All Forum Posts by: Ben McPhail

Looking for a realtor in Kona who also has experience investing in multiple real estate deals themselves.  Any recommendations

I have a friend who just sold a property and owes 100K in capital gains.  He sold due to deployment for the military.  He did not buy the property as an investment and he did not live there more than 2 years.  He was told he couldn’t avoid the tax.  Is there anything he can do?

I am looking at purchasing a home for 70K. Rents for $900. Cash flow after PITI and property management would be about $350 with 5% interest. I was thinking about offering 86K with a 15K allowance to avoid paying down payment and it would cut cash flow to $200. Assuming it appraised high enough is that a good idea?

In October I met an owner of a property who was in the early stages of fixing up his house to put on the market.  He got me in touch with the realtor he was working with to show me the place.  We walked through and came to an agreement on the price.  I asked the seller's agent if we could be represented by the realtor we had been using.  She then threatened that if we did, we would have to pay their commission and she threatened if we did that then we would have to wait until the house hit the market.  It is legal in Alaska to have one agent for a transaction but looking back she did not check the box saying she would remain neutral.

  At this point there was just a verbal agreement on the price and nothing had been signed.  We proceeded without representation, and the day we went to her office to sign the papers she also presented us with an inspection report that the seller had bought so we did not even think to order one on our own.  The inspection was about 10 pages long and he missed a few things.  One of which was mold that has caused us to remodel the whole kitchen down to the studs.  Granted, unless a very thorough job was done it would have been hard to catch.  I do not really know what is expected of an inspector.

Anyways, I was interested in getting some feedback regarding this situation.  Although it may have been "legal" it did not seem very ethical.  After everything was finalized she asked us to think of her when we were looking at buying or selling another home.  Although I was very cordial and polite through the process I was surprised that she would expect us to continue working with her after not doing much to help us.

  Thanks for all of your help.
 

I’m pretty sure it was due to the water line connecting to the dishwasher.  It was leaking when we pulled it out to tear out old flooring.  There was mold on the wall behind it and when we removed the sheet rock it we found it on the back and so we kept tearing the sheet rock until we couldn’t find anymore

The homeowners had it for roughly ten years I believe but they have been renting it out for a the past few years before the sale.  

After closing on a new house to live in I found a significant mold issue in the kitchen.  Black mold was found behind the sheet rock and into the vapor barrier.  I do not have any proof but it seems they painted over the mold where it was visible on the walls.  The cabinets do not have backs and after removing the cabinets there is visible mold above and below the paint. We are having to replace the sheetrock, cabinets, flooring, and possibly some of the sub floor.  Other than taking legal action to sue someone is there anyway to get repair costs covered?  Our home insurance policy will not cover it.  I heard of something called brokers insurance but do not know much about it.

I appreciate all the responses.  I was thinking of buying and holding to rent out for 5-7 years.  Cash flow would be between $600-$800 which still gives me a decent return on investment 

@David M.

My goal is to complete the rehab without having to fork over 25K in cash to take care of it.  So I’m trying to learn about different options