All Forum Posts by: Charlotte Edwards

I just found a house that's in our ideal neighborhood (we'd use as a rental now and later move in when we move to the area because the schools). It's a for sale by owner and the price is 50k but it says that they've done 100k in upgrades. Just a typo, I think.

Also the little marker on Zillow shows it in the wrong neighborhood. And is says it's in a gated community. The corn field certainly isn't "gated" nor is the actual street where it supposedly is located.

The guy gave his email and phone number. I may call to get some info cause it seems too good to be true.

I'm wondering what's wrong that I'm not seeing. I suppose anyone could make errors like an extra 0 or clicking the wrong box (if that's how entering data on sites works). But I'm also very new to this and I don't know what I don't know...so I'd love to know what others see as red flags or in which ways you've been lured into a bad deal.

Impressive! New goal fro my two kids!

It's nit-picky to argue about the money; in your mind that money you set aside for him is his. Same with his brothers'. No one would say, "well Grandma Jane is actually owner of 2/100 of it since she'd given him X for every birthday." I think it's about the learning experience. Any excess taxes caused by this will pale in comparison to what this kid has learned.

Previously I didn't agree with the idea of paying kids to read non-fiction; but looking back at my teen years and how much fiction I read...I'm all for it with my kids. Might cost me a pretty penny seeing as to how long my "must read" list is and how much they love to read. But a worthwhile investment, I'm sure.

I think you're right that it would be annoying to move (I did it twice in 18 months, also with toddler and baby) and then have less privacy. Trust your wife's concerns...women have instincts that guys don't have.

Ａｎｄ　ａｓ　ａ　ｓｔａｙ－ａｔ－ｈｏｍｅ　ｍｏｍ，　ａ　ｌｏｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　

ｍｏｖｉｎｇ　ｒｅｓｐｏｎｓｉｂｌｉｔｙ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｆａｌｌ　ｏｎ　ｈｅｒ．　

Ｍａｋｅ　ｓｕｒｅ　ｓｈｅ＇ｓ　ａｌｌ　ｉｎ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｅａｌ　　　　　　ｅｓｔａｔｅ　ｉｎｖｅｓｔｉｎｇ，　ｔｏｏ．　Ｇｏｏｄ　ｌｕｃｋ！

Yikes! You'd think they could have retaken that; no one loves your cat as much as you do.

Reminds me of Dave Ramsey's line about a cat costing the seller $10,000 (translation-don't have them in the house, people don't want to see a cat while they're looking at the property).

A few questions on insurance questions since this is our first home purchase, they keep popping up.

If we get just the ACV policy and...worst case..it's destroyed, can we just take the money, sell the land and reinvest in another property? I know that policy only pays out the depreciated value up to a certain amount, which is why I think replacement value is better. But my husband says it would be better to just use the money to put into another house, not go through the hassle of rebuilding.

Also, why would we pay for $2000 coverage for personal property when the only things that are ours are the fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer? Even if they all were destroyed by something, after we pay the $1000 deductible, it won't cost more than another 1000 or so to replace them.

And our realtor mentioned to me that she pays about $500/year/rental...so hubby wants me to find the same policy that they have. They've already connected me with, I assume, the broker they use. But this broker's policies came up higher for the replacement, and much lower for ACV (but way cheaper. Only $300/year and lower on the projected value of the home). And I'm not overly excited about this realtor (they've not been as helpful as I thought they would be for a first time homebuyer), so maybe the number I was told was slightly exaggerated. Or am I just overanalyzing things? I'm starting to get stressed out by all this and rethinking that this was a good idea to do. I thought I knew a lot, and I do, but it's not as much as I should know.

Thanks for any suggestions or comments you have in regards to this.

The purchase price of our house (in Illinois) is $68k and one of the insurance agents I got quotes from (still waiting on the other) gave a quote actual cash value (56,000 being the coverage amount) for $300/year, but when I asked for replacement cost coverage, they did coverage for 201,000 which is $900/year.

From reading through past posts, I am quite sure I want the replacement cost, but do I need 200k in coverage? My realtor said that she pays about $500/year/house for insurance, which is why I think this quote of $900 is out of line.

Thanks for any insight you can give on this being reasonable or not.

I don't like debt, so I'd start paying down the student loans, especially since the rates are so high. Then cash flow your Masters degree and save up earnings from your rental to buy another one.

Just my take on it; we're buying our rentals with cash. It will be slow, but worth it to not have the stress from debt. (I had student loans; worked my tail off to get them paid off in less than three years.)

@Karen Harris  I can understand how you feel.

I'm in a somewhat similar situation; not that my husband's not interested, he thinks he can't do any of the research/buying since he's not a native English speaker nor familiar with this aspect of the culture (never mind that my whole post-college life has been spent outside the USA, so I'm quite clueless about many things). And home ownership/rentals are very different between our two cultures.

We've discussed REI for a few years now and just took the plunge on buying a home that we'll use as a rental. I make sure he knows everything I'm doing as far as communicating with the realtor/insurance agent/etc. I tell him about all the podcasts I listen to; blogs I read and let him know about both the risks and rewards.

Again, I know you said your husband just doesn't seem interested; so just continue talking about what you're doing. But not obsessively. Don't turn REI or BP into swear words. :)

And be patient...by you mentioning that you've been a stay at home mom for many years, I'm guessing you're a few more years into marriage than myself, but I've found that given time, my husband usually comes around to my different ideas/hobbies.

All the best!

I don't think it would be right to evict them because you're personal situation is changing, even if it's possible. I'm not sure if a "no fault eviction" exists, but it would be pretty awful for a person to have to declare that they were evicted even though they were a great tenant (just guessing here; maybe you do have a really good reason to evict, but you didn't mention it).

I'm not a landlord yet, but I could possibly find myself in this situation because of our current one (we're abroad and when we move back we may want to live in one of our rentals). If I can't live with family or rent another place until the current lease is up, I'd offer them a bonus to move out within 30-60 days. something like, if they agree (and sign documentation) they wouldn't owe any more rent.

Just put yourself in their shoes; how would you like a landlord to handle the same situation with you?

I agree with using the money for your own investment and pay "tuition" as you go via the inevitable mistakes you'll make. It probably won't be as much, nor will you need to pay it all at once.

We're closing on our first SFH this month, and I've learned what I know (admittedly, I'm still very much in the learning stage) from the BP podcasts and blogs plus a couple other podcasts and blogs. And now here in the forums.

I feel a lot of courses are composed of info that you can usually get for free if you have the time to look online/books/talking to knowledgeable people. That's the beauty of courses; they've done the work for you...but there's a trade off. I have no idea about the one in question; just my opinion on my experience with some online courses I've bought.