All Forum Posts by: Cody Kauzlarich

Basically, it comes from your checking account. There are two common ways to get around this, finding a hard money lender that will fund 100% of your deal or finding private money to fund the rehab. 

If I were doing this deal, which I recently completed a very similar one by the numbers, I funded the closing/holding costs, and rehab costs. Secured bank financing for the mortgage. If I were estimating 15k for rehab I would want to have at least 30k in the bank completely separate from all other funds dedicated to just this property. It's always good to have a nice sized contingency fund when you're first starting out until you have a more realistic idea of what rehabs will actually cost, how long they will take, what your actual ARV is, and what other holding costs will arise.

My wife and I recently looked at a house listed on HomePath that needs a ton of work. Apparently a daughter or granddaughter moved in to take care of the house after the owner was sent to a nursing home, and shortly after they removed her, they removed 26 live cats along with multiple others.

The house obviously needs a ton of work but my question is that HomePath states that as an owner-occupant you must occupy the house within 60 days of closing. There is no way that's going to be feasible for any buyer. The house needs to be gutted.

So what does HomePath consider occupy? Do we have to have utilities in our name, receiving mail, or is someone going to show up in 60 days and make certain that I have underwear in my dresser drawer?

I would consider waiting out the 20 day First Look period but there are already multiple offers and they are calling for highest and best on Monday after the initial 48 hour list period. 

A few things:

1) "and at this point I think we could easily sell the house for about 150k,maybe 160k if we are lucky." You're never lucky...

2) Are the houses he's looking at in the same area? If so, why doesn't he look at this house for himself? If he doesn't want to consider it then there's an obvious reason why and you should take that into consideration when figuring your ARV.

3) "But regardless of who is closer with their value,surely the extra work will bring in more money right?" Basically, no. Every neighborhood, I'm assuming even in Canada, has a price ceiling. People that can afford 200k homes typically don't want to live amongst those who can only afford 100k houses, or neighborhoods that are ripe with rental properties. This is why its important to understand your area. 

I'm a Flight Paramedic, so at work I'm either possibly available if needed(doing paperwork, equipment checks, etc) or absolutely not(on a flight). I don't have a boss over me so I'm sure its different than most people in an office setting and most of my coworkers either have a part time job or some other interest so I tell everybody. It's lead to deals, tenants, and everybody has a neighbor or cousin who does such and such so its helped build a good list of subs.

Best of all though I'm able to make referrals to my subs and keep them busy with good clientele. We had a heat wave this last week and in 5 days I made 6 referrals to my HVAC Tech. My guys will tend to go the extra mile for me and appreciate the steady stream of business. 

In my picture perfect scenario I would install a large enough system on the duplex to possibly make a small amount of money through the summer in addition to the rent increase. Rather than replacing the electricity bill with the cost of the system, I would increase the rent slightly more than what the current budget billing is to recoup costs and then hopefully sell an amount back to the energy company(in a perfect scenario). 

I think it is something to look into, but I will most likely wait until I'm between tenants.

@Ronald Perich

 I was reading in a different post where you had cited this thread from last year but I am curious if you have anything further to follow up from this.

I am interested in adding solar to a duplex rental that I own. Currently each tenant pays about $85/mo with budget billing. If I add solar I would take over their electricity payment and increase their rent by probably $100/mo. My intention would be to have a system large enough to sell back at least a small amount of electricity and then be collecting the additional rent. I feel that a "green" residence and the ease of making the one payment each month would offset the extra $15 or so a month for the tenant and I would make even more money over just not paying an electric bill. 

There may be a better way to go about this but it is something that I am very interested in. 

I'm curious as to why you didn't use your own agent. Why did you call the listing agent directly and did you visit the property prior to making an offer?

I would run the numbers and make certain the property works for me at that price point. If you don't feel like it will then forfeit your earnest money. I would much rather lose $1000 up front rather than a $100 a month for as long as I own the property

She gave you the information that you need. "Three business days to not execute the lease." To me that equates three business days to arrange for a refund. Or if the money is in the drop box, call your bank first thing Monday morning and have them hold the deposit and just return whatever they gave to you.  

Don't get desperate to get somebody into a vacant unit. Is this how you would have handled the situation if the unit had only been vacant for a week?

@Julie Macd that is what we currently do with our emergency fund. It does work well and is what we would continue to do just with a larger percentage of our income. 

Well, insurance costs me $68 more per year on the truck than it does on my 10 year old Nissan Sentra and I average about right at 19.5 mpg. So, far better than any $3000 truck. And it starts, runs and requires nothing other then routine upkeep. 

My student loans are subsidized stafford loans and are differed interest free for another 8 months. Two months left to complete my BSN and then six months post-grad. I intend to pay them off before a cent of interest has accrued.