All Forum Posts by: Marcus Auerbach

I believe from a banks point of view your mom is difficult to judge. On one hand she is still a rookie with ONLY two units so high risk to fail, on the other hand it's ALREADY two units, which is enough to get her is trouble if they both go vacant for a long time (and are mismanaged - which is the default assumption). 

You heard it from the other guys, shop around, it should not be too hard to find something better than that. I would say 70% LTV for 5 years at 5% interest with 6 month cash reserves for PITI should be fairly easy to get by. Google local banks and credit unions. Good luck.

@Paul A.

 yes, that's the perfect comparison, I have not thought about that. However I need to play this one 100% by the book and on the conservative side because I don't want to give the tenant any excuse to take legal steps. Interesting thing is that nobody recommended straight out to have the counter tops replaced take the full deposit. And if the BP community is hesitating to recommend that, then I think I'll better call it wear and tear.

@Austin Youmans

only 6 months and I guess the life span of a quarz countertop is at least 30 years. My problem is that I can't justify a repair: provided I find the exact same color it would be 3-5k to take the top cabinets of and replace the slab including the sink cut out. It is not damaged beyond use, but it certainly is a reduction of the value for the kitchen, if not reflecting on the entire house, but that makes no sense of course...

At this point I guess I will just deduct the cost for the damaged area of 6 sft of quartz for $36/sft.

Pat, we are super busy right now and my guy is booked solid, but try either Menards or Home Depot first thing in the morning. I was desperately looking for a good and reasonable painter and found three that seem like a good fit at the local Sherwin Williams paint store. 

Make sure you pick a store in the rental area and not in Mequon (that's what I did at first and of course I got very high estimates). The contractors you want don't have very professional advertising, but they all have to come to the watering hole in the morning and pick up their materials for the day. First time I tried that old trick and worked really well.

@Dan C. Trulia

Wow, yes looks like a fun area ;-)

I'd pick an easy one for your first!

The big question for me remains: how much am I going to deduct from the security deposit? What is reasonable and defend-able? 

Thanks everyone for the feedback! 

Sorry, I dont like to be the nee-sayer here, but this sounds like a recepie for desaster!

A bunch of people that vote for every decision on a flip, no one has experience, but everyone has an opinion and basically his entire savings on the line. 

Ugh, that can get ugly quickly.

Maybe a better way is to find one person to run the ship (captain) with experience and a track record and put him in charge, at least for the many day to day decisions. There are so many little ones to make and most of them have no right or wrong answer, but are just a judgement call. A vote system will take way too long and will just get people into arguments. Big decision can be voted, but sometimes you also have to be quick, like when you make an offer or get a counter etc. Tough one. And be sure to follow protocoll like Dawn said.

Sorry guys, I dont mean to be negative nelly here, but talk to people who did partnerships with one person, and they will tell you it was not easy, even with a good friend. I just dont want a good thing to end bad, please give it some thought.

@Bryan N.agreed - and my concern with granite is that it may stain if not properly sealed.

@Christopher Gilbertgood point with the itemized list I just need to put a number to it. I guess I am not sure if it even can be repaired without replacing the whole slab. But in any case it is a damage and reduces the value of the kitchen and the house overall. The big question is is the damage worth $100 or $1000 or ??

I agree with you for rentals, even in the high end rentals we use quality laminate for about $800. If they ruin it we just replace the whole thing and charge it against the deposit. This house used to be my home. Long story... its on the market now 5 days and I had 4 showings - much better than last years market!

@Tim Ehlers both, 2.5% non refundable option payment and $3250 deposit. Its a lot but still not enough to pay for a new counter top.

@James Barnes I have a feeling that my tenant will try to get the option fee back, although I have no idea on what basis she would do that. So I want to make sure that I am on the legitimate side if ever a judge would have to look at this.

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts!