All Forum Posts by: Josh Dillingham

What is the strangest dream you've ever had related to Real Estate?

I have a vacant apartment I am currently renovating. I've been there most days for the past couple weeks. Last night I had a dream that I showed up to the apartment and heard some noise inside. I went in and saw that someone had moved some things in, a couch, a TV mounted on the wall. I go into one of the bedrooms and see a mother with two young children. There is a bed set up, the children are playing on the floor and the mother is decorating the walls with large colorful "ABC" stickers. I say "What are you doing?" The woman response" we live here now." I tell her she doesn't live here but she repeats that she does. I immediately think to call the police to report and intruder but first I ask the woman how long she's been there. She says they have been there for 6 weeks, which I knew was a lie because I had just been there the day before but this lie was concerning because in Vermont if you have occupied a unit for more than 28 days you are considered a tenant and I was concerned the police wouldn't remove her and tell me I had to go through an eviction process. I told the lady I was just here yesterday and she wasn't here so I know she hadn't been there six weeks. She started reaching into her bag for what I assumed would be a falsified lease agreement. Then I woke up.

Anybody else have similar stress related RE dreams? Another common one for me is to go into a unit and find a big water leak and not be able to find the shut off.

I have a three unit building in which I occupy a three bedroom unit and rent out a 2 bedroom unit and a 1 bedroom unit. I am planning on allocating the expenses as 50% rental vs. 50% personal based on square footage. Is this what is required or could I allocate 33.3% as personal and 66.6% as rental because 2 of the three units are rented, even though my unit is bigger than the other two?

@Eric Roloson cash offer with a 2 week close.

@Crystal Wilson

$200 refundable deposit. $25 per pet per month

I showed a 3 bedroom apartment today to a couple with 4 children. During the showing the kids were slamming doors and stomping around loudly. The number of kids is not an issue ( and I obviously can't deny them because they have 4 kids) I have two other apartments in the building with families that have 3 or 4 kids, and prefer to rent to families as opposed to roomates, but these kids seemed abnormally loud and potentially destructive without much correction from the parents. This is a second floor apartment and I'm concerned this would be a nightmare for my downstairs tenants. Would denying them because their kids are loud be seen as the same as denying them for having 4 kids, which is illegal?

@Jennifer Fernéz I bought my first rental at 30 and have 9 units now at 33. I earn about $90,000 in gross rents and $25,000 after expenses. I work full time and manage my own properties and do my own repairs so I can keep saving for more properties. My goal is to have 20 units and make $50k per year after expenses which would give me the ability to stop working full time if I wanted to.

@James Peluso I think forcing appre iation starts with buying a property for a discount that needs repairs/improvements to bring it up to the standards of it's comps. Do you already own the property or are you looking for a property?

@Logan Vierstra I would try owner financing with a two year ballin payment to give you time to refinance.

@Lori Greene

I bought a SFR cash for 15k, put $7k In to repairs, cash-out refi for 70k, which put 50k in my pocket which I used for a down payment for a 5 unit I got for 170k that appraised at 240k and cash flows $1,200 a month. I never would have been able to come up with the down payment for the 5 unit without the refi of the SFR, so it is a very powerful strategy.

As far as cash out vs. HELOC, the way I see it a HELOC makes sense if you are doing a flip or if the HELOC allows you to pay cash for the rental property because you'll be able to pay off the HELOC quickly once you refi the rental property or sell the flip and you'll be able to avoid the extra expense of doing a refi. But a Cash out refi makes sense if the amount will only be enough for a down payment on the next property because once you buy the new property it would be difficult to do a Cash out refi on the new property right away in order to get the money you will need to pay off your HELOC, which will be at a higher interest rate than if you had done the cash out in the first place.

Hi BP, I'm having an issue with my boiler and thought I would ask here before calling the repair guy. I have a 5 zone boiler, system 2000. 4 zones are working perfectly, one zone has no heat at all. The thermostat is working and the boiler is calling for heat. The outgoing pipe from the boiler gets hot for about 20 feet, then it is cold by the time the pipe makes a 90 degree vertical turn and rises from the basement to the second floor. I've checked all valves which are all open and the zone valve seems to be functioning correctly. I've attempted to bleed air out of the pipe by using the spigot located on the return pipe for that zone right at the boiler. Water runs for about 10 seconds then the flow slows to a trickle. Any ideas?