All Forum Posts by: Suzanne Villanueva

I have been successful with real estate investing on my own with only my own funds.  But now my real estate investing is growing to the point where I need to look at partnerships and LLCs more closely, and I would like to start with books or online resources so I can learn some of the basics before I pay to work with an attorney.  I need to know more about different kinds of partnerships, since I don't yet know what kind would be best suited for my upcoming investments.  I also don't have a clue yet about LLCs, or whether I should form one for a partnership.

There are lots of books and sites out there, but which are the good ones for accurate info for someone just starting the learning curve, and which are good for when I'm ready for more detailed info and can formulate specific questions?  I am in CA, most of my rentals are currently in TX.  What resources have been helpful for you?

Thanks in advance!

Jim, actually I agree with your overall point that the tenant is risky; I just object to the way you took her multiple jobs and single mother status and extrapolated a whole life history out of that without knowing the facts or the person.  Not every person is like that nightmare tenant you had.  But I wasn't attacking you or trying to pick a fight.

As far as mistakes, I don't know any adult anywhere who has not made one or two, but some are more life-changing than others, and some can end up being blessings in disguise while others just suck and hurt.  I once owned 200 shares of Amazon.com stock, bought for an average price of $22/share.  I sold them all years later when they got into the $60s/share.  Of course in the years since, I have looked back at that move with some occasional pangs of regret, even though I made good use of the proceeds.  It still stings sometimes to see what a single share goes for nowadays!

 But I didn't see anything in original post about this tenant's children having multiple fathers, or anything about how old she was when they were born, or other circumstances.  These are your assumptions, not based on any facts stated by the landlord.  You also said in a different post that someone with a history of bad decisions can't be trusted to suddenly make good ones.  But you have no actual knowledge of whether this tenant made bad decisions to end up in her present circumstances.  You are making all those assumptions about the life and decisions of someone else's tenant based on no actual knowledge of that tenant, but rather one case history of a different person.  That doesn't make your personal experience invalid, but it also doesn't make your experience universally applicable to all single mothers.

Wow, Jim, you make a heaping helping of assumptions about the race and life history of a person you know next to nothing about.  To put it mildly, the assumptions are not helpful and distract from the basic decisions that the landlord needs to make.

I am in favor of communication with this tenant first, with landlord letting her know clearly in writing that landlord is concerned about unusual damage that is beyond normal wear and tear, and unauthorized repairs and replacements, and insurance issues.  Tenant needs written reminder that these things are in violation of her lease and she needs to communicate better up front, but she also needs to know that her consistent payments, including for damage, are appreciated and that she is respected.  It doesn't hurt to see if she is open to getting connected to additional resources too.  Lack of affordable childcare has likely been an issue for her as a single mom, especially with pandemic closing of schools.  I, too, have a single mom tenant who pays on time but has odd damage.  It's because her children are home alone under the care of the oldest sibling while mom is at work.

As you decide when and how to quit the W2 job, do not underestimate the value of your medical insurance, especially with a young family.  I'm a somewhat older mom, but I have 6-year-old twins.  Things happen.  Someone gets sick.  Someone gets injured.  Someone needs a surgery.

We all know either from our own or others' life experiences that sometimes life comes up and wallops you out of the blue.   As someone who unexpectedly dealt with breast cancer (I'm in my 40s and have no family history), I can tell you that just one single dose of chemo treatment is billed at thousands of dollars.  Both my sons had simple hernias.  Their surgeries were $30,000 EACH.  The co-pays and out-of-pocket costs are thousands per year, but without insurance the costs would be catastrophic.  My insurer paid out well over a million dollars for my cancer diagnostics, mastectomies, chemo, and radiation, even with my co-pays and the insurance company's negotiated lower payment rates.

I'm cancer-free now (knock on wood), and I am happily investing in out-of-state rentals in my "spare" time.  I'm more determined than ever to build a solid and diversified investment portfolio to carry my family through just in case, especially since I'm the breadwinner.  However, even if my real estate "empire" grows fantastically, I will be super cautious about giving up a steady paycheck, some minimal sick leave, and that crucial medical insurance before I reach Medicare and pension age.  For some of us, it would be a lot harder to go buy other insurance, especially if Obamacare goes away and insurers become able again to reject for pre-existing conditions like my recent cancer.  Fortunately I like my teaching job anyway.

I'm not trying to scare or depress anyone, just expressing caution.

Suzanne

Thank you Jeff for your extremely helpful info.  I love the specifics in your post.  I will use this in my own rentals.

Ha, thanks for this.  I had tried clicking the green arrows originally and it didn't work, but now it does.  Go figure.  Thanks again.

If you don't already have this info, here is how you contact your local Congressional representatives:

For House, enter your zipcode to find your Representative's name and address:  http://www.house.gov/represent...

 And here is how you reach your state's Senators:  https://www.senate.gov/senators/How_to_correspond_senators.htm

Silly question maybe, but how do I "vote" for another person's post?  I'm not finding that option.  Thanks in advance.

 I notice that Omar's proposed legislation does not address any relief for landlords who own their properties outright and therefore don't have a mortgage payment to cancel (if they want to accept the onerous other conditions of that relief).  Her opinion seems to be that such property owners are wealthy and can afford the loss, but for some folks, the rents from those properties may be their primary source of income.  The loss of that income therefore could create tremendous financial hardship, forcing a sale at a steep loss.  She seems to think, oh well, at least they would have a property to sell.  But if that property is their source of retirement funds for the rest of their life, selling it could leave them devastated at the very time when they most need funds because they can no longer go back to work.