All Forum Posts by: Dana McMahan

I ended up hiring Highland Pest Control. I checked to see who's a member of Louisville homebuilder's association and they were the only remediators there. So far it's been a great experience, they're very professional, not fear mongering, and they've addressed all my concerns. The price is in line with two of the three other bids. (Black Diamond was almost three times as much as the other three.) I'll report back after they're done. 

Ha, actually I just looked back at the first quote, and it was AquaLock!

@Sean Williams Thanks for the info! Black Diamond was one of our quotes. I'll check with Aqua Lock as well.

Hi all, I'm working on my first deal, a buy and hold off Algonquin. We knew going in it had mold in the crawl space and got a remediation quote before making our offer. As a matter of course we're getting three quotes and each one is more than the last. I want to be sure of course that we completely resolve the issue, both with remediation, and making sure the cause is addressed (a tub leak being at least one of the offenders). And I want to be sure the company doing remediation is reputable and following best practices. There are a number of companies certified by the IIRC here in Louisville so besides checking references and talking with some of them, it would be a huge help to hear if any of you have experience with one.
If you can share any mold remediation work you've had done and let me know if you do or don't recommend the company you used (also, how much it cost, for comparison purposes), I'd appreciate it, thank you!

Thank you Erik, will do!

Thank you @Brian Stephens-- that's helpful to hear. I've definitely found most lenders (and insurers for that matter) to be way behind in terms of the sharing economy. 
I don't think this issue was that I gave too much info, it was that the appraiser photographed and noted the presence of the stove on the third floor. It was the appliance in conjunction with an exterior entrance that flagged it. I was frustrated because the person who first took our application knew about the stove from my photos and didn't raise it as a concern before we were weeks into the process. Anyway, lesson learned! Thanks for the info, and I'll definitely reach out if this doesn't end up working out. As of this afternoon we're suddenly clear to close again.

@Justin Ellis @Patrick Kinsella ... It seems they may have found a solution without my having to do that. I'm standing by, but unfortunately in the meantime lost out on a house that came on the market yesterday and is contingent today. Lesson learned here about appliances and accessory units!

And thanks Rob!

Originally posted by @Patrick Kinsella:

Thanks for sharing. That's painful. I'd be interested to know the reason behind this. My only concern would be the fact that the ceiling is so low over the stove. Possible fire hazard, but more-so just a high potential for steam to ruin the paint and such. I wonder if they'd be okay if the stove was just for decoration...

I actually told them the stove is for decoration. Like, literally it's just to be pretty on Instagram 😂. I  doubt they'll buy that though!

So four hours before we were scheduled to close out on a cash-out, lower-ate refi of our Old Louisville home Tuesday, the lender called with some questions about our third floor and now we're in limbo.

Here's the situation: our house is a three story like most others in Old Louisville, with interior and exterior access to the third floor. We run a licensed short term rental on the third floor as well as in our detached carriage house. We applied for the refi with Better.com, as they're one of few lenders who will accept Airbnb income and I explained our somewhat unique arrangement to my first point of contact, including sending her photos by way of this article about our home. The 3rd  floor Airbnb has a kitchenette with this vintage stove I had restored and put in here basically as an Instagram moment -- people almost never cook, but they like to think they will. 

Everything was fine, we were approved, signed the initial closing disclosure ... then wait! Tell us about that third floor again! I've talked with several people now, explaining the vagaries of Victorian architecture, and gone so far as to send them some 1889 blueprints of my house to explain that it's just a big house with a third floor. But apparently now I'm waiting on a dispute that's been filed to say they should make the loan even though Fannie Mae won't lend if there's an appliance on the third floor. The last person I spoke with actually asked me if I could hide the stove, which seems a little sketch.

I don't expect the dispute to work, so we're back to the drawing board, with a goal of lowering our 5.25 rate and ether cashing out an additional 100k or so of the 300k we have in paper equity, or separately doing a HELOC so we can get started on our BRRRR plan. When we went through the refi process last year for a major reno, I ran into endless roadblocks getting financed with this weird house set-up, and finally got a loan with Benchmark here locally. I didn't enjoy working with the person there, so am looking for other lender suggestions. Also, just want to share this as a cautionary tale for anyone else in my part of the city. You can bet when we go to sell that stove won't be in there -- I don't want a buyer to have *their* closing fall through last minute!