All Forum Posts by: Connor Castillo

Hi all,

For anyone who has student rentals I would love your advice! I have had a lot of success purchasing 5 bedrooms houses next to larger universities and have been able to easily find tenants. However, I just purchased a 5/2.5 perfectly situated next to a larger university in Chattanooga and it has been very hard to find tenants. I am wondering if this is just the wrong time of the year. Really if I could sign a group up for 2025 I would be very happy with that and would just try my best to do month to month until the new school year. 

My question is should I just suck it up until April, or should I drop my rent rates now to get renters. I know if I do not rent to students, we will not get even close to the type of rent we are looking for, but paying the mortgage with no rent is hard on my family and I. 

Thank you!  

Hi All,

We are struggling to find a property manager who services mid term rentals in the Chattanooga market. 

Thanks!

Hi all,

With this interest rate, when should I might try to refinance to lock in a lower rate. The home is in Columbia, SC. With the .5 point cut, I think the rates already dropped in anticipation of this happening, but not sure if anyone has further insight into this?

Thanks!

Hi all,

Pretty much what the title says. I do not have a huge portfolio, so I am looking for someone affordable, but I do not help with this.

Thank you,

Connor 

Hi all,

I hope someone can lend their wisdom for this. We found a great opportunity for a home in an appreciating area, and on paper the numbers work. I sent a low-ball offer, and we went back forth but ended up getting 30K under asking accepted.  The inspection report came back, and it's pretty bad. The worst part is the foundation. We have received two quotes so far, and they are very different. One is about a 11K and the other is about 70K. They have very different types of solutions, but both say all of their work plus the integrity of the foundation is covered under warranty for the life of the home. The guy who quoted 70K said that I should tread lightly because he sees many issues throughout the home potentially. My agent (whom I trust fully heartedly) said that this foundation expert tends to be an alarmist. He said both foundation guys are very reputable and do great work but have different ways of approaching solutions. The seller will not let us extend due diligence and will just put it back on the market and said he could do these repairs for half of the cost of the low bid (~5k). So we are gearing up to ask for the full 11K and to have the expert do the work instead of them. For all of you experienced RE investors out there. Are there enough red flags that I should run for the hills? Also, forgot to mention, this house is a hundred years old! 

Thanks!

Hi All, 

We are closing on an investment property shortly but have had a lot of trouble finding a lender. We have received very high interest rates 8.5% and upwards along with insane amount of closing costs. If anyone has recommendations, I would really appreciate it! 

Hi all,

We moved into a house that had a large utility shed. We redid the inside and it is now a pretty cool miniature house essentially. We wanted to run plumbing to the back so that we could make a livable dwelling and rent it out. Some folks told me that I should try to get everything permitted, but now the city is trying to shut the entire thing down saying only single family is allowed in this city. I am a little bit frustrated, because I do not think anyone would have said anything had I not reached out to the city. I know for a fact other people in this city are leasing out garage suites, basements, etc. Has anyone had to deal with anything like this, can anyone give any advice? 

Thanks!

Hi all,

I received an invoice from my plumber, but need to get official drawings of connecting our back house to our main septic tank. My plumber said he doesn’t do this and that I’ll need to find someone separate. Does anyone have an idea of the who I could hire to make drawings to submit for a permit?


Thank you!

Connor 

Hi All,

When we moved into our house we had an existing structure in our backyard. It has electrical, but no plumbing. We would like to run a grinder pump to our septic and also add a new electrical panel to be able to handle more and then rent this back house out to tenants. 

The two sub contractors we are working with said they wouldn’t bother with permits because it will make it very difficult to get finished.

We aren’t in a huge rush, but also don’t want to bring the government into this and they shut the entire thing down for one reason or another. I’ve spoken to several GC’s that have all said this is doable and safe.

I’m sure everyone is going to push the permit side on this forum, but can anyone make a case for not pulling permits? 

Thanks 

@Kevin Sobilo I am not well verse in financing options, so I am probably over complicating this. I will give you the exact scenario that I am working with. 

I would like to purchase land for 90 K cash. Take out a loan to build 4 homes on the property. Then use a multifamily FHA loan to pay off the loan I used to build the homes to hopefully lock in a better rate. My family and I would live in one of the units in order to be able to do this, and there would be an additional 3 units in order to get the full amount of the FHA loan.

Like I said, I am probably way over thinking this, and this is probably not even possible, but I appreciate any advice.