All Forum Posts by: Brad Smith

I'm not sure if this is appropriate here but I'm trying to sell a two story duplex on the East End, a block from the water.  I'm motivated.

I'm assuming that I should wait on buying any more properties with the market being as hot as it is here in Houston.  I'm assuming that, when it cools off, prices will be more reasonable... or will prices stay the same and this is the new normal???

Selling my 3 rentals, no real income after taxes, insurance and prop mgt fees.  Looking to flip in Houston.  After reading some of the comments, should I buy with cash which I can do with rental sales proceeds?

Can I sell a property, buy out my brother's mortgage, charge him $1/mo and avoid capital gains from selling a rental property? 

We'd have a contract to cover the details but I don't need the revenue from the rental but I'd have a stake in his property that my heirs would inherit when I'm gone along with my other rentals.

I don't know what happened but it seems that I message I started two years ago was still hanging out there so, when I tried a new one, things got message up

Bought a new house in December.  It's a pier and beam foundation but there are some soft spots.  The flooring people say that one of them needs to be repaired.  I made an initial repair but it was not very extensive.  I've since gone back in and removed all the rotten material.  My understanding of the way these are constructed is that the subfloor sits on the floor joists but this one seems to have two layers of subfloor.  There are 2x8 (going from memory) with plywood on top of that.   The plywood is what is rotten.  There is a moisture barrier between the two layers.

Question #1 - Is it typical for there to be two layers of the subfloor or am I describing it wrong?

Question #2 - can I use a plastic bag for my moisture barrier when I replace the plywood or is there something more appropriate?  A spray on product would be nice.

Thanks

Thanks for responses! We're not "in business" in the same sense that most people are. We have saved a good nest egg in 403B accounts over the years and retired this year. As much as anything, I view this as a place to stash cash instead of putting even more in the stock market. This would be the 4th property we've purchased with cash. We've had zero debt for over 10 years now. I did create an LLC to hold the properties in. So, maybe it's not sound investment strategy but this is a good fixer upper for us to work on, which we enjoy, and my wife loved this area 60 years ago when she first came here so we view this differently than someone focused solely on ROI.

We have a contract on a house built in 1962 with a pier and beam foundation.  The piers are wooden and have some decay.  There is previous termite activity on the wood.  We are meeting with our real estate agent tomorrow to discuss negotiating the price based on repair estimates.  We have bought other "as is" properties and never negotiated the price. We basically knew what we were buying and, in the past, it was properties needing lots of work but the price reflected it.  Given the age of the house and the foundation construction type, I would expect some decay.  The market where this house is over prices all properties IMHO so we'd be shelling out a lot more but it's the exact location we've been looking into for most of 2018.  Few houses show up in this location.  So, I expect to pay more but don't want to make a bad decision.  We have the inspection which pointed out the problems but my plan is to get a foundation repair company out to give me their assessment and a bid for repairs which we would use to negotiate a price reduction.  Given the above, does this sound like a reason approach?  Any experience with pier and beam purchases that went unaddressed?

I have three houses on my personal insurance policy. Shouldn't my rentals be on a separate policy for my LLC?

The "Notify me..." box wouldn't check so I'll try to check back periodically.

Thanks!

Do I need them???  Where we are, be get about 32" per year and it comes at different times of the year.  We can go months with no rain at all.  Are gutters just something people install because they don't know any better or do they indeed serve a purpose.  If there is drainage away from the house, does it make a difference if the  rain falls directly under the eaves or a couple of feet out with a gutter spout?