All Forum Posts by: Sergio Altomare

@David Andrzejek find out who your local apartment association is, and find a RE attorney that works with them. I recently went through this in the Philadelphia area, although not nearly as deep as yours, but paid the amount of the savings for the attorney for a successfully contesting and winning the assessment. In most cases, municipalities are expecting a large percentage of owners to not dispute their assessments, so getting an attorney involved almost certainly will get it reduced.

@Brent T Galbreath a few other things to consider is the nature of your investing. If you are just getting started and doing buy and holds using financing, then it's much more beneficial to take title personally, as you'll get much better rates. If you have a lot of assets to protect then an LLC may be beneficial. Also, if you do grow a portfolio large enough and want to trade up by selling individual properties and acquiring another through a 1031 exchange, then they will need to be all titled under the same name or entity.

Lastly, you can always transfer assets into an LLC down the road, depending on your state laws relative to transfer tax, etc.

I would find yourself a local real estate attorney and consider their advice.

@Zachary Schimenz as others have said, that quote is ridiculous. Call a high rated national company, like Nationwide or All-State. If you're going to be doing a lot of deals then find yourself a good insurance broker.

@Charlie Moore I can't say what the intent is relative to the context of that quote, but the transparency in my management business means being forward an upfront with my tenants relative to everything from screening process, move-in process, tenant and landlord service management policy, lease clauses, etc. We even go as far as including a tenant maintenance and repair fee schedule, which outlines what they can expect to be withheld from their security deposit when they move out.

@Tyler Labelle know what the laws are in your state relative to landlord tenant rights and eviction process, and follow them to the letter of the law. Document, document, and document every communication and response. This could be in the form of email text and certainly certified letters.

From there, you really need to evaluate your screening and tenant selection criteria and process.

@Eddie Gonzalez hire a business broker or a financial/accounting expert in the area that specializes in valuing businesses.

@Aidan Mulligan I attend our local apartment association meetings, and have heard many horror stories where the tenants have damaged the property and the subsequent inspections hold the landlord liable to fix the damage. Not just that, but they don't receive payment of rent until repairs are made.

My philosophy is that it's not easy to get someone who doesn't own a property to take good care of it, and much harder if they're not even the ones who are paying for the rent. No thank you!

Aside from all this, my guess is these properties would be in a very low to no appreciation neighborhood. I personally do not like the investment model.

@Trent Lee check out the sample report on what we use on my website. It's on the investor consultation page. It's based on the best (cheap) software that I've found Cash Flow Analyzer. Let me know if you want more details.

Sergio

Hfireholdings.com

I have a a collection of lenders. Let me know what you are looking to purchase and I can connect you to the right one or two. 

As @Ethan Giller said, PA treats such a transfer similarly to a sale, so you will get hit with not just state transfer tax, but if it's in Philly then you will also get hit with the Philly transfer tax. 4% in total. Unless you have multi-millions in assets, then I'd ask why you want the title in an LLC? If you are new and growing then target leverage using low rates. Check the blog post I just wrote on this in my profile.