T&H Realty Services Blog

In previous blogs, we’ve discussed the various obligations that you have as an Indianapolis Landlord.

On a very basic level, you’re required to provide your Tenants with a safe, clean, and habitable dwelling.

Drilling down into the safety aspect is where smoke detectors come in.

Yes, smoke detectors.

Those circular, plastic gadgets that we stick on our ceilings and don’t give a second thought about until the batteries start to die which causes that annoying, incessant chirping.

At which point, let’s be honest, we usually just end up taking the batteries out until we finally remember to replace them a month later.

In your personal home, you have the luxury of doing what you want (although I strongly recommend that you keep your smoke detectors in good working order as it could save your life). But the fact is, when you’re running a business, which you are when you become a Landlord, you don’t have that luxury.

You have a very distinct set of laws and guidelines that you have to follow.

Smoke detectors may seem like such a small, trivial issue in the grand scheme of rental property ownership.

But I assure you, if it wasn’t important, there wouldn’t be an entire section of Indiana Law dedicated to it.

This is a topic I’m shocked has taken us so long to blog about.

We’ve been attending the Marion County Sheriff Sale since 2005.

And - wow - do we have stories to tell.

Lot’s of them, which we may decide to do in future blogs.

But, to start, I thought I would use this blog to discuss the basics of the Marion County Sheriff Sale.

Sort of a “Marion County Sheriff Sale for Dummies” blog.

Note: I’m obviously not a lawyer, not an expert on foreclosures, so I’ll provide a VERY basic overview of the process.

Investing in your own backyard is an incredible strategy if you are able to find the deals that will help you achieve your investment goals.

If you happen to live in a market that doesn’t have the best returns, however, you need to look out of state. Managing long distance rentals effectively takes a bit of work, but many do it very successfully.

Here are their secrets.

If you are like most investors out there, my guess is you spend a lot of time reviewing MLS listings.

I’ll also guess that you’ve run across some language in an MLS description that includes a phrase, “Tenant’s rights prevail.”

Here’s an example of a description I found on our local MLS system…

"Investor alert! Check out this spacious and updated ranch on Indy’s west side. Home went through a complete remodel 6 months ago, including new roof, HVAC, kitchen and bathroom updates. Home is Tenant occupied. Tenant’s rights prevail.”

Now, as you know, or as you should know, Tenants do have certain rights when living in a property, including...

• The right to quiet enjoyment
• The right to occupancy
• The right to a habitable home

While owning rental real estate can be a great way to build wealth, it most certainly comes with its fair share of expenses.

Taxes are one of those expenses.

For every dollar you earn, you’ve got to give a few cents - or maybe more than a few cents - back to Uncle Sam.

No one can escape it.

Well, you can try, but that’s called tax evasion - a federal offense - so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Even though the IRS invokes fairly negative feelings by taxpayers, it isn’t all bad. In fact, the IRS offers rental property owners a hefty amount of tax breaks.

You just have to know where to look.

Unfortunately, the IRS isn’t going to provide you with a neatly, bulleted list of deductions and I doubt you’ll want to scan over the 73,000+ pages in the U.S. Tax Code to find them, so I thought I would highlight a few.

In the landlording business, there’s nothing quite as exciting as filling a vacant unit. When that 1, 2, or 3 year Lease gets signed, you sigh in relief at the thought of guaranteed revenue coming in for the next 12+ months, right?

That’s probably why it’s equally, if not more disheartening when you find out that your Tenant wants to break their Lease. Suddenly, you don’t have that security and frustration tends to take over.

I think we can all agree, that our first instinct in this situation is to fight back. Raise your hand if you’ve ever said or thought something along the lines of…"I don’t care what the reason is, they signed a contract!"

Unfortunately for us Landlords and Property Managers, Leases aren’t always the end all, be all.

In previous blogs, we’ve discussed several scenarios where Tenants may have the right to legally and freely break their Lease agreement, such as domestic violence disputes or when a Landlord fails to perform certain obligations.

Well, not to be the bearer of more bad news, but there’s yet another scenario that allows your Tenant to get out of a Lease without penalty, and it’s thanks to a little piece of legislation called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act or the SCRA.

This is a very complex, and important law for you to be aware of. Since it’s Federal, it will affect you wherever you own rental properties in the United States.