All Forum Posts by: Ben Dubinski

I am wondering what has been anyone's experience buying a property, in my case would be a primary residence from a family member. My wife and I feel we can and should sell our current home, for a few reasons. The market in our area as in many areas has appreciated greatly and we would do pretty well on the sale. That is secondary to be honest. Our home backs up to about 150 acres of woods that for these past 9 years have provided privacy and peace and quiet. Well it has been sold to a developer who intends to build either 138 new single family homes, or up to 390 apartment units. The main entrance to this long term project will be right next to my front lawn.

So we think it may be time to put the sign on the yard and try to get out while the gettin' is good. Trick is, we want our kids to stay in the same school, which we could do by buying my in laws home, which they have been wanting to sell and downsize for some time now. Anyone have experience buying from family? Obvious pros or cons? Any advice on what professionals to bring into the conversation? Thanks for any insight.

@Kenneth Mooney yeah, I was thinking that as well. I don't know yet how much damage is done. Fortunately it's a small bathroom, so even it i have to replace the sub floor, it's low cost in materials. I retiled the tub surround last summer when it was empty, I wish now I had just gutted and renovated the whole bathroom.

So today we learned we have a tile/ water problem in the bathroom of our rental. Floor tiles are loose, water has crept in over time and it seems this bathroom is in need of repair. Problem is, it's a one bathroom place. How would you handle displacing your tenant for several days to get this work done? I would possibly take this opportunity to replace the toilet and vanity as well while the floor is getting ripped out, I figure 3-4 days total with demo, laying tile and grouting before re-installing new toilet and vanity.

These have been great tenants so I don't want to put them out too much, but it needs to get fixed. Any ideas?

My wife and I have one current rental, cash flowing with equity. We have tossed around the idea of moving, to temporarily (1-2 years) rent out our primary residence. The idea would be can we buy a duplex and house hack for a year or two, while having someone rent our home also so that we can save save save during that time for another purchase.

My question is, how can we qualify for another loan for the potential duplex, with the intention of renting our primary? We wouldn't have any rental history yet on the primary to offset that monthly debt obligation. Would a lender be satisfied with a signed lease agreement?

The trick will be to find a potential property that can accommodate us for the next year or two. We have to small kids, age 2 and 6. We are thinking long term, and years go by quickly, so we think ultimately it will be worth it. We believe we could rent our primary residence for $2500- $3000 per month, which would cover all our expenses here.

Any thoughts?

@John Underwood this property is the first house on the beach, in a vacation town that most of the houses on the beach are several million dollars. I don't feel like renting it would be that hard. The maintenance fees cover the cleaning and upkeep. In a perfect world, I wouldn't need to rent it, but frankly $5k a week would be great and help cover expenses.

Does anyone have experience with purchasing a fractional shares of a vacation home? There is a duplex on the beach with a 10 week share, offered for $145k. 3 bdrm, 2 bath 1000 sq feet. A very nice looking home that based on the location, if sold as one entire property would likely be well over $1MM.

How does financing this work? Will it likely appreciate over time, perhaps in the hopes of selling for a gain, to then buy our own single family vacation home?

Also the potential rates for renting out weeks for short term vacation rentals at this property would be very high. Our family has rented in the same town, but not nearly as close to the beach, for $5200/ week in the past couple years.

I feel like this is a great early entry into owning a beach vacation home without the exorbitant pricetag and maintenance worries. What might I be missing?