All Forum Posts by: Allison Ault

@Rebekah Bloom

I sent you a DM. I was in Tulum last week and am seriously looking at a property. I'd like to ask you some questions about your experience owning there.

I should mention the water from that flat roof drains into the little downspout in this photo. It's about where the circle is in photo #4

@collin maas thank you for your reply. I have some on my phone from the last time I was down there. (1) From this angle, I'm standing on the stairs and taking a photo of the flat part of the roof in front of the window. (2) I also have a picture of the mold right below it in the utility room. (3) Here I'm standing on the flat roof facing the window. (4) Here I turn to my right 90 degrees from the window. This is about the spot where the mold is in the utility room below. But the ceiling is lower than that - maybe by 3-4ft. 

Thanks everyone for the feedback! @Jonathan R McLaughlin I've contacted lenders about doing a cash-out-refi. When I purchased the place 20 months ago the rates were higher and I was locked in at 5.4% I should be able to get a rate a couple of percentages lower so it really won't affect the monthly payments much. The neighborhood has appreciated (thank you free-market medical weed?) so I have plenty of wriggle room to take out the cash I think I need to do the roof.

@Daniel Smyth thank you for the info on dealing with the mold! I had a mold inspection done when my tenant first mentioned her allergies. The spore density was lower than the air outside, but a month later when I came out I could see pink stuff forming on a few walls in the utility room. On the report it said it was not a mycotoxin. I sprayed them with bleach and then with Kilz. I also applied the Gaco product on the seams of the weird flat part of the roof above, but that was in October so I have no idea what the walls are looking like now. The kitchen had an even lower spore count, and from talking with a remediation professional he said it was extremely low for a report, but it was a mycotoxin. He identified some mold behind the dishwasher by flashing a light under it and I was advised not to move the dishwasher and to rent a HEPA vacuum if I decide to do the remediation myself. The wall the dishwasher sits against is the exterior wall of the original house where the previous owner added the addition of the guesthouse and did some weird things with the roof. The dishwasher was new and installed by the retailer so I don't know if it has to do with the roof or with the dishwasher.

@Will Fraser Thanks for the advise on the roof. I'm contacting a drafter in the area to get some drawings. That way I can get more accurate estimates from contractors. The roof is old, and it has new"ish" shingles on it, but it needs new decking and not just the part that gets reframed. My GC said he had roofers and they could do the roof after I got it rented out, but working was him was such a mess that I didn't want to use him again. When I talked to my insurance company - I told them roofers came out and said there was hail damage - they said they would only cover actual cash value. One of the 3 roofing companies that looked at it advised me not to involve the insurance company until I had the cash ready to fix it because they could determine it uninsurable and give me a short timeframe to get it done. Based on that information, I was planning on talking to my insurance company more in depth a week or two out from when I have the work scheduled. 

Here's a photo of the roof. The guesthouse was added by the previous owner (pink door) and then an extra section at 7:00 from the the circle. I circled the area where there is mold behind the dishwasher and then on the ceiling in the utility room (utility room is directly under the guesthouse and a flat portion of the roof where the window is in the middle of the circle). I also noticed some pink mold forming on the utility room walls that those exterior stairs are attached to. There's no roof attached there so I'm wondering if there is an issue with construction of that wall. I removed that odd pile of bricks and also a bunch of roofing shingles under them. Looking back, I now wonder if they were placed there to conceal or hide something. 

Thank you for the input! I have $20k saved up right now to spend on the roof. At this point, I've been collecting rent on the place for 2 years. The plan was to use that money toward the next property, but I'll just have to push my timelines out. My tenant in the main house will be moving when her lease ends at the end of May so I was thinking that would be a good time to do the roof. I learned a lot about buying a rental property since this was my first one and, unfortunately, some of those were hard lessons. I used a realtor whose family did fix-and-flips - and also owned the real estate firm - and I used her contractor on the rehab. She and her contractor came recommended by a seasoned investor I know. She told me that I wouldn't need to do an inspection because her contractor looked at it and he would get it up to code. Just a couple of weeks ago, I replaced the deck stairs that go up to the second unit (about a 10-foot rise) because I found out those were not built to code - no stringers. The contractor had told me they were fine and did not need to be rebuilt. My friend's brother who is a framer was in town and took a look at it this fall. They needed 4 stringers - the stairs were feeling "bouncy" - and had a few other things going on that weren't to code. When the mold issue came up, I had roofers come out to give me quotes and one of them said it was the weirdest roof he'd seen in 10 years and it needed to be reframed before it needed a new roof. I did get the phone number for a drafter from the contractors who redid the stairs (not my original guy I used for the rehab) so I'll start the process of getting the drawings so I can get quotes and permits. @Jonathan R McLaughlin - yes the numbers are high for a 2-unit because of the Airbnb play with the back unit. That unit would otherwise rent for $650-$700. At it's lowest month, the revenue (before cleaning fees) is $1200 and the highest month is over $3400. 

