All Forum Posts by: Abigail Helfer

Hello!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I would LOVE your opinions on the Charlotte market.
My husband and I currently own multi-unit property in another state, but will be moving to Charlotte this summer for work. He is transitioning out of the military, so we will have our VA loan to use.

We are primarily buying multi-unit property in our home state but we would like to make an investment purchase in Charlotte as well. I know the market is super hot there, so I would love to know what is working for you.

We've thought about buying a duplex or small multi and living in one side for 2 years. However, I've noticed that the cost of multis are super high in Charlotte. 

We are also looking at a live-in-flip, but it seems those can be hard to find as well. 

From your experience, what is the best way to go for this hot market? He will be working in Charlotte, but we are open to moving into one of the neighboring areas if we need to.

Thank you!

Thank you for your opinion, David. Yes, I understand your point about the mold, and feel the same way as you.

But this case is very severe- the entire attic is covered in black mold- it can be seen and smelled. The walls are completed covered at this point.

We are talking to the owner about renegoiating a price, but we will need to talk to our bank as well since the mold is so severe. I am not sure that it will be able to be financed in the current condition.

Yes, I understand that renegotiating is the normal procedure.

But in this case, we would have to do the work before we even close because the bank will not give us the loan with the mold?

The repairs are going to be around $12,000 and will take about 2 weeks time. We would also need to cover hotel costs for the tenants. That is a lot of capital up front.

Thank you, Tim.

I was warned by both my inspector and the mold specialist to make sure that the owner does the repair work before closing. Since the mold is a safety hazard, the tenants should not even be in the units. There is a lot of liabilty involved in it.

For any other repair work, I would have renegotiated the price and would have done the work- but mold seems to be a trickier situation.

Thank you, Mike! I appreciate your response!

Thank you for the input, Greg. We did decide on a closing date, but had to extend in order to make this work.

The concern is, I don't want to buy the house in the current condition, and don't want to do the repairs myself because it is a health hazard. I don't want the liability of that.
Even our inspector told us to make sure it was finished by the owner before we buy since it is such a liability.

Also, my local bank does not want to provide a mortgage on a house that has mold of this degree.  

New to investing, and this will be my first deal.

My husband and I are in contract for a duplex. It is a good deal for us and the home inspection went relatively well. There is only one problem and that is mold in the attic. We had it inspected by a mold specialist who advised that it was a very severe case of mold due to the lack of ventilation in the  attic. He said that it is severe, but easily remediated. He advised that once the ventilation is improved and the mold removed, the issue will be resolved. The owner has agree to fix the problem since it is a health hazard and not something we can buy in this condition ( I don't even think a bank would lend on this)? Nor do we want something with mold.

We were excited that he agreed to fix it, however, he has been dragging his feet getting as estimate of his own and getting repair work done. He is not going with the specialist we found, and wanted to shop around. We had no issue with that.. but we originally went into contract the week in November, and had an estimate done within a few days of finding the issue. It is now March, and he still doesn't have an estimate and no repairs are on the schedule for the near future.

I am curious what our rights are in this situation. We are happy that he will fix it, but shouldn't there be some sort of time line in place for this?  Every month we don't own the place is lost income potential, and the chance for the owner to slack on maintenance. He moved to Hawaii, and I doubt he will be spending much time upkeeping this place, especially because he has a buyer on the line.

What would your advice be on this situation? The tenants do not know about the mold at all, and that  is something else to consider. I am assuming it is not legal to hide something like that from them like he is?

Thank you!

Abby