All Forum Posts by: Casey Crowe

No. The formula is:

Purchase price (or last appraised price, whichever is newer) x 4 or 6% x millage. In most areas that will be .45 - .57 or so. 

Occupant owners also get a break on the 1% state sales tax they passed a few years back whereas non-occupant owners do not. 

This is codified into the state constitution. My goal for the 2020 election is to get it changed. Because SFHs here literally rent for $1200 a month, and it's typically just covering the PITI.

Hi Andrew, 

You're close! If you are an owner but do not live in the property, then the property tax rate is 6%. Occupant owner rate is 4%. How to make them work? Well, buy cheap properties, get 0 margins, or invest in 2, 3, and 4-plexes. Honestly I haven't figured out a strategy for SFH yet.

I check Trulia.com. Based on my area and knowing the crime levels for a comparison, I find it to be pretty accurate. But it's not perfect, so if you're not sure, call the local police station in the area (or better yet, go in there) and ask them about it. You can also ask the neighbors, and feel them out. See if you have people who've lived there a long time, and ask them who the troublemakers are and if they feel safe there. 

More work done this weekend. A buddy came to help me and we got all the carpet and padding out of the master bedroom. I used the blacklight to identify areas where the cats had sprayed the walls. I then sprayed almost a gallon of Nature's Miracle (with disinfectant) on all the affected areas in both bedrooms. The subfloors looked pretty good, just a couple spots that definitely need replacing. 

My buddy worked on the stairway, and we found two sizeable piles of poop in a little closet thing that held stereo equipment. We got that out, and scraped the landing and treads as best we could, then swept it all up. Apparently she was putting newspaper down on the treads, and they got pooped/peed on and turned into pooper machete. We'll be ripping all the treads and risers out and replacing. 

Stairs before:

and after:

My wife went in on Sunday to work on the downstairs. She said the upstairs smelled positively pleasant, which was a nice surprise! She also said the stairs reeked, which makes sense. She pulled out piles and piles of cat and roach poop from under the stairs where the water heater is located. We're going to have to gut all that, clean, disinfect, and kilz it and re-install the water heater. 

She also just picked up downstairs and organized all the stuff. Threw out some old homeowner items. The downstairs was already well on its way. (The kitchen is worse than we thought, however)

Dining room to the left:

Nice built-in unit in the living room:

All for now! 

(And yes, basically the entire place will be scrubbed and coated in Kilz. I'm not taking any chances.

We're doing almost all the work ourselves, and putting in EVP flooring throughout. It will need a new HVAC system, and a guy we use quoted us $3100 out the door. The downstairs only needs minor work other than the kitchen, and we're hoping to salvage and paint the cabinets, and put in used appliances. We're pretty good at finding great deals on supplies and not paying retail. 

The numbers above reflect what I call "mandatory expenses," aka "things we have to pay or else we get in big trouble with someone else!" Because our monthly  expenses are so low, and we're rehabbing so much, we're just keeping a small cushion of cash reserves. (But of course all the extra goes towards the next unit!) 

Honestly even with higher rehab numbers it's hard to make this unit not a good deal. Once the gross/stinky stuff is out, the rest will come together pretty quickly. Even the kitchen which needs a lot of work is tiny, and we can do all that ourselves. 

My wife and I are tackling this condo we got for a song because it was in rough shape from a hoarder who had lots of cats. 

Two days of cleanup and we only have the master carpet/padding to pull out. So far we've found two dead cats, hundreds of shoes, and tons and tons of bed sheets. 

We only mustered up the courage to tackle this after reading @Brian Burke's epic hoarder cleanup thread! 

Fortunately the downstairs is already stripped down and doesn't smell. Just the upstairs. 

So, some numbers:


ARV on these is about $35k

Purchased from a wholesaler for $13,800 including closing costs

Estimating rehab around $11-13k

Monthly rental expenses of HOA, taxes, insurance, etc is about $244/mo.

Rent should be right at $750/mo, providing just over $500/mo in cash flow.

Lots of sweat equity to get there though!

Master bedroom:

 

Spare bedroom:

The first day we filled a 15 yard dumpster with large items, and then 3 full-sized truckloads of trash in trash bags. (Including a mountain of cat sand/poop a few feet wide. 

Master after the first day:




Spare after the first day:




And after the second full day of work, we got the master down to the carpet:








And we got the spare bedroom down to the subfloor. I'm ordering a 365 nm blacklight to find all the pee on the walls, though I feel we may have to just cut the bottom 3 feet or so out for good measure. 

 This is really interesting. Does Stessa do this kind of thing? I've seen the ads for it but haven't had the time to dig into what all it does. 

 Just beware of what it takes to clean out a hoarder house. We're about to close on a trashed unit, but it's just the upstairs two bedrooms. We're *hoping* they haven't ruined any joists under the subfloor. But there will be lots of reno to get it ready to rent again. Just do your research before pulling the trigger and make sure you have some cushion in your numbers. There's a thread here on BP where someone gutted a big house that was just incredibly trashed from hoarders. Lots of pictures to detail the process. But all that can and should be used to negotiate a good price. I would check to see that you'd get a higher bump in value-add by fixing it than it would cost to repair. 

 ICEE what you mean. 

 Because with hoarders typically comes roaches, mice, and if they have animials, fleas and feces/urine. Not only will it stink, but it will create a pest control nightmare. And in a multifamily unit, if your neighbor has bugs, so do you. Yuck!