Landlord 2019

[countrygirl2]

I'm just thinking out loud on this.  We have our LLC to limit liability in case some tenant would sue us.  But we also have minimal insurance on the houses in it, just insured for what we paid about $35k each, we are only worried about fire, not going to rebuild them if they burn.  We also carry liability in case a tenant gets hurt.  


We are paying $1800 a year, expect it to raise this year for the houses, $600 liability or so.  Have to have a separate policy for the post office to $2M I believe, that we have to keep.


We have toyed with idea of dropping the insurance since its in an LLC, of course that exposes us if we had a lawsuit to everything in it, which is over $250k total. We would like to just keep the liability but not feasible alone.  I'm wondering if anyone else is doing this.
Basically self insuring, thinking Phil could be.  Whats the thoughts on this?  Would you do it?  We keep our properties in very good repair, but still.

We have a separate liability policy for us personally, and umbrella in with our home that we would retain.

[countrygirl2]

We are also toying with the possibility of redoing this last house and sitting it up for DD and a room mate.  It's very old so making it handicapped is really not an option, would cost a fortune, and require tearing out outside walls, etc.  I have briefly discussed this with the state person.  They said would just have to get a room mate that does not require it either.

I haven't talked with them in detail yet as it will take a year to get it done I'm sure. But this is going to be a talking point on our meetings this year to see what we can do.  At some point we need to do something.  DD has quite a bit of funds available from her state program and we are afraid if she doesn't start using them, she will lose this program. It has to be 2 people, which makes sense, they used to do one, but the expense has to be to much. They could be supplied with 24/7 care.  I think DD could do with less as time goes on and she has on call people available.  Hubs says its not feasible for her, I say lets try.  I would rather she could do this then be in a group home. But I have to find out what we pay, what the state pays, etc.  So this is something I'm thinking about too.

Hubs said you will be to involved, I said with this program I need to be as long as I'm around.  We need to transition her to something as we age and I don't want it to be in something bad.  At least we can control this for some time. We have high rises here for the disabled, my mom and aunt were there, they were very nice.  They had people in them of means now they made them for what they are meant to be.  I understand there are drugs now, a tenant said her MIL was there, had bedbugs and all kinds of problems.  I have heard this from quite a few locals so must have truth to  it, what a shame.


One of those problems that will be there with you till death do us part.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

The LLC is great, but I could see a Plaintiff’s attorney pointing out how personally you and your DH are directly involved in the rental properties in asking a judge to look beyond the LLC to your personal assets. So, I would ask a competent business litigation attorney for his or her advice before I’d accept this kind of advice from kind internet strangers.

[countrygirl2]

Yes, we have an attorney and I imagine that he would say keep it.  We just hate to buy a house every few years basically.  I guess I'm greedy and would like to see more profit from it. Yes, hubs does all the work and I do all the accounting work, so we are definitely involved.

We are also looking at selling a piece of land in Texas, it has a mobile down there, no insurance we could never get anything on it.  This is the last piece we want to sell, but feel we need to give 6 months or more notice before listing it as those people have to move an old mobile.  I wonder if it can be moved and even if so can they find a place.  We hate to do it but we want rid of it.  Its a month to month rental.  We don't make that much on it and can sell it for a nice sum.  There are half million dollar houses behind it, these lots are selling when they come up for sale.  It was a poor area but being near Frisco has changed. We just keep it because we feel bad making them move, I was making so little had to raise the rent.  We offered it to them a couple of times for a decent amount of money, they never bought it and she says oh we can try to get a loan for that.  I said not any longer we have been offered a lot more since.  They only pay $250 a month she was crying when I raised it $50 a month, our taxes are almost $1k a year.  They couldn't touch anything for $250 in that area.  Houses rent for $2000 up there even the few mobiles left sell for a ton.  I'm sure its a slum in the midst of wealth.  Likely will sell pretty quickly just to get folks like that out I would bet. I finally got rid of a lot near Conroe, Texas, we let the guy pay on it for years, no interest, he has a travel trailer that we sold with it and lives there.  Probably all he will ever own, he FINALLY got it paid off and we signed the deed.  I am so glad he now owns it, I warned him to pay his property taxes and HOA or they will sell it.  Guess he will, think he understands that.  The area its in we were offered double what I sold it for but its ok.  He did a lot of work for us when there and we wanted to help him have a place to live, the rents there are out of sight.  He can sell it one day, its in a waterfront community.