All Forum Posts by: Curtis Mears

Yes, the market is hot where I live. I am sitting back and trying to accumulate cash for when the correction comes.

I have some prospective tenants who do not have drivers licenses (they do have state issued id's or passports) and 1 does not have a social security number. Has anyone experienced this and how did you handle it? Did you rent to them?

@Suly Bolanos

taxes by far of the normal expenses followed by insurance then HOA fees.

however, there could be a particularly bad year of cap expenses in the future such as HVAC or roofs. one such item would not put it at the top, but several in one year could do it.

@Ryan Pozzi

I usually ask myself, do I want something or do I need it. generally, the items a want, often go unused after a day. I may think I need it, but really it adds no value to my life. most objects become clutter.

@Sheila Campbell

just a word of caution. I have purchased many properties cheaply because the previous owner did not have enough funds saved to do the necessary repairs. it tends to snowball. they do not have enough money to fix HVAC, then the roof, etc. eventually they end up selling to investors with money at significant discounts.

@Matthew Pierson

generally, sfh values are determined by comps, other sold properties in the area. you can get these numbers by using Zillow and looking at recently sold properties. once you get an idea of the value of the house, now you need to inspect house and deduct for any work that needs done. tax values generally have no real ability to predict prices when trying to determine property value and I find the zillow estimates to also not be useful, but better than tax value.

@Jenny Adel

does your lease state they are taking the property as it was presented? most do so go back to the lease and let them know they were well aware of the property when they took possession. they are responsible for yard maintenance, so sounds like they may want to plant some grass. my guess if you plant grass. they will kill it before it grows. also, who the hell pays to sod their yard? I never have even for my own house so not about to for rental.

@Axel Meierhoefer

I have 12 sfh and only 2 back accounts. one for rev and exp. the other is mandated by law for deposits. I use a free app called Wave which allows me to do necessary accounting. it automatically downloads bank transactions and I then categorize them. it also provides income statement balance sheet etc. you do need to spend some time categorizing, but it only takes a few seconds per transaction.

Good to know. Thanks for the response. Surprising it is not cheaper.

I currently have a separate insurance plan for each of my 12 SFH properties. The properties are all within 10 minutes of each other (east side of Raleifgh,NC) so in the same geographic area, but not all next to one another. Hurricanes can be an issue for us since we are 2 hours from the coast, but generally they die down by the time they reach us.

What I am wondering, is there a way to have 1 insurance plan for a specified dollar amount that can include all the properties. I had talked to my agent, but he said nothing like this existed. I imagine it as an umbrella plan that would be valued based on some percentage of the total value of all the properties. I would only consider it if I was able to save a significant amount on the policy, as I am accepting some level of additional risk if something happened to all properties. 

Has anyone heard of something like this, or does anyone have a policy like this?