too late and you're stuck in a money pit.

Something I like to do when gauging the amount of upgrades and repairs needed on my units is seeing what is on the market near them. You can look at both active and rented listinga and check out the pictures to see what is included in each. If you have the opportunity to check them out in person I'd recommend that. After a while you'll notice a pattern and you can see where the market is heading for upgrades. Or you can see all the things that the other rentals are lacking and put them into your unit to give you an edge. It is important to not go overboard because you may find that a property that was once cash flowing may no longer be doing so. Appliance switch outs are the easiest upgrades along with light cabinet refacing if needed. If the unit has carpeting, replacing that may be a good idea as well. I wouldn't do too much more than that if you don't have to.

Sounds like an interesting journey. Thanks for sharing and good luck!

Finding a lender who will offer you a HELOC on an investment property is close to impossible. It's unlikely you will find a major bank that offers it and if you do the line of credit they would offer is usually pretty low. Hoping someone can point you in a more concrete direction.

A lot of people will recommend an LLC as it will protect your personal assess more that an umbrella policy would. However, it is typically the more expensive option. An umbrella policy is a good alternative so long as the damage doesn't go above the coverage amount, which is usually one million dollars. It really comes down to how much you are looking to insulate yourself. An LLC offers more, but costs more. An umbrella policy costs less, but caps what it will protect you on/against. There is a bit more too it than that, but that is the gist of it. You could also do both if you're feeling excessive.

I agree as I would try to take car of your debt first to make yourself more appealing to lenders. Lenders don't want to see bad debt, but also don't want to see you as overleveraged. If you are struggling to pay off this debt, they might scratch their heads on you being able to pay off a mortgage. Definitely take care of this first as you will be better off.  

Don't let the applicant rush you. This is YOUR business after all. Echoing what others have said, I would want to meet the applicant in person and have an in person interview with them before deciding. Them moving from out of state raises questions and may be a red flag as they may move again as soon as their lease is up. If they don't have the patience for your due diligence and are constantly hounding you for updates I would hold off on them.