All Forum Posts by: Austyn Victoria

Hey BP! I’m doing some research for my mom and I just want to make sure I’m on the right track.

She wants to sell her primary residence in Boca Raton, Florida (she’s owned it for like 15 years) so she has cash on hand to buy a foreclosure to fix up. It is fully paid off, she is not currently working so doing a cash out refi and renting it is not an option.

Is it correct that since it is her primary residence, she is exempt up to $250,000 from capital gains tax and the money does not technically have to be put into another property? She’s worried about a time limit but I think it’s because my Aunt sold a rental property and didn’t reinvest in time and now my mom is worried it’ll happen to her if she doesn’t buy another property within a certain time limit.

Anyone else getting bombarded with cold calls/texts wanting to buy your house right after you’ve bought it? Really don’t know what to do about this short of changing my number that I’ve had for over 12 years.

Bought my first buy and hold in SLC, yet getting at least 4 calls a week from South Florida investors. My boyfriend is a co-owner of the house and he never gets these calls (he has a Kansas area code.) I’m guessing they’re targeting me because I still have a South Florida phone number. I’ve tried answering these people back and asking them where they got my lead from, never any response.

Getting tired of it, if I answer back with questions they don’t answer or call from different phone numbers. If I ignore, they keep me in a seemingly endless follow up loop.

Thanks for confirming Lucas!! Hopefully this can keep others from making the same mistake I did and I look forward to using your service! :)

~Austyn

I wanted to sign up for Cozy having heard about it multiple times on the podcast so I just went to the App store and downloaded what I thought was their app, not knowing the spelling. Turns out I downloaded an app called "Cozii" claiming to offer the same exact service. I don't know what made me hop on my computer to double check but I'm glad I did before I put any account information in because it seems a little fishy. Has anyone heard of this? They have one review in the app store, only a handful of instagram posts and I can't find anything online about them being legit or not. Just wondering if it's worth bringing up to the original Cozy team!

@Thomas Taylor III Great article!

The question with the basement apartment in a single family home in Salt Lake City that I've struggled with is everything I've read says it must be your primary residence to have an ADU, and when you build one or get an existing one permitted you have to have a type of deed that says the next owner must also owner occupy either the main residence or the ADU.

What happens if you want to move on and rent out both units? Would a property manager even consider managing it? This article doesn’t specify but they did mention potentially allowing zoning change from single family to multi family, and that would solve the problem I think! 

Side note the 3D printed housing is just about the coolest thing I’ve seen this year ;)

Hey BP!

How valuable is a fireplace/ wood burning stove to a home in Salt Lake City Utah? Is it necessary to have a secondary heat source? (Furnace is only a few years old)

I’m under contract on a buy and hold single family home and the biggest problem is the chimney is falling off. It is loose from the building down to the base but still standing. I’ve read it can be around $10,000 to rebuild it. I’m not sure if there’s other methods of saving it because none of the contractors have gotten back to me yet. Do you think it’s worth the money to get it fixed? Do you think a wood burning stove adds enough value to a house to consider keeping it? Or should I remove it and think of an alternative like a gas log set?

@Liam Thomas Hey Liam!! That's awesome! Which part of Ogden? Are you owner occupying? Honestly I have been in Ogden for 2 years and I don't love living here. I've been working downtown since January and it's awesome but the commute is already starting to interfere with quality of life. We don't have children yet and we are really wanting to live closer to the big city for a while and see how it goes! 

Thanks Steve! Sounds good, I knew we needed to make some sort of agreement but wasn’t sure of where to go for that. I’ll start looking for recommendations tonight! 

Hey BiggerPockets! 

I am an artist, photographer and traveler, born in WA raised in FL, traveled to 13 countries competing in a sport called Flowboarding and landed in Ogden, UT 2 years ago because of my sport.

I've decided to stay in one spot for a while and I'm looking for my first home in Salt Lake City to house hack! I currently live in an apartment in Ogden, commuting to SLC for work and attending BP Podcast University ;)

Occupation: Artist, Office Manager at Dezember Photography, Painting Instructor at The Paint Mixer

Goal: Financial freedom! One property every 2 years, buy and hold

Strategies I'm interested in: BRRRR, House Hacking, Long Distance RE investing (because the Utah market is insane)

Hobbies: Surfing, flowboarding, travel, art, recycling, DIY, creative problem solving, snowboarding, being outside - basically I'm a hippie with an entrepreneurial mind

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This is not my first introduction to real estate. In college I had a friend who managed rentals with the family business. I worked for her painting rooms, absorbing knowledge and still not taking action because it never occurred to me that I could and SHOULD do it on my own. I'm 27 now and although I regret not getting started sooner, something she said that always comes back to me is "If you're not growing you're dying." So here I am, ready to grow after dying for a few years.

I've convinced my boyfriend of the benefits of buying now vs. renting with the low interest rates and we are partnering to be able to afford more than we would on our own. I've been through the entire buying process on a condo individually that fell through the day before closing because of miscommunication between the seller and lender. Now working together we have put offers on a few duplexes but got outbid, and the numbers are very tight in SLC- not many things make sense cash flow wise. But I'm determined to make something work! We have offers on a few places, one of which we would rent out rooms to make the mortgage more affordable. We are stoked on the whole process and would love to connect with others who have the same idea!!