All Forum Posts by: Brett Mather

So I went for an independent desktop appraisal and it came in low at $939k-959k. I brought this to the seller but they don't believe it's accurate and stated that independent appraisals are often low and that the property would likely appraise at a higher price if under contract. They maintain that they could sell for $1.1M on the open market which would net them ~$1.04M so that's the price they offered me; I negotiated down a measly $5k to $1.035M but they claim they won't go lower. I offered to pay $998k which is what they paid when they bought the property new in Feb 2020, but they declined and stuck to 1.035M as their bottom price. 

Any thoughts on independent appraisals?

We're thinking of going into a contract at his price since we really like the place and really don't want to move. Of course we'll need it to appraise, so it will be interesting to see what happens. 

Thanks @Peter Mckernan, but what is a BPO?

I'm all for getting an appraisal, but how do I go about that? I believe in the 3 other houses I purchased in my life we paid for the appraisal through the lender; I suppose I could do that somehow, but then I'd need to decide on the lender right away? I'd like to get the appraisal without having decided on a price; it sounds like that's not common?

Would many agents be willing to pull comps for me even if I tell them that I'm not looking to use an agent? I've generally been unimpressed with comp research by agents in the 3 homes I've previously purchased; Zillow gave me the same or more information. It seems it needs to be much more nuanced to really value the homes...like an appraisal. 

My family moved to Scotts Vally, California in August of 2020 and rented a townhouse with a 12 month lease. The owner recently contacted me and expressed his desire to sell the house and offered it to me. If I choose not to buy he expects to put it on the market (which seems high-demand/low-supply) later in the summer and allow me to stay through the lease. The owner is willing to do the deal without agents so he'd save ~5% on the fees and offer us a lower price than he'd list it for on the open market.

My family loves the house and area and we think we'd like to buy.  I believe we have the means to do so (I do have plenty of work/research to do on that front) but my primary question is how to determine a fair price? He purchased it brand new in Feb. 2020 for $998k and said he believes he could list it competitively on the open market for $1.1M (he did make some improvements to a closet and backyard, but not too extravagant). He'd sell it to use for the $1.1M minus 5% for $1,045,000. 

It sounds like a decent deal, but I'm not completely convinced that it would sell so easily for $1.1M on the open market. How should I go about building a convincing argument for the value of this house? 

Thanks I'll inquire about facebook marketplace. I think he's had problems getting MLS to push out to Zillow properly; that's the part that's been frustrating.

Thanks Michael, I appreciate your point. The rental is in GA (I recently relocated to CA hence the need for a property manager). It is listed on the local MLS. The property has been completely repainted and professionally cleaned. Carpet replacement would be my next step I guess. It's been listed at the rate it was previously rented at for a few years and I've lowered it a few times now.

I'm owner of 2 townhouses which I recently relocated far away from (I used to manage them myself). I now have a property manager who has been advertising one of them for a few months now, but he's had lots of trouble getting it to list properly on Zillow. He claims that he can't control the listing on Zillow. It seems Zillow is a really good place to advertise rentals (it's where I looked most of the time when searching for a place to live) so I'd really like it advertised there. If he was finding a tenant quickly I wouldn't be so concerned, but is it reasonable to expect him to have the rental listed on Zillow as well as other sites?

Thanks for the advice; I was somewhat surprised to see such a disparity in opinions on this.

After reading this I was prepared to cover at least half $52.50, or maybe even the whole $105, but I was able to get the tenant, myself, and our bank on a conference call today where they dropped all the overdraft fees.  

I won't let that one happen again; electronic payments from here on out.  

Thanks

So I'm a brand new landlord; I've had tenants in my townhouse since 1-Feb.  For their 1-Mar rent payment they paid with a personal check a few days before it was due, and I just happened to hold the check and deposit it on 1-Mar.  

Just yesterday (30-Mar) they gave me a check dated 1-Apr for April's rent.  We never agreed that I would hold it until 1-Apr, so I immediately deposited it around 10pm on 30-Mar.  I guess since we use the same bank it came out of their account the next day, before their pay checks were deposited and they were hit with overdraft charges claimed to be roughly $105.  This is because multiple small transactions hit the account after it first overdrafted and the bank wants to charge for each overdrafted transaction.  

So they are asking for a credit on the next months rent to cover some or potentially all of the overdraft charges.  I don't believe I'm liable for any of this as it was their responsibility when they wrote the check...but I do want to be a somewhat compassionate landlord so I'm considering paying half of a single overdraft ($35 so my half would be $17.50).  I believe they should be able to work it out with the bank to remove those other overdraft charges.  

So what would you do? 

-Give them nothing?

-Give them $17.50?

-Give them $35?

-Or give them $105?

So if I intend to buy a $150k property, how do I go about making it cash flow positive?  Obviously the higher the rent the better, but realistically I can only imagine about $1300 rent for a $150k property here.  Is increasing the down payment the right way to go to make it cash flow positive?

Or am I going about this all wrong?  Should I be focused on finding a great deal like that $150k property on sale for only $100k?  

 Ok so I get the math there.  I may really show how much of a noob I am here, but I've been looking around and have been unable to find a $150k property that rents for $3000.  So is the only way to get cash flow to go for cheap places like your $38k example?