All Forum Posts by: S Harper

I had a tenant for 5.5 years who just moved out, and it is my first time turning over a property. I spent several days repainting (lots of holes, marks, etc), cleaning, steam cleaning the carpet - am not planning on charging since this fits in with 'wear and tear', sanding out all of the writing her boyfriend's kids did on the cedar walls in the living room. I also placed craigslist "free" ads for items that she left - 24 containers of flooring adhesive, 10 rolls of carpet & padding remnants - and don't plan on charging for my time to deal with the ads and the people.

Things I am planning on charging her for are the supplies for a broken ceiling light, 2 missing smoke detectors, missing window screen, ruined screen door, hazmat disposal facility fee, landfill truckload of garbage fee.

One of the bedroom doorknobs was in 2 pcs - is this wear and tear on an older house?

Two exterior doorknobs have huge dents and are misshapen from her dog - they technically work, but look like cr*p. If I replace them, they will be on different keys unless I pay to have them re-keyed.

She replaced the front door locks after her roommate died, and changed another 2 locks due to dog destroying the doorknobs. When they moved in there were 4 exterior locks on one key - now they are 4 on 4 keys. Can I charge her the re-keying cost?

Thanks for any advice! I read through a lot of the older threads on turning over rentals, but am looking for a bit of reassurance before presenting the tenant with the final bill & the remains of her damage deposit.

I have a boyfriend/girlfriend who have been renting from us for 4 years. He unexpectedly died w/o will. He had never mentioned his kids to me, given me their contact info, given them as emergency contacts, etc.
When the surviving renter called to tell me of his passing she told me that she had had to change the locks and call the police to keep his kids out of the home due to conflicts, and have the police there when giving the kids his personal property. They have even said that they are taking 'his' dogs from her, so you can guess at the level of acrimony here.
The teenage daughter called and asked a bunch of questions, including asking for a copy of the lease. His adult daughter also called and asked for a copy of the lease, saying she needs to prove to his creditors (including the IRS) that he did not own any property at the time of his death. She emailed me a copy of the death certificate and a notarized "Collection of Personal Property Affidavit".
I provided her with a letter to her and "to whom it may concern" that states that he rented from us which provided the timeframe, address, and a "please contact me should you require additional information" with my mailing and email address.
She sent an email yesterday saying she wants a copy of the lease to protect her and her sister from his debt and any future requests for the information.

Am I required to send them a copy of the lease? Will it go against the other renter's rights if I do?
Thanks,
Suz

We have an opportunity to refinance our home and cash out enough to pay off one of our rentals. By doing this we will lower our monthly payment by 450/mo OR if we make the same payments we can reduce our total cost over the life of the loan by 55k and pay it off 9 years earlier.
We won't have the interest to deduct on Schedule E for this house, even though we will be able to deduct if on our personal schedule.

Will the increased profit on the LLC outweigh the increased deduction on the personal side? Or do they tend to wash out?
Or should I even care since I have the potential to pay it off 9 y and 55k earlier?
Obviously, my qualified tax professional would provide the best input here, but I am hoping to get some quick input before I shell out her hourly fee.
Thanks for any input!

The husband filled out the application since he is the only one working. Failed to get the app fee and birthdate on wife to run hers (only second time we have had to rent a place, so still making rookie mistakes).
His is Not Good - poor credit score, 2 tax liens, several collection accounts. Almost all from last year. I am thinking his wife's report cannot be good enough to outweigh.
So when I call to deny the application - can I tell the wife this much as reason for denial? Or do I just need to leave a message for the husband?
Any advice would be a huge help. Thanks.

This property has been on the market for several months and gone through a substantial price drop. We lowballed the offer and the owner has already included a partial repair credit. We put in a straightforward offer, if it is accepted then our agent said we can always amend to include the commission if the seller is amenable. We were just hoping to not deplete our reserves.

We have been surprised at the market, never having dealt with short sales or bank owned properties before. This is our fourth offer (full price on the first three) with no concessions and we haven't gotten one yet. One is still under bank review a month later. This one we have another day or two until the response deadline. We are hoping that since it will require some substantial work and it has been sitting so long we won't have any competing offers.
We are also learning about agents who are not above board - verbal offers, etc.
It is reassuring to know we are not the only ones having difficulty getting a contract - at least it is not s.th. we are doing incorrectly!

I didn't ask about the hard money lender, since dh & I aren't interested in going that route.
Adding the commission/pts into the loan would be all above board and transparent - we are very fortunate in that we have no doubt as to this guy's integrity.
We decided to just put in a normal offer using our regular bank. Too many options for newbies! Thank you, though.
suz.

Husband is thinking this may be a good way to increase the ease of rental - and more importantly - sale down the road. Anyone ever tried this?

thanks - suz.

We are making an offer on a lender owned property that will need 15-20k in repairs. We are planning on doing most of the work ourselves. We are bidding 10K below sales price (it has been on the market for many months).

Our agent had several suggestions to get the repair $, including:

get 20k commission to realtor and he 1099's it to us

pd to mtg broker as discount pt and broker gets it to us

find a lender who will loan based on post-repair value

do fix&flip loan, refi when repairs are finished

This will be our first rental purchase, so we are at a loss as to which is the best option. Not really interested in the f&f loan - 10% int. and having to pay for closing costs again at refi.
I have been reading through the forums, but am still seeking additional info.
Any suggestions/info would be really appreciated!
Thx - Suz.