All Forum Posts by: Westin Hudnall

@Lisa Phillips 

Lisa - I have 8 properties in my LLC and am trying to refinance 4 of them to 30 year fixed rate financing from 15 year adjustable rate financing. Should I transfer them back to my name before doing so or does it not matter ?

Great responses --

I only have higher end rentals that were rehabbed right and thought that would keep costs away for the most part but what I've come to learn is higher paying tenants expect more ; and ask for more. For example - Every little scratch on your new floor or any rust spot on a newer sink and often they feel more comfortable with everything in just as good of a condition as when they moved in.

Higher end tenants care about their credit score ; security deposit ; etc and get nervous if something can jeopardize any of this. Its not a bad thing to have tenants like this (probably a good thing) but it does keep your costs higher than one would expect.

Please respond bigger pockets land

Simon -

I don't know anything about Manhatten but that sounds like a terrible deal unless you aren't mentioning what's drawing you to it. (Insane appreciation maybe?)

I'm not following how this will cash flow. Looks like a property you will have to put money into monthly to make up for your $500,000 mortgage that you will probably get frustrated with and sell before you get to see any decent appreciation. Nothing wrong with the strategy if you have the funds; just find the right deal that makes financial sense for that strategy.

As a buy and hold investor - I have budgeted the typical 10% for repairs but find it nearly impossible to stick to that amount. The majority of my properties are fairly new (all built since 1970 with 5 of the 9 built since 1990) . If an investor gets $1000/month rent one yearly water leak ; a sprinkler issue; garage door issue; and a few lights not working properly can eat up your 10% repair costs (not to mention more serious issues that can advise) . All investors must have a lot of similar issues come up over the course of a year.

Maybe it's just me but unless we want our properties to deteriorate and have a lot of deferred maintenance I find it nearly impossible to stick to this:

Please advise with any thoughts

@Angie W. @Aly W. 

Great thread...

I have 9 properties at 1200/month (middle class single family homes) that I would like to start implementing a system right away before I start losing checks; forgetting whose I have and havent cashed; etc. Spark rent seems to fit the bill for me.

How would each of you recommend I ibring this up to 8 tenants that are use to bringing me a check each month and a 9th that has automatic payments on his end that cut a check to my house ? 

@Theresa Sanford 

I love that app. I used it as well before I got quicken rental property manager. Quickens 2014 addition has that same feature which my partner uses then hits a "sync" button to sync it up to my other transactions.

@Brittany Tucker 

I was a newbie just less than 2 years ago. Is there anything I can help you with ? Any questions?

I forgot to mention for anyone interested it can be downloaded from quicksoft for only $68.95 (almost 1/2 the price any where else it's downloaded from) and has had no issues.

@Dave Toelkes 

Quicken rental property manager has been awesome. It pulled all my Bank of America business account transactions over no big deal. All I had to do is label each transaction; such a relief not having to go through bank statements at the end of the year or hand track receipts as they come in which end up all over the house. The quicken app is easy to use to do everything I awaits above from your smart phone if you choose and I was able to download it on my business partners phone (she is of the "non computer generation") and she is able to see how much is in our business account as well as how much income has been brought in for the month vs how much we've spent in one easy snapshot. I handle the finances so this should really help our relationship since she's often felt in the dark before in regards to our finances.

The program reminds me when rents are due; tracks them; tracks when leases will end ; maturity dates for my loans; interest rates etc. that with 1 click I can email to her as well.

This has truly been a lifesaver

Thank you very much