All Forum Posts by: Soh Tanaka

One thing I personally do when I'm not sure to sell or keep is to just sell it in my head, and see what I would do with the cash from the sale. Would I buy that condo with the money? If so, keep it. Will I buy something else? Then sell it and buy something else. This is not meant to be professional advice, just some thought. 

@Nathan Gesner - While your setup looks nice, how does it work when you have a repair expense on 1/5/19 for $50, then another $100 repair expense on 1/15/19? Do you put "=50" on 1/5/19 and then add $100 on 1/15/19 by typing "=50+100"? 

I don't use Excel anymore for bookkeeping anymore, but if I have to, I rather have a one database table with date and all the details and pull information from that sheet to another summary sheet. This way, you can see all the activity with dates in one sortable sheet, but you also be able to see the summary like yours. 

I just (partially) attended Bill Noll's full-day seminar recently. Since it was not free and was all-day, I was expecting an all-day education. What I actually got after a few hours was a sales pitch. At that time, I couldn't stand and had to leave. 

I think @Lynn McGeein is smart with having rules about purchasing materials. To be honest, I was surprised that people still do a product pitching. I thought they were gone when the recession hit. You know how it goes. "Today only," "discounted price," "available to purchase only here," "special bonus just for you," "packed with information you can not get anywhere," etc. 

Regarding the content, it sounded great. I just don't know how it'll actually work in the real world.   

That said, he provided a PDF that shows how to structure LLC in a different way ("master" LLC with "sub" LLCs under it.) I'm enjoying reading it.

Try Legal Document Management to see if they can help.

I would do something like this.

That said, while I have never used them, there is cheap/free software out there these days, like https://www.stessa.com/ or https://www.rentalhero.io/. 

I'm not an attorney, but a different series is a different company, so you want to have different checking accounts for different series.

I'm not an attorney, and this is just my opinion, but generally speaking, the more assets you have, the more asset protection you need. Also, the more you are planning to acquire assets shortly, the more protection you want to think about. Not to say it's the right move, but plenty of people have one rental in their names, not LLC.

Besides LLC, I would think about getting umbrella insurance also. It's very cheap and easy to get. LLC is a bit more complicated.

If you only have a few properties, you can live without an app.

Have you contacted Property Boss or Olson Property Services? If you have any question about them, you can send me a personal message.

Here are some potential money-related questions you may want to ask. 

1. What is the management fee?
2. Is there any onboarding/initial setup Fee?
3. When does the owner get paid?
4. If the manager doesn’t collect any rent or collect only partial, do the owner still have to pay the full management fee?
5. Do the owner have to pay the management fee when the property is vacant?
6. Who pockets the late fee?
7. Who pockets the monthly animal fee/rent?
8. Who pockets the initial animal fee?
9. Who holds the security deposit?
10. Any repair & maintenance markup fee?
11. How much is the maintenance reserve?
12. Will the owner get notified for the cost for any repairs?
13. What’s the cost of leasing/tenant placement?
14. Is there any lease renewal fee?
15. Is there any late fee if the owner failed to pay some invoice on time?
16. What is the cost of eviction?
17. If the owner decided to sell the rental property, what would be the commision?
18. Any management agreement cancellation/termination fee?
19. Any administration fee?
20. Any other fee?