All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Low

I have lots of friend and family in the bay area and they all say the same thing: housing is exceptionally difficult to find. Where are you advertising to fill your vacancy? Have you tried the local Facebook marketplace? I also wonder if some of the travel nursing agencies might be a good resource for you to try. Good luck!

We did a 2/1 flip in 2018 and staged it pretty simply. I think my total cost for staging was about $800. I staged the living room, kitchen, bath and one bedroom. Very minimal decor and also very neutral so it appeals to the widest possible tastes. Most items were found on Craigs list, except the bed and dresser, which I borrowed from the guest room at my house. Small home decor items like flower vases are inexpensive and really help fill a space. In the kitchen I added items like a tea pot, serving tray, dry goods jars and wooden spoons - all picked up inexpensively at IKEA. Towels, a painting for the living room, drapes and bedroom comforter - all from Ross. I looked into hiring a stager but they were ridiculously expensive and, frankly, I didn't like the look. Best part of it, I was able to sell all the furniture after the house sold and made back most of the money whereas, if I'd hired a stager, that would have just come out of my bottom line. If you want to see what I mean by simple, neutral decor, check out our facebook page - go to photos and scroll through towards the bottom. Good luck!

Have you looked for local junk haulers? As long as you're not talking about removing hazardous debris, like asbestos siding, your local junk haulers will probably give you a better deal. They'll show up in a truck that looks like it shouldn't be running, but they're happy to do the heavy lifting - literally. Look on Craigs list.

If you're talking about a BRRRR, the PMI right now may be less of an issue, depending on how much more it can appraise for after your repairs. IOW, you don't have to pull all your money out - you could leave 20% in (and probably have to anyway since most lenders are offering 70-75% max LTV on the cash out.) So don't worry so much about having to pay PMI going in because you'll probably be below the PMI requirement as soon as you do your refi. You're going to have to hold it for 6 months to season the loan before the refi, so best case you're looking at 6 months of PMI and that's not much unless you're buying a really expensive property.

It might not help with the current tenant since they already know you're the landlord and they're now used to the convenience of having you next door, but in the future, create a privacy shield and put in some systems to help you screen repair requests. Several property management systems have a repair requests tenants can fill out online. It helps you stay organized, track your repair costs and it makes it a little less convenient for them to hit you up to fix every little thing. And, unless you intend to knock on their door to collect the rent, it's possible to keep your identity a secret from them. They don't need to know their next door neighbor is also their landlord. Again, that cuts down on the convenience and frequency of them just knocking on your door to fix every little thing. It's obviously too late for this one, but in the future those things might help. A good property management company will have a handyman available to handle repairs, but it WILL cost you. So it's really just a time vs. money tradeoff.

Sorry to answer a question with a question(s), but this needs a little more information. What are you basing your offer of $85k on? I'd start there. What are the comps for a similar home in the area? Is he underwater with the mortgage or does he just need more than you currently have a buyer for? 

First, HUGE respect for thinking like an investor at such a young age! As a mom of 3 boys, I love to see young people tackling their future with energy and vision. House hacking is always a great way to start. It might be tough in your environment just because rents are so high, so maybe look in a community just outside of where you currently are to try to find something a little more affordable. You just want to make sure you can cover your mortgage, and young people are being particularly hard hit by COVID unemployment so you want to make sure your roomies can continue paying their rent. 

Carpet and pets don't mix. But I would say that for rentals, in general. We had a rental with a clause that allowed for one pet. The owner stated she had a cat. She paid the deposit up front. A year later when we went to sell, the property management company did an evaluation and found she had 2 cats. That might not seem like a big difference, but in her 875 sq ft section of the duplex, it was. Double the cats, double the odors. We had hard wood floors and there was no damage, but there's just this lingering at odor from litter boxes that doesn't go away without a thorough cleaning and possibly re-painting. I'm glad we discovered this after only year 1. Deep cleaning and re-painting (which we would have done anyway) took care of it. But any longer and I think we would have had to do something more drastic and, who knows, she may have accumulated more cats. 

You shouldn't have to guesstimate. Call a local electrician to find out what it cost to rewire and establish multiple meters and also call the utility to find out the metering costs. Then call a GC to get an estimate on the same for new furnace. Your utility company many offer rebates for new gas appliances so it's worth looking into whether you can qualify for a rebate and they usually can refer you to contractors who use their rebate program regularly.

Sounds like an incredible deal. Congratulations! How did you find this deal and did the seller offer seller finance or did you ask?