All Forum Posts by: Dustin J Woods

I modified a house with a walk out basement from Single Family into 2 units. My plan is to live in the smaller downstairs unit. I finished the upstairs renovations and now have renters in it, but the down stairs is not finished. It needs a lot of work. I've been trying to be accommodating about the process but the tent is not being cooperative so now my contractor pulled the plug because he is afraid of this Quit Enjoyment law. When I say the tenant isn't cooperative, I mean that I asked if we could work until 9 pm and her response was I want in writing what hours you plan to be working. That didn't answer my question. This is just one example of how my conversations go with them. Ugh! So frustrating. Before they even signed a lease we had several discussions about me living there. Should I just leave it until the lease is up? If I push the issue could they really sue me or something? What's the worst case scenario?

My possible tenant is the top dog at a small local restaurant that doesn't have an hr dept. to verify employment so I need to speak with his boss, the owner. How do I figure out if the guy is really the owner and not some random person? 

Downtown Ogden is getting a lot of redevelopment. There are a bunch of new apt complexes in the downtown area. 

Is it legal to ask for tax returns/W-2 when screening Tenants?

 Do you say PM lives onsite or Owner lives onsite?

So I bought my 1st property. Its a Multi-level with a walk-out basement. I'm making the downstairs into an apartment for myself and then renting out the remaining 3 bed 1.5 bath  upstairs. 

I'm not sure at what point to tell potential tenants that I will be living in the downstairs.

Do I put it in my advertisement or wait until right before the back-ground check?

When do I tell potential tenants that I will be living in a downstairs apartment?

Did you run it through the Bigger Pockets Calculator yet?

So when I use the BiggerPockets buy-and-hold calculator tool, it gives me a 25% cash on cash value. However would it doesn't take into consideration is that the monthly payment costs for 2-3 yrs for fixing up the place that I will have to put on a credit card and those monthly payments are not factored in to the calculator even though the lump sump of the rehab costs are. So when you don't calculate the credit card payments it has a positive cash flow of just under $400 per month. Now if you factor in that I'll probably spend 12 to 15000 finishing the basement, that's an $800 credit card payment until I can get a HELOC to pay off the credit cards.

FYI I should be able to get $1,200 a month rent for the 3 bedroom 1.25 bath upstairs and around $900 for the one-bedroom one-bathroom basement apartment when it is finished.

Bonus to the property is that the furnace, water heater and AC unit is only a year old.

So I guess my biggest question is...

Is it worth it if I have to wait a year or two before I'm cash flow positive?

After putting extra money in it to finish the basement, I'd be paying about 25k over market value, but it would cash flow me $400 per month. Would you do the deal? 

Is it ever okay to pay full market or over for a Single Family Home, if you never intend to sell it? For instance, you can finish the basement and rent it out as a separate unit because it has a separate entrance already.