All Forum Posts by: Andrew Merritt

Thanks for the advice everybody.  I've been in contact with my tenant's parents and they are taking care of everything.  They are being very amicable and have assured me that they'll have everything out.  

@Dawn P. Thanks for finding that!  Kind of feels like the right thing to do to disclose it as well.

Does anybody know who to use to sanitize the duplex?  I've heard that Servpro could be good, but of course I have no experience with anything like this.

Thanks @Sam Shueh, I'll make sure to contact the probate office.  

@Nathan Gesner Thanks for the advice.  The police have contacted her mother who drove through the night to get here from out of state to pick up my tenant's 9 year old child.  I've asked the police to give her my contact info and I'm expecting a call from her this morning.

Is it required to disclose that a tenant died in the property

I'm trying to rent out a house and I'm afraid I may have put the rental price too high initially (I was a bit too optimistic).  I have one couple who have applied, but their credit score is below 500 and I'm not confident in their ability to pay so I'm very hesitant to rent to them.  

Anything I should be aware of before dropping the rent down?  I'm probably going to drop it down from 1800/month to 1700/month or less.  Also, I'm in Summerville, SC if that makes a difference.

So weird situation, but I was just informed that one of my tenants in my duplex passed away today.  She had a 9 year old kid.  I guess the police contacted her next of kin in another state to come pick up the kid.

Not trying to be selfish at all, but I'm not sure what my next steps are in this situation.  I'm guessing I'll need to hire some people to clear all of her stuff out of there and clean it up, but I'm not sure.  Do any of you have experience with this situation?

Hey All, I just made my first REI purchases last year and I'd like to have a tax guy/accountant help me out. Does anyone have someone they'd recommend in the Summerville/Charleston SC area?

@Matt H. I am using the same lender that I used for my duplex back in September so he has all of the information.  We talked about this strategy before purchasing and he assured me that it would be no problem and he's done this before.  For whatever reason, the underwriter caught this at the last minute.  

@Bob Green how do 1st lien HELOC interest rates compare to regular mortgage rates? I'd also be hesitant to do this b/c interest on HELOC payments aren't tax deductible anymore (I think).

Hey All, this gets a little complicated so I'll try to explain clearly.

I purchased a duplex back in september w/ cash and did delayed financing with 70% LTV. Using those funds (and some others), I purchased a new primary residence for my family in December with cash, planning on doing delayed financing again. We are going to be renting out our current house once we move. I cleared this all up with my money guy beforehand to make sure we were all good and he said we're fine, he does this all the time. I just found out yesterday, the day before we're supposed to close, that the underwriter has an issue w/ it and we won't be able to close now until the money is seasoned, 6 months from when we closed on the duplex. He claims we're using borrowed funds to pay for the new house.

The new place is somewhat of a fixer upper so we have contractors to pay.  We have enough reserves to make it through, but it would be much more comfortable if we could get our cash out now.  

Does anybody have any opinions on what I could do?  Maybe go to a different lender?  I'm just worried that they would find the same thing.  

One thing my lender said we could do is close now on the new house, but then immediately pay off the duplex.  This would leave us w/ more than enough, but I would hate to go back in 6 months, refinance the duplex again, and have to pay all of the loan origination fees.

Thanks guys.  Sorry if I was unclear but we'd be putting the solar panels on the new house, not the rental.  

@Kurt Dieringer could you clarify on it needing to be done in the same year?  Does that mean if I get the roof done this december, I wouldn't be able to get that cost included in the solar if I get the panels installed in January, or do the panels just have to be installed w/in a year of the roof?

Hey All, I'm about a week and a half out on the closing of my 2nd REI purchase in Summerville, SC. Here are the details of the deal:

First, I'd like to thank @Jeffrey Stasz for his help with this. We were skeptical of the low asking price and thought there may be something major wrong with the house. Jeffrey came out and gave a thorough look at the foundation, attic, and entire house and put our minds at ease. Thanks a lot Jeffrey.

Property Details: 2629 sqft, 4 bed, 2.5 bath on about .45 acres built in 1985 (sun room addition not counted as it was done w/o a license.  This would bring sqft up over 3k as it is heated/cooled).  We are planning on moving into this house and renting out our current house.

Purchase Price: $220k cash, buyer pays closing costs, seller gave no disclosures and will make no repairs.  Owner is very sick senior and his kids are selling the property for him.  I offered cash to beat out financed offers as I thought they would want a quick close.  Our initial offer was $200k, but final and best went up to $220k as there a $225 financed offer and another cash offer we were competing against.  The house will appraise for $275k-$300k as is, so I feel like we got a good deal on it even if we went $20k over our initial offer.  We will be doing delayed financing on this property as $220k left us with not much money.  We will finance 70-80% to allow for updates/repairs and other investing.  

What it needs: The most pressing need is a new roof.  The house was built in '85 and it appears to be the original roof.  My termite guy went out to do the CL100 yesterday and found minor termite damage so that will need to get addressed.  He said the owners obviously tried to hide the fact that there were termites (more on that below).  We will also need to put in a fence for our dogs.  Other than that, it's pretty much move in ready.  Kitchen needs to be redone with new appliances and probably a new layout, carpets need to be replaced, walls need to be stripped of wall paper and painted.  I'm planning on learning how to do as much of this as I can to save costs and so I can learn.  Should be a fun project.  Our inspector will be there today and we will go through the whole house to see if there are any other major issues.  Our contract has a due diligence clause in it, so we can still back out if anything huge comes up.

Current Home Info: 1970 sqft, 15 year mortgage (about 13.5 years left) at 3.375%, monthly payment of $1,241 (will go up a couple hundred due to SC taxes raising for non-primary residencies).  I'm expecting to get about $1,800 per month in rent.

Questions: 

Is there any way we could get the sellers to pay for the termite bonding/treatment, especially considering that they tried to hide them?  There is not a whole lot of damage, just about 2' in one corner of the garage.  The owner (or his kids) brushed off the termite tunnels and sprayed w/ a home termite spray, but the house was never fully treated.  It will cost $1,600 to get treated and I'd like for the sellers to cover this if possible.

I'm considering installing solar panels, but not sure if it would work well with this property due to a large number of trees.  Does anyone have any experience getting the cost of a new roof rolled in w/ the installation of solar panels?  I've talked to a couple of solar panel companies in the past about putting them on our current residence, and they said we could.  With the US and SC tax breaks adding up to 55%, that would save a whole lot on the roof.  I'm not sure if it's actually allowed to work that way though.  Also, does anyone have a recommendation for a solar panel installation company in Summerville?  

With regards to our current house that we're going to rent out, when can I start deducting expenses for it in order to get it ready for renting.  For example, my termite guy just came by yesterday to do his annual checkup and I paid for that.  Will I get to deduct that even though it's not rented yet?  We're probably going to be bringing some appliances over to the new house.  Can I buy replacements for the rental now (assuming I find anything on a good sale around the holidays) or do I have to wait until we move out or even list the rental?  We'll also need to get the carpets replaced upstairs, when would that have to be done in order to get that counted as a rental expense.

Thanks for all of your help.  I'll answer questions and update w/ the inspector report as necessary.