All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Aaker

You really need to talk to a tax advisor in this situation. The cost will be much smaller than the taxes you could have to pay. With this amount of money there is probably going to be a gift tax that your friend would have to pay. Also, if you haven't lived there but are a co-owner, you or your friend may not be able to avoid capital gains tax. Bottom line is - pay for the expert advice on this one.

Hi Martin and welcome to the forums. Not to put too much stock in hindsight, but wasn't the noise there when you toured the place? Was something mitigating the noise at that time that you could use now?

Are you certain you would have to sell at a loss? Lots of areas have been appreciating. You might want to talk to a banker and real estate agent before deciding.

People in my area live right next to train tracks and there are loud trains shaking the place at all hours. Somehow they manage to live with it. Could you do so if it meant saving 60 to 100k as you estimate? Also, a tenant might be willing to live with it where you are not and you might just become a landlord.

I don't see a reason to remove the new supports in the crawl space in the future and based on your picture, I don't think you would need to remove them to put in new floors. Have you checked the subflooring for the kitchen floor in the lower level to make sure it is level and flat? There is clearly some movement or the tiles would not have cracks in the grout. Simply regrouting will have another crack show up in a year. All the water issues could have caused this as well. Make sure your new drainage system is working. Then level the floor - really shouldn't need more supports after the first if they were installed correctly. Then do the floor. 

This is dangerous territory because you are talking about your family. Seems like it is best to go with what is written in the will - split the estate and he gets 160k extra. Or you could add 5% per year to the 160k and give it to your brother when all is said and done. Small potatoes to risk family.

You will have to check your local laws but I am not aware of a requirement to post to the MLS. You will need to check your contract with the property manager. It probably lists where they will be posting the listings.

You'll have to check that agreement to see if you can cancel earlier. Have you had a talk with the PM about this? It might be something you can easily resolve and keep them at least until the contract expires. 

You need to have a look at your business. Is it making you money? If so, maybe wait a year or two and save the money for the purchase. Why get rid of something that is doing well? If not, then selling is a good idea irrespective of the real estate. I don't know the laws in Australia, but in the states, you can usually get a low down payment loan if you will live in the place and you can do this up to a 4 unit and rent out the rest. You might want to look into that. 

Would you be able to move to the new house before your retirement in 10 years? Not sure about California tax, but if you have lived in the house for 2 years of the last 5 you will not have the cap gains tax federally. If you don't care about making money as a rental, that is my recommendation. 

Probably your best bet will be to do a joint venture with an equity partner. You do the work and they put up the money. You'll have to give a significant percentage of the deal to them for the risk they are taking. 

Hard to do right now, if you are using bank money. House hacking a 4 plex using an FHA loan would be a good way to get in with low money down. One way to scale is to build equity and use it to leverage the next property. As ever, you need to find the right deals, and that's usually people's problem, not the scaling. You will need to look at lots of deals to find the right one. Your best bet is to set goals related to deal-finding and spend your time on that right now.

I'm not in Boston, but I post the asking rent and do not haggle.

I've got a property manager to do my screening now, but when I self-managed I used SmartMove by TransUnion. It's been a while since I used it, so may have changed after TransUnion purchased it.

Parameters: Income is >3x the monthly rent. No evictions. No violent felony history. No bankruptcies in past 7 years. Credit score 670 or higher. Nonsmoker.