This is my first time posting to Bigger Pockets! So excited to use this resource. I read a book by Bigger Pockets 3 years ago on out-of-state investing and bought my first out-of-state investment property halfway through the book. I bought a house only a mother could love in a downtown neighborhood of Oklahoma City. 5 blocks away there is a "district" with clothing boutiques, trendy restaurants, breweries, and wine bars. The neighborhood itself is still run-down, but less rough than it was 15 years ago and there have been 4 fix-and-flips on the block since I purchased it. It overlooks a park where there will never be any development in front of it. I put $62k into the rehab plus a $25k downpayment into the 2bd/2ba with a 1ba/1ba unit in back (separate entrance). I officially licensed the back unit as a short-term rental and rent it out on Airbnb and it has at 4.9 rating.

My question is regarding whether or not to keep it based on a major repair that needs to happen. The roof needs to be reframed and redone and the entire job will cost me $30k. I've had multiple contractors come out to look at it. There is a mold issue occurring in the main house utility room do to a shoddy roof job where the second unit was added. I slapped on some gaco roofing stuff where I think there might be a leak and cleaned up the mold in October, but the addition is such a patchwork job that I don't know if it's going to be much of a fix. My current tenant has complained about an allergy - I have mold allergies too - and I do want to make sure I have a healthy place for tenants to live.

Do I sell or do I keep it? Here are the numbers: Main 2bd/2ba - $1200/mo. Airbhb unit 1ba/1bd - $2200/mo ave throughout the year. Total ave revenue $3400/mo. Mortgage payment plus airbnb utilities $950/mo. Profit before what I set aside for 25% running a rental (15% vacancy for the neighborhood, estimated maintenance, etc.) = $1837/mo. Again, I put $62k in with $25k down. The mortgage due is $110k and it appraised $12k over what I bought it for before I put anything into it. The roof/reframing job ($30k) won't add value, just mitigate the mold and future issues. And, from, what I've read, I only get a 50% return on the roof investment when selling. The property is already in the top 75 percentile of rent in the neighborhood, so I don't think I can raise it much more. 

What are your thoughts?

This is my first time posting to Bigger Pockets! So excited to use this resource. I read a book by Bigger Pockets 3 years ago on out-of-state investing and bought my first out-of-state investment property halfway through the book. I bought a house only a mother could love in a downtown neighborhood of Oklahoma City. 5 blocks away there is a "district" with clothing boutiques, trendy restaurants, breweries, and wine bars. But the neighborhood itself is still run-down, but less rough than it was 15 years ago and there have been 4 fix and flips on the block since I purchased it. It overlooks a park where there will never be any development in front of it. I put $62k into the rehab plus a $25k downpayment into the 2bd/2ba with a 1ba/1ba unit in back (separate entrance). I officially licensed the back unit as a short-term rental and rent it out on Airbnb and it has at 4.9 rating.

My question is regarding whether or not to keep it based on a major repair that needs to happen. The roof needs to be reframed and redone and the entire job will cost me $30k. I've had multiple contractors come out to look at it. There is a mold issue occurring in the main house utility room do to a shoddy roof job where the second unit was added. I slapped on some gaco roofing stuff where I think there might be a leak and cleaned up the mold in October, but the addition is such a patchwork job that I don't know if it's going to be much of a fix. My current tenant has complained about an allergy - I have mold allergies too - and I do want to make sure I have a healthy place for tenants to live.

Do I sell or do I keep it? Here are the numbers: Main 2bd/2ba - $1200/mo. Airbhb unit 1ba/1bd - $2200/mo ave throughout the year. Total ave revenue $3400/mo. Mortgage payment plus airbnb utilities $950/mo. Profit before what I set aside for 25% running a rental (15% vacancy for the neighborhood, estimated maintenance, etc.) = $1837/mo. The roof/reframing job won't add value, just mitigate to mold and future issues. And, from, what I've read, I only get a 50% return on the roof investment it when selling. The property is already in the top 75 percentile of rent in the neighborhood, so I don't think I can raise it much more. 

What are your thoughts?