Ok so I’m a young woman & recently I’ve been thinking about becoming a landlord because what I know of them so far is that they make decent money but what I also know about them is alot of damage can be done & alot of trouble can be stirred,especially when It comes to the people that you’ll be renting to! so I was wondering if anyone can give me any tips on how to prevent this? & any advice that you’d like to share? My aunt was a landlord for about 8yrs & her & her husband made a reasonable amount of money? do all landlords make reasonable/decent amounts of money? enough to support them & there family? I want to buy & apartment complex anywhere from 4-10 apts & the rent will be anywhere from 0-00,is there anyway that I can make sure that I’m renting to decent people that are willing to pay there rent & avoid starting trouble? I want to make sure that when & if I decide to persure becoming a landlord that I’m ready & I won’t get screwd over!! so any advice & tips?

So I’ve searched google and resolved questions and I can’t find the answer I’m looking for.

Long story short: My husband and I inquired about buying a home and the lady (realtor) that did the credit check and such said that we would have better luck buying a home sold by the owner. She said my husbands credit is "fair" and is 10 points below what it needs to be for her to assist us. I already know my credit wont help. It will take another year for it to be where I want it. We don’t have any current "dings" It is all old stuff that we accumulated separately before we were married and we are working on fixing it now.

I found a house that’s a for sale by owner that is in our price range. She told me that I would work with my bank and they would help me take care of all of the financial stuff. The thing is we have already been told by one person that our credit is too low, but to go with a for sale by owner. How is this going to work with bad credit? It doesn’t make sense to me.

She (the realtor from b4) also told us that based on our income and bills that we were approved for 200k. We are actually looking for anything under 140k. The house we are looking into buying now is 130k.

Should we wait another year until our credit is perfect or will we be able to get this home that’s for sale by owner? I don’t have a problem with waiting, but if we can get into a house now I’d rather stop paying my landlord 00 a month for a little ass apartment when I can be in my own home with a pool for around the same amount.
we would also be using the VA loan

Safe to keep motorcycle at home or apartment?
A friend was storing their motorcycle in a back room at our apartment and the landlord told them to move it outside of the apartment because it was unsafe to keep gas in an enclosed area. Is there any truth to that? Is it actually unsafe to keep a motorcycle in an apartment? If you could please put references with your answers, that would be very helpful. Thanks.

Sorry, I should have kept better tabs on my question. I have to open it again. But here are some more details in response to the answers I received from part 1:

- You cannot drain a motorcycle tank if you don’t want it to rust. (We had already considered that idea.)
- I don’t know why dealerships don’t explode, but I feel like that kind of answer is just not going to convince my landlord. I’d like to know *why* dealerships don’t explode.
- I tried googling and I’m having trouble finding an answer.
- It makes sense that having gas inside the apartment would be hazardous, but it’d be nice to have some rational behind it. i.e. If you start the motorcycle and a piece of cloth ignites… (I obviously am making that up).

If you can answer my question, with sources, thank you for your time and effort.

I’m interested in buying a victorian REO property and converting the basement into an income apartment. The house isn’t in terrible shape, but needs an updated kitchen, baths, the front wooden pillars need replacing and theres some water damage to two of the front rooms from a leaking gutter. Otherwise, the house has good bones and is solid brick and stone. Let’s say the purchase price is 100k and I need to put in another 100k for renovations and repair, how do I finance the 100k for repair and actually get the money to pay contractors? Thanks.

I moved in with a roommate 14 months ago in a managed apartment complex. I was not put on the official lease, but rather signed an ambiguous co-tenant agreement, had been paying rent @ the rate stated on the agreement & paid a security deposit. I never saw the official lease. The co-tenant agreement did not directly mention the official rent nor distribution of rent payment. It was my understanding that my roommate and I were splitting the rent equally &I believe that the simplest and most reasonable interpretation of the co-tenant agreement "suggests" that (at the time I thought this was fair because I was desperate for a room & although my bedroom is significantly smaller & don’t get assigned parking, I figured my roommate had a bit more liability b/c the lease was in his name). It turns out my lease holding roommate was paying significantly less of the rent due to the landlord. My roommate is claiming that she was the "landlord" & could set the rate. Contract is unclear.
My roommate accepted a deposit from me and as mentioned we do have a contract of sorts! In NJ this is very serious business! In NJ a deposit needs to be place in a shared interest bank account and the "lessor" must pay the interest to the lessee. Finally the lessee must by made aware of exactly where the money is. My roommate failed to do this! If she wants to play landlord she would owe me all fines for not following the NJ deposit laws.

Does this change the story? It seems if our contract is seen as a co-tenant agreement we need to split any "profits" of our property transaction which in this case would be the amount I over paid (since our contract "highly suggests" that we owe the same amount! this agreement would be like we are were going into business and agreed to split expenses 50/50 and one happens to be rent. the lease however, didn’t match the amount) She didn’t even say who the sublessee and who was the sublessor was suggesting equal shares!

I live roommates and I need to keep very sensitive documents in my apartment so I need a safe and was wondering what type of safe I would need

Mickey Mouse and Precious have never lived anywhere but here in our Apartment with only patio doors and 2 windows, plus a door opening to hallway. Now we are moving into a ranch style home with attached garage. I am so concerned they will get out because of not liking new home. I am home all the time, I’m disabled, that’s why the new house built for my disabilities. Any suggestions to keep these two safe I’d be sick if anything happens to either one, they keep me going?

My wife and I live in a rented apartment in CA and own a home in AZ that we have rented out. Last year our losses on the AZ property (Interest + prop. taxes + repairs + depreciation – rentalincome) was 14K (reported in schedule E and form 6198). Now since our total W2 wages in CA are >150K we can’t deduct the 14K from our adjusted gross income. Question is can this no. be carried forward each year (as losses) and later when we sell the rental investment property can the sum of all these yearly losses be subtracted from the profit we make by selling the rental property?

Also, someone suggested that the smarter thing to do would be to form an LLC and start getting a tax-break from the losses we are making every year. Is that true?

My grandmother lives in a Co-op in New York and I help her pay the maintenance, I used to live with her for several years until 2 years ago. Both of our names are on the co-op contract as share holder as well as on the Mortgage Interest Statement, Form 1098. I never took a mortgage or actually purchased any home. My question is, am I qualified for the 8000$ first time home buyer tax credit in case I buy an apartment in 2009?

A friend was storing their motorcycle in a back room at our apartment and the landlord told them to move it outside of the apartment because it was unsafe to keep gas in an enclosed area. Is there any truth to that? Is it actually unsafe to keep a motorcycle in an apartment? If you could please put references with your answers, that would be very helpful. Thanks.