All Forum Posts by: Robert Steele

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if 95% of my wealth was in an asset that swings 30% up and down in one month on a regular basis. 

@Peter Morgan Here is why I did not rent out my townhouse to a truck driver. When I showed it to him he started taking video of the property and making comments about it to the camera. I asked again if it would just be him living there. He replied in the affirmative. The townhouse was right near a trucking depot. I expected his plan was to rent it out and sublet it as a hotel to other truckers when he was out of town.

@Bryan Egner My tenants are all still on yearly leases so I haven't had much of an opportunity to find out. I did lease out one property however. Some applicants where not happy about month to month but the applicant I finally settled on was fine with it. An interesting side note, I discovered from applicants that there is actually a niche of demand for short term leases. People who are moving into new construction and just need a place while they wait for the builder to finish. They are willing to pay a premium.

Why do you need to talk to a RE attorney, or CPA for that matter? If you want to form an LLC just pay the ~$300 filing fee with the Texas Secretary of State. It's not that hard to fill out the form. If it's just you and your wife in the LLC you don't really need an LLC at all. Just own the rental in your name and get a liability insurance (umbrella policy). It will cost you less in the long run and provides better protection in my opinion.

In regard to review of rental application forms, hire a realtor to rent out you home. If it's your first time being a landlord you might also want to pay 10% for them to manage it. They will use Texas Association of Realtors promulgated forms which have already been put together by RE lawyers. You also won't have to keep running to the house every time a tire kicker wants to look at it. They can also provide good comps of what the rent should be. Definitely worth the 1 months rent.

I suspect some RE course may have lead you to the conclusion that you need an RE CPA and RE lawyer. Unless you are dealing with multifamily/commercial or partners you don't really need either of these professionals. It's overkill. Best of luck!

So with eviction moratoriums likely to be extended until September 2021 by Biden, this strategy of going month to month is still our best and only viable option that I can see.

Has anyone been trying this? Any push back from applicants?

Yeah, stay away from condos. To many negatives to list. My top one is lack of control. There are also too many horror stories surrounding them. My favorite was from Florida during the last bust. The handful of people who had bought into a newly constructed and largely vacant 100 condo building had to pay a special assessment to cover all 100 unit's HOA dues.

Individual plus Umbrella policy.

It's crap like this that makes we want to get out of the rental business.

When the CARES act eviction moratorium only applied to federal mortgages I refinanced and paid off the one VA loan I had. Next when Dallas county started doing eviction moratoriums as far as the eye could see I decided to start selling up my rentals there and 1031 them into Collin county which hasn't passed such draconian orders. Now this. I'm running out of places to get away from this insanity.

So I have a couple of thoughts on how to stay a step ahead. These moratoriums all seem to be centered around non-payment of rent. This doesn't appear to apply to holdovers. This leads me to believe that month-to-month leases may be the way to go moving forward. Unfortunately I don't think many tenants like that. Perhaps with 60 days notice to terminate auto-renewal instead of 30.

The other thing is asking for double security deposits, such as asking for last months rent which is not customary here. 

Finally, getting career tenants with great credit scores just became a whole lot more desirable in my book. That means looking less at class C properties in blue collar neighborhoods and looking more at class A properties in white collar neighborhoods.

The bottom line is that having to plan around the government taking away your property rights is un-American.

Richardson, TX did away with the mandatory interior inspection because of push back from the community on the grounds it infringed on the 4th amendment. Now they just do a drive-by or so they say. They still charge $75/year for... what exactly?

The tenant can request an interior inspection though.

I agree with your wife.