All Forum Posts by: Todd Plambeck

Are you planning on paying cash for it?  If not, the mortgage company might make you repair it before they'll give you a loan.

Mail her a rent statement with a return envelope, either pre-addressed or windowed.  I started doing this before online payments became commonplace and my late payment issues all but disappeared.  It's just another bill that comes in the mail to be paid that way.

Yup, just a stall tactic.  They will probably move out this week.  Check everyday to see if they have abandoned the property and secure the property.

 They were basing the value off future rent increases after updates.  Not curent rents, occupancy, and condition. 

 That one's been on the market for a while.  Lot's of supposition in the valuation/pricing from when I looked it a few months ago.

You are bound by the terms of the lease.  If the lease doesn't end until until May you are stuck with them until then unless you can get them to agree to leave.  A bank will not give you an owner occupied loan if the property is leased out with probably means 20-25% down.

If you pay all cash, look forward to holding it for 6 months before most banks will refi it into a 30 year loan.

First, what do the existing leases say as far as notice?  WI says you can terminate a month to month with 28 days notice but if they have a lease that has gone to month to month whatever is in the lease will take precedence.  Second, you are obligated to provide utilities to the tenants until they sign a new lease since they are paid by the landlord now.  Good luck getting any of them to go for that, would you?  I would suggest waiting until spring and then hit them with the new lease.  Otherwise you are going to end up paying utilities on four vacant units until the thaw. 

Here's the obvious question, why are they paying late every month?  Chances are they get paid on the 1st and the 15th.  All of their other bills come out of the 1st paycheck and you get paid out of the 15th check.  This is not uncommon for paycheck to paycheck renters.  Why not ask them why they are always late and change the due date for the rent when the lease comes up for renewal.  That saves them $100 a month, gives you piece of mind and will create a better tenant for you in the long run.

You need to accrue money for those capital expenses.  Say the roof will last 20 years and costs $10,000.  That's $500 a year or $42 a month.  That's assuming the roof has 20 years left in it.  If it only has 10 years then you'd need to double that for 10 years to $84 a month.  Then after it's been replaced recalculate the amount you are accruing based on the cost and longevity of the new roof.  Using the same numbers you could drop it back to $42 a month.  Same for HVAC, water heaters, paint, appliances, etc, etc.  All those amounts go into you capital reserves account.