All Forum Posts by: Carini Rochester

 You do seem to know this area!

I'm pretty familiar with Caledonia and with heating costs in this area. The building is likely an old (100 yrs. or more) uninsulated or under-insulated wood frame building, possibly with the original single pane windows. I think the heating cost that the OP mentioned is reasonable and typical. This winter is running about 6 degrees colder than last year. N.G. is a much cheaper energy than electricity for heating around here. I have experience with both RG&E and NYSEG. N.G. being the cheaper fuel for heating would be true for either of these suppliers. 

So, Jason, what did you decide to do, and what was the result. Successful flip?

My owner financed deals both came from the church foyer! I'm feeling for this guy and his wife's health. I wish them well. 

@Drew Sygit brings some good insight into the possible pitfalls. Don't go into this without due diligence!

@Obed Calixte is right on! Will you hire a property manager? This seems like a very easy property, management-wise. Manage it yourself. Has owner financing come up in your conversations with your friend from church? This seems like a perfect owner financing opportunity. He may accept a lower than 20% down payment. He may accept a lower rate than bank financing. See if there is any compromise on not raising the rent at all. $300/mo. is a lot to give away. A three bedroom house for 800/mo is crazy low! See if he and the tenant will agree to 900/mo. Then 1000/mo. in the next year. You need some way to jack up this rent.

In my experience, the owners who find owner financing advantageous are at the ends of their careers and are not interested in looking for another investment (other than the usual retirement funding sorts.) They don't want to 1031 into something else. They want to get a monthly check without having to work for it. The big advantage is having the capital gains spread out over many years to avoid a huge tax bill. I have bought two by owner financing from the same seller. I see him a few times a year. He often tells me how much he enjoys getting my payments each month. "Cash flow," he says, "with no phone calls from tenants!" He also told me he probably wants to re-negotiate the balloon payment because he doesn't want the bulk of the capital gains all in one year. That's fine with me. I don't really want to go looking for the financing to pay him his balloon payment. Win/win.

A clean-out at the property line is the norm around here. Why yours is 15' away is odd. The municipality takes responsibility for the portion in the R.O.W. The private property owner is responsible for maintenance on the private property. The camera idea is a good one. When they snake a camera in, they know pretty precisely where the camera is and can see (to some extent) what is clogging the line.

Sellers tend to like to finance because it gives them control over when, and how much capital gains flow in and when and how much the balloon payment will be. That's a big advantage over getting the whole amount at the closing. Buyers tend to like to be able to sit down with the seller and negotiate terms. Seller financing is often a win for both parties.

Since you inherited the house, you get the stepped up basis. The fix-up and increased value will not matter to the IRS as long as you sell within a reasonable time frame of the house passing into the estate. (Reasonable time? a couple of years.) You will, most likely own no taxes.

My wife and I did our own taxes using some program (I don't think it was TurboTax, but maybe.) The software steers you through most of the data entry. We had to read some IRS publications when we were uncertain about a few things. @Charles Perkins is absolutely correct about "collecting all receipts, properly tracking all income and expenses and your basis for all assets properly documented and recorded." If you've done all that, its not too hard to enter the info into a tax preparation program. We just switched over to a CPA for our taxes after getting our 6th investment property.