All Forum Posts by: Dan Tracy

REI newbie here! Just recently closed on a house that was converted into a 5-plex a while back. It's pretty frickin' old, but that's another story.

One of the units is a pretty bare-bones efficiency unit and I was thinking of knocking down a quick wall to combine it with another unit. This would obviously turn it into a quadplex, which (as I understand) would accomplish a number of things:

-It would be a residential dwelling, so I could refi into a traditional mortgage instead of this commercial loan I'm on now

-my insurance wouldn't be as astronomical; I've ran into tons of problems insuring this place simply because it's technically an "apartment"

-there would be fewer tenants to deal with and fewer headaches

1. Are any of my assumptions incorrect?
2. If/when I make this transition, what do I need to do to get it publicly registered as a quadplex, so I can start enacting all my schemes?

Thanks everyone! I spoke to him and he is truly a great one. @Mike Cumbie he said a similar thing, that he would hate to see me stuck with something that I ended up hating, seller be damned (politely).

Dropped one that we had yet to offer on and looks like we're going through with the other one. Wish me luck, and I wish you all the best as well.

Relative newbie here.

Very close to sealing the deal on two 5-plexes (awaiting inspection on one and getting a verbal agreement in writing). The only problem is the quality of these deals is seeming to crumble before my eyes. They're not separately metered (landlord was paying every penny of utilities), there are a couple things I think would not pass inspection, and I'm feeling more and more skittish about having to use a commercial loan in this current economic climate.

I realized the main thing holding me back from pulling out of these deals is my desire to treat the realtors with respect. My agent in particular has been bending over backwards to help me find a place, even more so because I'm out of state and investing long distance. He's put together offers for several places that ended up getting scooped up. He's overall just a super nice guy and hasn't taken a dime from me, and now that we're this close on closing something I feel like I would be letting him down in a huge way. Same with the listing agent; he's seems to be a very accommodating guy and has let me do walkthroughs via FaceTime since I couldn't be there.

I don't even know how good or bad these deals are anymore, but if I dropped them I feel like I would be letting my hard-working agent down in a big way. What is kosher and what is not in these situations?

@Matthew Swisshelmjust wondering if you got my Colleague Request and PM

You should call them 'propportunities'. I'd buy one just for the play on words.

Hi fellow Nebraskans! Just stumbled across this thread, and I'd love to attend the meetup. Only problem is, I'll be in New York at the time. If possible, I'd love to Skype/FaceTime/Google Hangout for the meeting; I'd just need contact info from one of you.

If someone would be comfortable with this, let me know. Thanks!

I've been thinking about that a lot, and eventually I'd love to get into multi-family buy & hold, but for my first purchase I'd probably end up house hacking.

Three questions:

1. Is buying a single apartment just like buying a single-family house where you run comps and rent it out, or are there different laws for renting out single units of a larger building?

2. What is a co-op apartment building and how does it differ in investment and rent potential from a regular ol' apartment?

3. Where can I find more information about first time homeowner loans?

@Michael G.

Thanks for the response!

Yeah, after tour I'll be headed back to New York, so I'd love to focus my attention there where I'll be living. I'm more interested in any possibility of investing in New York from long distance. It's not like I can't do it after I get back, but I'm very interested and motivated now and I'd prefer to strike while the iron is hot instead of resigning myself to reading a lot of literature and not acting on it.

But the advice is still very much appreciated.

Hi! I'm Dan, and I'm pretty new to BiggerPockets. I've been a member since this summer and have started to listen to the podcast semi-regularly over the last few months. I've read a decent amount of literature, including the e-books on BP, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and HOLD by Chader et al. (which I highly recommend) but I'm looking for some specifics I haven't found.

I'm an actor based out of New York, and I'll be heading out on a national tour in about two weeks. I'll have a reasonable amount of downtime (LONG bus trips) but obviously I'll be far away from the city. I feel like I need to start doing concrete things to further my education and plans for real estate investment, but I'm not sure how much I can do while driving around the country.

Any tips? Any advantages I might have via travel?

Thanks in advance!

@Shakira Bell, looks like you and I are in the same boat! Minus the borough; I'm up in Washington Heights. @Linval T., I know your post wasn't for me but I'm definitely checking out those links.

Thanks to you both!