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First Aid for the Accidental Landlord

September 22nd, 2008 categories: Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork!

First Aid for Frustrated Sellers

Many sellers in today’s slower real estate market find themselves hemorrhaging severely as a result of either an unsold home after they’ve relocated, or the deep wound of covering two mortgages. In an effort to stop the bleeding, many sellers find themselves unintentionally becoming landlords.

While it is perfectly sensible to rent a vacant property, as I’ve often detailed here, there is more to being a landlord than simply sticking a “For Rent” sign in the yard. And the costs of being uninformed can often be even greater than even the initial wound.

In an effort to help some of the people who’ve found themselves in this situation, the Minnesota Multi-Housing Association is offering a seminar on Saturday, September 27, that they’re calling ”The Accidental Landlord“.

For $29 and two hours of your time, you can not only learn many of the ins and outs of being a landlord, but also get a free MMHA start-up kit. These kits usually retail for around $35, and they contain every possible form you could need, from leases to pet deposits. They’re so great to have, that I often give them to clients who are new to multi-family housing.

To sign up, just click on the hyperlink above.

Spoken by Kari Lundin | Discussion: No Comments »

Why Throw Money Out The Window?

May 8th, 2008 categories: Buying A Duplex, Multi-Family Property Investing, Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork!

Whenever I first sit down with someone thinking about buying an income property (either to live in or as an investment), I ask them a question:

What, besides mortgage and taxes, do you think is the most expensive thing for a landlord to pay for?

I get all kinds of interesting answers…things like water, mowing the lawn, painting. All of which are wrong.

Come on, confess. There was a point at some time in your life (probably college) when you lived on the top floor of an old building, it got hot in your apartment and you opened the windows. In January.

You weren’t doing it to punish your landlord. Well…maybe. More likely, you were young and simply didn’t understand the relationship between the open windows and the amount of your rent.

Of course, as soon as you bought your first home, you set the thermostat at “arctic” and decided that old, warm Norwegian sweater in the cedar closet was actually timeless and never out of style.

When evaluating a property to buy, it’s important to keep those little life lessons in mind. Given two equal properties, it’s always preferable to buy the one where there are separate furnaces.

That doesn’t mean a shared heating system is necessarily a bad investment. It just means that since the property is going to cost you more to own, it’s wise to purchase it at a lower price.