All Forum Posts by: Deborah R.

I am in my mid-30s and plan to continue to buy and hold for decades.  Right now we have a rental built in 1954 and another built in 2004.  Am I wrong to be wary of buying a house that is 70 years old?  Or do I just not understand construction?   Looking for my next purchase now, and most are built in the 1950s for the monthly rental price I'm shooting for.  Help me with my thought process.   TIA

We bought our 2nd rental a few months back. Shortly after moving in, tenant noticed a wet spot on the carpet. Turned out that the master shower was leaking. Plumber had to cut open some dry wall to fix it.  Repairing the dry wall in the bathroom will take several visits from our repairman - allowing drying time.  The tenant went out of town and wanted us to fix it while she was gone but wanted us to stay at the house the whole time to monitor repairman.  This was our first time using him, but he's well known in this community and several people referred us to him.  Since I had to work today, that meant my husband had to spend two hours keeping kids occupied in our minivan while the man did all of the repair work.  This seems insane to me.  I reread our lease agreement.  It doesn't spell out this situation- only that the tenant must grant access for repairs to be done.  What should I do next time?  What do you do?   This is a nice rental; quite turnkey when we bought it.  Almost $2k per month for rent.  Single family home.  Thanks!!  

@Mark Durham seller is currently renting it out but doesn’t want to keep it.

So, I'm interested in buying a property; seller seems interested but would like to close in the next 3 months.  I would need a total of more than $90k to close with 25% down conventional mortgage. Our cash reserves are around $20k right now after using much of them up for another property.  I could refinance a property and get at least $40k out.  We have higher income; so, we should be able to set aside $5-10k between now and then.  But that still doesn't get me all the way to the amount needed.  

Any other ideas you can think of?   Would there be a way to sign a contract to buy... I rent the right to lease until we actually close?  

Otherwise, I'm just going to tell the seller that I could buy in the spring after I have more time to rebuild cash reserves.   

Thanks for your time and advice!   

Hi, how should I find the best mortgage? We’re under contract for an investment property in Florida and are currently preapproved through a bank in the Midwest that was referred to us. Now that we have an actual deal though, what should I do to be sure we get the best interest rate? It will be a conventional 20% down loan.

Thanks!

Debby

I'm considering buying a duplex that currently has a long-standing section 8 tenant in one side. I'd like to renovate the whole property if I bought it. Could I just not renew the lease?  How hard is it to get rid of a section 8 tenant.  Current owner reports no problems with this tenant, I'd just like to improve the property to raise rent.  I looked somewhat briefly online and didn't easily find the needed answer.  Thanks!

Thanks for the advice, Kevin!  

Does this seem reasonable?  The house is less than 10 years old; so, I feel like I could hold it for decades.  Also, the realtor thought I could get $100-$200 more each month than what I calculated it as.  I wanted to be on the safe side. 

Thanks so much for your time! 

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I'm in Tampa.  Now it's heading directly for us pretty much.  Didn't expect that.  Should I try to get the windows of my rental boarded up?  I already talked to the tenants - they're going to family elsewhere to ride out the storm.  We do have a few pieces of plywood and could cover some of the windows - but not all.  Logistically it's challenging since we don't have much time nor a truck to transport plywood to the house.  So, should we go the trouble of trying to cover some of their windows?  

Thanks!

@Rick S.  I've been using Rentprep which doesn't provide that much detail.  Where would you recommend I get more detail like that?  Do you have a site you use?