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How Renters Insurance Can Offer Protection for Your Personal Stuff

stockvault-twisted-metal109024-PDMore and more people are renting properties these days instead of buying. The reason behind this is the increasing cost of real estate properties. If you are thinking of renting an apartment or a condo, you are on the right track.

When making a budget, include premium for renters insurance. In case you don’t know what renters insurance is, it’s a type of insurance that provides coverage for a renter’s belongings.

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Rental Cash Flow December 2015- January 2016

packs-163497_1280-PDThe rental cash flow for all of 2015 was the best ever in my history of a landlord.  I had several apartment turns, but minimal vacancy between the turns.  I am hoping that my last (half) year of working at my full time job goes well, and the cash flow continues for many years to come.

I am still working on procuring the next rental, and we have run into some title issues that are being addressed.  I have the property locked in, but it’s not final.  It should produce a solid 15%+ cash on cash return, with room to spare.  It should also add an additional ~$500 a month to my rental cash flow.

I was able to save a record amount in my 401K, IRA, HSA and after tax accounts.  All my tax deferred accounts were maxed out.  I saved enough for me to live on for a few years…

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How to Fix a Delta Shower Faucet Leak

Delta Shower ValveWhen you are a landlord, you can either hire out all the maintenance, or do some of them yourself.  I do much of it myself, and it saves a TON of money.  When you are in doubt about how to fix an item, odds are, there is someone out there, with a YouTube video, who has dedicated their life to helping you fox the issue.

This bit of maintenance to fix a shower faucet leak started simple enough.  It was a quick text by a tenant saying her bathtub faucet was leaking.  Then a phone call.  When you get a text and phone call, it becomes a bit more serious…

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November – December 2015 Rental Cash Flow

100-PD2015 has been a great year in terms of rental cash flow.  It is the first year I have actually tracked rent increases, vacancy and next year’s potential increases.  I have always tracked income and expenses, but as I get close to retirement, I think it is a great exercise to track these other things.

I also signed a purchase agreement for another building.  I was not looking for another rental, and this one sort of came up.  It is a bit outside my normal purchases, and will add a few extra dollars to the bottom line.  Hopefully, in due time, it will be one of the greatest purchases I have ever made…  I will give a short briefing in this report, and save the rest for a more detailed post in the future.

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Rental Property Asset Allocation

Saving-MoneyAre you holding the proper rental property asset allocation?

My investment account has finally recovered from 2007.  That’s right.  My investment account has finally surpassed my account balance record set way back in October 2007, over eight years ago.  (It actually passed the mark a few months ago, and I just got around to writing this post.)  It was only just about $50K higher in 2007 that it was back in 2000 or so.  My current 401K, which is nearly as high as my investment account is today, was at $0 in 2003 when I started at my current mega-corp, as I have always converted my previous employer 401Ks to an IRA, and a Roth wen i could afford to pay the tax hit.

If you do not have the proper investment allocation, you could be in for a large surprise in your quest for financial independence.  Being financially independent is not just about having a large amount of money.  It is about multiple income streams and redundant sources of passive income.  And living below your means.  Here are a few insights into what I have done to become financially independent.

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How to Handle Tenant Disputes: Part II

tennis-court-338537_1920In an earlier post, we talked about using the good cop/bad cop method to resolve tenant disputes.  But if you own and manage the property by yourself, that doesn’t really work.  If you fully commit to the split personality, you might be sent to a mental institution.  So if you’re flying solo, you have to take a different approach.

This post is compliments of Amy aka “YETInvesting”.

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How to Handle Tenant Disputes: Part I

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This post is compliments of Amy aka “YETInvesting”.

If you’re a new rental property owner/manager, or if you’re just not comfortable handling tenant disputes or confrontations, then you might get panicky just thinking about having to confront tenants about issues that arise.

My boyfriend has this problem.  Apart from his current rental which began just a year ago, he has no prior landlord experience, and watching him learn how to handle issues has reminded me of how terrified I was when I first started.  When I had to handle my first tenant complaint over the phone, I remember my hands shaking because I was so nervous.  I’m an introverted person, so I hate talking to strangers anyway.  But this was going to be even worse: I wasn’t just introducing myself to someone I didn’t know, I was going to be fighting with them over money!  Yikes!  Maybe most people are braver than I am from the get-go, but I felt like I was going to throw up.  Good way to start a phone call, right?

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Getting Rid of a Bad Tenant

Graphiti-PDThis post is compliments of Amy aka “Yetisaurus”.

If you have thought about being a landlord, you have thought about the possibility of getting rid of a bad tenant.  The first two rules of being a landlord are (1) collect all of your rents, ON TIME, and (2) keep your rentals full.  But that’s not the end of the story: it is equally important to get (and keep) good tenants in your rentals.  If you have multiple rental units near each other, such as a duplex, fourplex, or even an apartment building, a bad tenant can spoil the whole bunch.

Tenant screening is critical.  It’s important to run income and credit checks on your prospective tenants, and to meet all of the people who will be living in your rental, and maybe even their pets (photos can be deceiving in terms of size and personality).  But what if someone makes it through your screening process, and turns out to be a bad apple anyway?

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My Renter Bounced a Check

Bounced CheckIf you have been following along, you know that my rent collections are outstanding; this month I had trouble.  My renter bounced a check.  I have not had a truly late payment in several years, other than the one tenants that I inherited when I purchased the building.

I have had a few payments after the first, but always received before the late fee kicked in after the 5th, and have not collected late fees, or even waived them, for rent paid on or after the 6th in a long time.

However, I recently had a check returned to me from a payment that was not honored by the bank.  My renter bounced a check.  Yikes! my mortgage is due and I am short rent.

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How to Provide Rental Property Appliances (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)

This post is compliments of Amy aka “Yetisaurus”.

PunishedNever underestimate the amount of headaches you can have with rental property appliances.  When my boyfriend moved in with me about a year and a half ago, he decided to rent his place out for some extra rental income.  Because we were combining households, we had no need for his washer and dryer, BBQ, or refrigerator.  He figured that he’d be a nice guy and offer those items to potential renters for their use while they remained renters.

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