All Forum Posts by: Daniel J Aldrich

max t.  Could you provide me a copy of your short form as well?  I purchased my rental fully rented with good tenants but one of my tenants is closing on their own house soon and i need to start screening tenants

Soooo. I have a question. I am under contract for my first property. It is an older house (1890), and when doing a home inspection, we noticed that the floors had a pitch to them. I also noticed various cracks in some of the rooms. There was a small amount of water in the front of the house basement area which I attributed to negative grading in that area. The basement walls are also spray foamed. Due to the cracks in the sheetrock, and the other issues that came up during the inspection, I brought a friend of mine back to look at the foundation. My friend used a water level, and told me that the front to the back of the house is off by an inch. That doesn't seem to bad to me considering the age of the house. The thing that I am concerned about is that my friend said that I would have to jack the center beam of the house up, put in new footers and 5 new FHA posts to support the house because of the settling. Is this deal something that I should walk away from, or just try to require the sellers to fix prior to closing?

Hi John, the first floor is currently vacant so that is not an issue.  The upstairs is a small 2 bedroom apartment..  the local rents for a 2 bedroom are 600 - 750 with the higher number for apartments twice the size. 

Most tenants around here do pay for their own electric and gas.   Water and sewer is usually included.  

As far as ther downstairs goes, since the downstairs kitchen is decent size, I was looking at walling off the dining room and making a 3rd bedroom.  3 bedroom apartments appear to rent for 750 - 1000 so I am thinking I would sacrifice the dining room for the added value of the extra bedroom.  Or would removing the dining room actual lower my value? 

I don't know.   I still think your cash flow is still really low.  By not putting any money down your cash on cash return should be higher I think too.  Like I said hopefully the experts chime in

I'm just starting out myself, but it looks like you won't really be cashflowing much.  The plus side is you won't be paying to live there.  From what I understand, you should cashflow $100/door minimum so a 4-plex would be $400 month.  Taking into consideration that they are renting for $700.00 month, you are making the money if you account for what you would be "spending".    If you are accounting for the $700 month rent for all 4 apartments though, you are losing money because you are "showing income" for your apartment, and that is a bad deal imo.  Hopefully someone else will answer.

I am planning on splitting the utilities so that I wouldnt have to pay for them.  The upstairs tenant is currently paying $700 month but electric and heat is currently included so I was figuring reducing his rent by $100 and having him take over his part of the utilities after the split.  The owners stated that they wouldn't go below 85300.  

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

I'm looking at a duplex that has been on the market for roughly 3.8 years.  I just found out it's part of an estate which is why they are trying to sell it.  It looks like they replaced the roof in November, and raised the price $20,000 (roughly $15,000 over tax assessment).  Should I lowball an offer for this place, or do you think I would be offending the owners?

Skyler, that question has run through my head multiple times.  I had a friend that does home inspections come and take a look at it.  He was telling me that overall the property (structure) was solid for its age.  I know they just put a new roof on it a few months back so I'm not sure if they were trying to overvalued the place for awhile now and just won't budge on the price.  We will see.

@Christopher.  Thank you for your input.

Skyler, that question has run through my head multiple times.  I had a friend that does home inspections come and take a look at it.  He was telling me that overall the property (structure) was solid for its age.  I know they just put a new roof on it a few months back so I'm not sure if they were trying to overvalued the place for awhile now and just won't budge on the price.  We will see.