All Forum Posts by: Carly M.

Hi! We've invested in a property in KC, MO. I found a property manager on BP. I picked them because they said they had a team to do renos and seemed quite knowledgeable. 

Long story short they've dropped the ball big time and I have an empty duplex in the Waldo area that needs work done. I'm in Washington State. 

Any recommendations on contractors with investing experience / mindset and a property management company that returns your calls? 

THanks so much! 

Carly 

@Troy Gandee This is great information, THANK YOU! We ended up getting the deposit back. 

UPDATE: We got our EM deposit back!  THANK YOU ALL! I appreciate all your input and help with this! It absolutely is a great learning experience and I took a lot of great nuggets of information from this. While not fun it's definitely part of the process of learning and we learned a lot.  @Ryan D. - we will be using the addendum idea from now on, love that!  thank you all again, I love this community! 

Wow, thank you all for your feedback, this is great information. We're newbies and are still learning through mistakes and asking BP. THANK YOU! 

Clarification: we did not sign Ernest Money release.  But it was a few days out of the inspection period. 

In Idaho, the standard has been $1,000 EM Deposit. So it's not a ton of money, but for us starting out $1,000 is a lot. Our Real Estate agent's co has a trust account they hold all the money in, so the seller doesn't have it. She has given us a paper to sign to release the funds, which we are holding off on until asking you all. 

Initially, we were willing to walk away but it seems like our realtor has been representing the seller more than us the whole time, and certainly more now (he's an old realtor pal) so we are leary. We have definitely learned the importance of a good agent!  

Question: My husband and I got a "duplex" in Twin Falls, Idaho under contract. We later found out after signing away the earnest money that the house was misrepresented. The egress windows did not meet city code. The sellers said it did, we went back, measured, and found out they were not to code. There would only one exit in case of a fire. The insurance company said we would be liable in the case of a fire. We called the city to verify it wasn't up to code and found out they never pulled permits to build the basement, and the city views it as a single-family dwelling.  We also found out that there is only one heat control, so the bottom apartment has no heat controls. 

We killed the deal and they are saying they are keeping the deposit. Our realtor is hardly representing us and will not go to the seller to ask for it back. Saying we forfitted it. 

It is now listed on the MLS as a single family. With realtor.com you can see the previous listing listed as multifamily.

Here is the listing: 

Do we have a case to ask for it back? 

Thanks, guys! 

@Mackaylee Beach  - We are planning on updating it and raising rents that haven't been raised in 11 years. We will cash flow after that. 

HI guys, thank you for your responses. 

There was an engineers report and they fixed the foundation issues. We plan on doing some cosmetic updates in both duplexs. The rents have not been raised in 11 years. The report I showed was with the rents staying the same. Rents are at $700 and projected rents are at $1100. SO we will cash flow about $700 when all said and done. 

@Youdo Thirakul , My husband grew up in AK and his Best Friend hot his start in RE up in Juneau. We're thinking about investing up there as well. Here's some info that might answer your question. 

Alaska is in a recession right now, because of the oil prices, the State is running out of money and laying off state workers, I recently read the AK Marine Highway / Ferry System won't have enough money to run after April. 

 The cost of real estate all over the state has gone down quite a bit, I believe rents have not. There is a demand for housing. In Anchorage, there's nowhere else to build, unless they build the Knick Arm Bridge. It will cost a lot and the legislature has been trying to fun it for a while now. It's tabled now with the Budget problems. 

Juneau is landlocked and there isn't much room to build there unless you have a pretty penny. Duplex houses are common. The cost of living in Juneau is HUGE and there's not much out there for quality rentals. In the summer, tourism is huge as it's a Cruise Ship Port and in winter the legislature comes to Juneau for session. They have to rent places for 90 days or longer if session goes longer. 

If you buy right and capitalize on Tourism and the legislature in Juneau you can make some money. A friend is selling a 6 plex on Delta Drive up there, as well as a house on Douglas with an apartment. I can connect you two if you are interested in learning more. 

My husband and I are first time investors, we have a friend in Kansas City who is in the real estate game and says it's a great cash flow area. We flew out there last week and found a duplex in a decent area (edge of Waldo). The lady who owns it owns the whole street and]is selling 1/year. We wre hoping to buy the whole lot if this one works out well. 

We have an accepted offer in and We've found out there is "excessive lateral movement". They are having epoxy and i-beams installed. The realtor says KC is built on clay soil so it's not uncommon. It's listed for $140k which is a great price. My husband thinks this isn't a problem. It doesn't work well enough in the numbers for me to be on board with a foundation issue. The rents have not been raised since 2007, so we have room to raise rent. THis is the numbers with rent as is.

What do you guys think? We are first time investors and out of state, which also worries me. 

Thank You! 

@Victor Evans , thank you for the information! That sounds like what the report says. So as a structural engineer would you invest in a house with this kind of issues? I know it's a gamble on if it will be enough. I am concerned, as out of state AND first-time investors to move forward with this. 

Thanks again for your input!