All Forum Posts by: Colleen F.

Joey - are you investing in worcester/middlesex? to hold or flip?

James- I used to live in my last historic restored home but had to move. I so miss that place.

@ Mike and It is good to see MA people here. I am right next to worcester. No property there though.

Narragansett has the noise ordinance, which is problematic in some ways but good in others. I won't post the whole thing but here are the highlights.

(a) It shall be a public nuisance to conduct a gathering of five or more persons on any private property in a manner which constitutes a substantial disturbance of the quiet enjoyment of private or public property in a significant segment of a neighborhood, as a result of conduct constituting a violation of law.
.... When the police department intervenes at a gathering which constitutes a nuisance under this article, the premises ... shall be posted with a notice stating that the intervention of the police has been necessitated ... the date of the police intervention, and that any subsequent event within the period set forth below on the same premises, which necessitates police intervention, shall result in the joint and several liability of any guests causing the public nuisance, or any persons who own or are residents of the property at which the public nuisance occurred.... Any notice posted between September 1 and May 31 of any year shall remain posted until May 31. Any notice posted between June 1 and August 31 of any year shall remain posted until August 31.

(b) The residents and owner of such property shall be jointly responsible for ensuring that such notice is not removed or defaced and it shall be a Code violation carrying a penalty of a minimum, mandatory $100.00 fine in addition to any other penalties which may be due ....such notice is posted in order to achieve both the security of the notice and its prominent display.

Anyway you get an Orange sticker and there are increasing fines and if the tenant doesn't pay you need to. Oh and you can't remove the sticker for months. Only had it happen once but finding tenants for a stickered house is problematic. Only happened once. Its hard to screen college students.

I think yours is worse as it is a bit vague. I would like to see what others are dealing with.

If you want to decrease occupancy advertise it as a two bedroom with an office or something along those lines. If you do that it will change who comes to look at it. This may have the outcome you are looking for.

First , I love historic properties and have renovated some. However they are not an easy fix. It is the structural stuff that can blow the budget. If it is on the MLS your offer should include inspections and you may want a specific structural and of course pest inspection given the age of the house. If significant issues are found take a contractor and get an idea of the real cost to fix.

Now on the topic of the national register of historic buildings be careful. Unless you intend to restore wood windows and other specific elements you might want to skip this. I think if you look into it there is no real increase in value based on registering and you may be forced into more costly historically correct restorations. For example you can restore old windows (this is as costly as replacement) or you can be forced to use historically accurate reproductions, also costly. If you are renovating to sell this can cut into your profit and any sweat equity you put in. I like to do things right but I am practical on this point and I want the final decision to be mine as much as possible. Also any expansion of the property may not be considered acceptable for a historic registered house.

Capitol gains well, if you flip you pay the tax. You need to talk to a tax guy about your specific situation. I do wish you luck there is nothing like bringing an old house back.

We just purchased a multifamily and it was our first experience having to get a commercial loan. I was unhappy with the initiation fee but learned it was usual in commercial. They wanted 25% of purchase price down, 1.5 % initiation fee, 20 yr amort/5 yr fixed at 4.6% interest rate. We are in RI. We only have 3 property loans right now. Not sure if having more in the property is good or bad but it was what the bank insisted on. In your situation it would not hurt to look around.

Thanks all for the welcome. I have been learning from everyone here already so I am hoping that I have some lessons learned that I can pass on.

In any case it is worth not doing it yourself. I always found taping and mudding tedious and there are people who are good at it and those who are not so make sure you hire someone with real experience. we got a 2 k quote on a small 3 br in NJ so I have to run those formulas to see if it was a good quote.

Who is paying heat? And what were the repairs? Those would be my questions. Utilities you can probably verify, are those last 3 units driving the utility cost in some way that is aviodable. Other then that the cleaning/maintenence is hard to judge, Colorado, is it plowing? that cost seems high.

We own property 1.5 hours away and sometimes it can be a pain, refrigerator (brand new) dies or you get a big storm and the power goes out and its not their house so they don't think about the pipes freezing. We have a property manager so I would run the numbers with a property manager. Even with that some of the problems are yours because no one will care like you do. So consider , how flexible can you be if you need to go to the property and how much will you want to go. If you can get responsible tenants and you can let go of some of the stuff, you can do it.