After the Sale – an Owner’s Manual

After the Sale – Checklist and Action Items

Experience both as brokers and owners of investment property has enabled us to put together the following checklist of items that every property investor should go through after the purchase of investment property.

Sort of like flossing your teeth, these steps are not necessarily necessary, but good real estate hygiene keeps the unwanted surprises to a minimum.

• Day of Closing
  • manager, but it´s best to have a verbal conversation with your property manager immediately after closing to ensure all information was transferred correctly
  • With your closing packet from the title company, you´ll see a "Payment Letter" – this is the document in which your mortgage company gives you your loan number, and where and when to send your first mortgage payment while you´re awaiting a coupon booklet or monthly statement from them. It´s a good idea within a day or two of closing to set up the payment account information for the mortgage servicer in your checking account´s bill payment service. The more you can automate, the less hassle you´ll encounter.
• Within 30 days of closing
  • Set up a separate account on your mortgage servicer´s customer website for each property purchased, and keep track of the company´s name, your login information, their phone number, your loan number, and other vital information. For example, Robert Grunnah has six loans with Countrywide – he can login one time and see a snapshot of all details on each property; this is very valuable for mortgage maintenance, bookkeeping, and tax planning
  • Make sure your mortgage servicer has your mailing address accurate. A large number of loans get set up so that the mailing address of the investor is the same as the property address (because most mortgage customers are borrowing for their primary residence); if you do not get this changed in their system, important correspondence could go to the tenants and not you!
• Within 90 days of closing
  • Visit Traviscad.org (or wcad.org if purchasing in Round Rock or Williamson County); enter your name, and ensure that your property is now in your name, and that the mailing address is accurate. If the mailing address is the same as the property address, you could again be missing important information about your property (including your annual tax appraisals!)
• On January 20th of Each Year:
  • Visit the Travis County Assessor Collector´s website and make sure that your mortgage company has paid your property taxes. In some cases we´ve seen, if you´ve purchased a previously owner-occupied duplex, the mortgage company may inadvertently only pay one half of the property´s property taxes; which if not caught by January 31st, could lead to fines, even liens and foreclosure! We make a habit of going to this website each year to ensure all of our property tax bills have been properly paid.
• On May 31st of Each year:
  • Dispute your property tax bills! Work with your property manager´s recommended tax dispute service to send in a dispute, there´s no harm and only good that can come of this action.
• Each One Year Anniversary of Purchase
  • Call your insurance agent and make sure that you have the proper amount of insurance and that the insurance company has sent the bill directly to the mortgage servicer for payment. On many of our own properties, we get the insurance bills directly and must forward them to the mortgage company for payment – it can take 2 to 3 years of doing this before the mortgage company and insurance companies finally "get it", and bill each other directly. It is your responsibility to make sure this is taken care of.
  • Visit your properties! Not only does Castle Hill want to see your smiling faces, we recommend an annual walk-through of your properties to confirm proper management and to stay involved with your investment(s). With sufficient notice, your salesperson may be able to meet with you onsite and discuss additional investments or the sale of your current properties.
• One to Two Years after Purchase
  • If you were required to obtain Private Mortgage Insurance with your loan, you can usually have it removed at the two year point, by having a professional appraisal obtained, or sometimes simply by asking your mortgage company to remove it. Contact Castle Hill if we can assist.

Remember that we´re here for you. We try to return all calls within one business day and are happy to provide market updates, PMI removal advice, or just about any other information you might seek about your ownership experience. We´re not just here at the beginning – we´ll be with you every step of the way!

Next Page: Real Estate As a Component of a Well-Balanced Portfolio