All Forum Posts by: Todd Kozak

@Megan Greathouse

Hi Megan, what did you end up doing with this? I have a south Cory house that has water coming in the basement. It’s unfinished, and the water flows to the drain, so not a major issue. But the tenet is concerned with mold. I’m trying to figure out what to do as far as making sure there is no mold (or removing it) and slowing the water.

@Adriano Caraco let me add the caveat that I only own SFH's so am not as familiar with multi

@Adriano Caraco

What the others are saying about sewer is true. I didn’t know it was the same for water and trash. What I did for sewer is I have my tenet pay it but I asked the sewer company to also send me the bill. This way I’ll know once they are one month behind and can snip issues in the butt before it gets too late. I may now do that with water and trash.

The way I see it is why should the landlord pay for this? Its a utility. Besides, Sewer alone in my small south city house is $58/m. $700/year. Years from now when I have 30 properties, I don’t want to give away $21,000 per year.

It might be more common in STL that the landlord pays it but I don’t know if the average Joe Renter knows or thinks that. And even if they do, sorry, it’s their cost.

@Peter Kozlowski

I just spent more than $75 of my time reading these posts and now I gotta know - so how did it all turn out?

@Duane Alexander, you are correct it is not a war zone, nothing like parts of north city or some other parts of north county.  I just think it's important the OP make sure to understand the area before just analyzing the numbers, as I don't know his familiarity of north county.  As you pointed out with Castle Point...it is not a good area at all, and it borders Bissel Hills, which is a much more investment-friendly area.  If you are investing in either Spanish Lake or Bellefontaine you would just want to make sure you understand the specific blocks.  I hope I did not insult where you are from, it is also my hometown and I have fond memories of my childhood and young adulthood there. 

This post is a few months old so @Aaron J Latal, you probably already decided if you are purchasing the property you were looking at.  While I have been in real estate investing for about a year and don't look in north county, I grew up my first 25 years of age (1979-2005) in Spanish Lake and Bellefontaine Neighbors.  @Duane Alexander, Blackjack is a pretty good distance from Spanish Lake, at least 4 miles from the closest edges, so for investment analysis, I don't know that you'd want to compare the two.  Spanish Lake had a lot of  Section 8 apartment complexes when I lived there, that hasn't changed.  If you are interested in investing in Section 8 housing, it's there.  If you are not, I would be very careful about this area.  It's not north city, but it does have a lot of rough spots.  There are some pockets in which a few blocks aren't bad.  School district is Hazelwood East which isn't very good.  I briefly lived on the other side (south side) of 270 in Bellefontaine Neighbors.  It doesn't have the Section 8 apartment complexes (maybe it has section 8 houses) so it's a slightly safer area, but still you have to know the specific blocks.  Bissel Hills isn't too bad.  Glascow Village is terrible.   Both are Riverview Gardens School district which is not very good.  If you want to invest in this area, don't just analyze the numbers, make sure you do a lot of research on the particular blocks.  If you are ever looking at a specific house in either Bellefontaine or Spanish Lake, feel free to message me and I'd be happy to let you know what I know about that block.

I am about to create my first rental property listing. Up until now I have used a property manager to list and manage my couple properties. I have started using Cozy to manage one of my tenets and I plan to use Cozy to list my next property.  It syndicates to doorsteps.com and realtor.com.  They provide a link to copy and paste to social media.  I know I can create a separate listing on Zillow (for a cost).  What does everyone else do?  Where are the top sites to make sure my listing shows up?   My properties are in St. Louis

Chris, glad you responded, I somehow missed Franks initial reply. 

Frank, is there info you could send me about your company?  I would be interested in talking.  

Good info, thank you. I don't own 10 properties yet so I can still get conventional loans. You said if the LLC purchased then it must be a commercial loan? Perhaps it would make more sense not to refinance my next few homes (using BRRR ) with an LLC, but rather keep under my name after purchase and during re-if. Then later, if I chose to do so, I could quick claim deed the property into the LLC, as long as my bank allows it. I think?

I just purchased my 4th rental property, and currently own all properties under my own name...no LLC. I know there are different schools of thought on how to structure the business. Does anyone know a fair, reasonably priced real estate lawyer in the St. Louis area that I can talk to? I am buying for rehab, hold and rent.

I've heard different options:

One LLC for each property

Once LLC for properties in rehab and one LLC for all the rest of the properties

One LLC total

Skip the LLC, you have home insurance