All Forum Posts by: Dan Bryskin

We got something interesting cooking. Can't disclose much yet, but wait till spring. All I am going to say - R60 walls :) thank you, Dan

1. Bank will finance 97% or 95% to about 70% of the property. Smaller down payment usually for owner occupant. For investment property banks will finance 90-70% of the purchase. If you put less then 20% down you will be paying PMI insurance. Down payment comes out of your packet.

2. Property with no loan - you can try to negotiate owner financing, owner takes a place of the bank

3. Once you purchase property with existing loan, your bank will pay sellers bank note.

4. Get prequalified. Start with your bank. They should explain you terms and what not. Process is free. Hope that helps.

@Ralph R. I guess paying trash depends on there are you at. Lover 48 may be different then Alaska :) For example in MPLS we have trash and water billed by the city. We use to pay that on premise if tenant doesn't it gets attached to the property. Then we changed things around, and now instead of paying for it 100% of the time we are taking a chance we will get stuck with it at some point of time. Oh and if trash is not paid city will disconnect the water. And in the suburbs not having a trash service will be a lease violation and will result in eviction - never happened to us.  

You don't want a best house in the bad area. You want a worst house in the really good area. You want your buy to be undervalued.  Taxes seem to be high, at least compared to MN. I Minneapolis I am paying 1100 in taxes on 70k property. Are where special tax assessments? Will seller pay them? I would not pay for garbage.  5k in repairs will replace a door or two, paint & carpet. In the other words seems like house is turn key or very close. That's great, but consider getting a home inspection and / or bring an experienced general contractor or two to look at the property, you don't want to be surprised by discovering place needs a roof and it will cost $10k. All in all doesn't look bad. Thank you, Dan

Look at appliance closely. You will find motor & a couple of coils. One on inside, one on outside connected to the motor, usually on the back of appliance. You can brake interior plastic to expose externals. Avoid cutting the coils / lines / motor and you will be good. I cut plastic with saw / sawzall and metal with angle grinder. Having somebody remove refrigerant is not a bad idea.

Give tenant a checklist. Make them pay or they will call you with every dumbest thing ... Here is how we do it: we give tenants a checklist with the lease. It list every item in the house, room per room, down to outlet covers. List includes prices. Replacing a blind - $45 and so on. After a week tenant is supposed to turn it in with broken things marked on it. If something broke and tenant didn't mark it down as broken - most likely they will pay for it. Good example: they call because outlet doesn't work. Needles to say, my electrification gets where  asap, finds a tripped circuit breaker. One flip of the finger just costed them $75. They will check breakers next time before they will call me. We use same list once tenant moves out to determine the damages. Good luck :)

I'd pay a pro to take a better pics. Proper angle / lens / post processing will make small place appear much bigger, brighter, more appealing.