All Forum Posts by: Brian Zaug

Damn, i'm really sorry about your experience with college students.  If I were you, i'd get an estimate on all the repairs and forward that bill right to the parents.  If they are not willing to cooperate, then start the eviction processs.  Would the security deposits cover the damage?  At least until June when the semester ends.....I was considering renting a duplex I own to Marist students but after reading this, i'll stick with long term tenants.  Thanks for the story

Looking to invest in Hudson as well.  I have an accepted offer for a 3 fam house on Warren st near the Hospital.     We are going up there today with a structural engineer to make sure the foundation is in good shape.  Apparently, Hudson has some nasty clay that causes a lot of foundation/basement issues.  I'm hoping this house is solid as it's in a great location with high rents...

Hey BP, i'm looking at this 3 family and I really like the location and even the asking price.  Problem with this property is the Landlord pays all the utilities (heat, hot water, electric).  He charges them a "utility fee" to cover some or maybe even all of the bills.  Is this even legal?  The apartments aren't the same size so i'm not sure how the owner came up with these numbers. Is there a better way to handle this situation, like by adding it to the rent, or is this an acceptable form of having the tenants pay for the utilities?  Thanks in advance for your help...

Guys, thanks so much for the ideas and input.  I really appreaciate it.  The seller is waiting until Wed for highest and best so i'm going to bump up my offer a bit more.

Victor S They are asking 135K for the house. 2 units,1350sqft, 4bdrm/1bth each unit. With a good cleaning and some paint and a few little things, each unit should rent for approx $1400 maybe a tad more even. Cash flow after PITI, vacancy, cap ex, etc should be around $1300...That's a sweet deal in my book...

@Kevin Dong I think calling the listing agent is a great idea but my agent found this property and got is in it immediately.  I'm ok with a bidding war as I know my top number.  I was just pondering raising my offer a bit more ($2500) than asking price in hopes to avoid a bidding war....I waived inspection and said we could close as soon as title search is finished....

@Brandon Frulla I asked if they'd do seller financing and agent said seller is not interested because he's dead.  

So this property popped up on the MLS the other day and my agent and I went to see it yesterday. I knew it was a sweet deal as soon as we walked through it so we put in a cash offer for full asking price (135K). So few hours later, my agent calls me and tells me the house has 15 showings scheduled this weekend and the seller will make his/her decision Monday. ugh.

Well, I really want this property so my question for you all,  is there anything I can do to improve my chances at this point? Any tips or tricks?   I was thinking of upping my offer by 2K and hoping no one else goes above asking price..The numbers still are great at this price.  Do cash buyers typically go above asking price?   Thanks for any help with this..

FWIW, I had a very similar experience...Purchased distressed duplex, fixed it up, hoping for a 175K appraisal.  Did not come in that high.  Came in at 155K.  I felt how you feel right now.  I ended up calling a few more banks and paid for another appraisal.  This second appraisal came in at 175K and I got my 30K back!  Happy Ending....Hope you do also

@JJ Bliss

I mentioned to them about moving house into LLC afterwards and they said I would be able to roll the deed into the llc but the loan itself would still be under my name. I have heard of people doing this and most banks wont call you out on it. This broker mentioned that the company buying the loan from them allows purchasers to put the deed into LLC. That's all good and dandy but the fact that they didn't even tell me this bothered me. Then when I called, there reasoning about how the commercial lender drove by the property and decided not to do the loan sounds really fishy.

After discussing this with a few fellow investors, I'm ok doing a residential and rolling it in afterwards because the terms and rates are usually better than commercial.  Again, just wish the communication was better. 

So I called a mortgage brokerage that was recommended to me to do a cash out refi. on a property that has plenty of equity.    My credit is over 800, very little debt, I have a bunch of cash flowing properties,  and secure w2 job making over 100k a year.    I gave this one lender my info and they got back to me saying they can do a 30 year commercial loan at around 5% for 1 point to do a 120K cash out refi.  I quickly agreed and started sending them all the paperwork required. 

A week later, they sent me the conditional approval and it is a residential loan and has a 5.5% interest rate.  I called the agent that I was working with and he forwarded me to his supervisor because he could explain it.  The supervisor said that she tried to get a commercial lender to take the loan but they did a drive by and for some reason, denied the request.  What the hell does that mean?  Commercial lenders drive by the house to see if it's worth it to lend on?  

It's a 2 family house that i'm refinancing so the agent told me that I can just roll it into my LLC after closing. Not what I wanted to do. And they never told me that this was a residential loan. I had to ask. So then I asked about the interest rate and they said it should be around mid to high 5%. What!? When we first started, I was told I would get around 5% on a commercial 30 year and now i'm in a residential loan for way over that. Shouldn't a residential loan be less expensive that a commercial? They said I wouldn't have to pay a point for the residential but I said that I wanted a lower rate. They said that we have to wait until the appraisal then once they determine the loan to value, then they will get me my interest rate on this loan.

I'm very uneasy about this company right now.  They want me to send them my credit card info so they can order the appraisal but I told them I'm unsure if I want to do that.  They said that if I pay for the appraisal, even If I don't go with the as the lender, I could bring the appraisal to any other lender and they would accept it so I wouldn't have to get it re appraised....Is this true?  ahhhh..  I don't trust them....but at the same time, i'm not a lender and I don't know there rules....ahhhhh...help!

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