All Forum Posts by: Armando Ramirez

Fyi the process is called an ejectment procedure and its through the court of common pleas vs an eviction (previous lease agreement and/or exchange of cash for rent) which is handled in municipal court. Your agreement of sale should have a contingency to negotiate cash for keys before closing. If you cant make a deal w the squatter within a certain time you can terminate the aos. 

Revival indeed....They revamped the whole site a few months ago and made the Pro Plan free. I dont know if this was only for Bright/MLS or GPAR specifically, but its free for me!

It now has a much better interface to download leads using the different screening funcitions. Some properties do come with phone numbers and emails but the accuracy of the contact information is very low. You can download as csv or mailing labels. 

The CMA feature is also very quick and much simpler than RPR CMAs. Valuation sources are diverse: Zillow, Redfin, Black Knight, First American.

I have gotten some contacts on the phone. I'll let you know how mailings go very soon!

The change that went into effect on Oct 1 is that in order to obtain an EZ Permit for work on an RSA or RM zoned property, the property must be owner-occupied, supposedly proven w drivers license matching address. I doubt they will allow ownership through an LLC w the member living on the property, which would be the only way to skirt this. I think they will mainly require the property be owned by an individual vs an LLC.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Phila.

Purchase price: $65,000
Cash invested: $60,000

Property listed for sale for $65,000 on June 21.
Contract signed on June 25; All cash purchase, no contingencies, escalation clause up to $70,000.
Closing July 26 or sooner if possible.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Cashflow

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS...I jumped on it quickly and made a strong offer with escalation clause to beat any competing offers.

How did you finance this deal?

Hard money

How did you add value to the deal?

I know the area and know that legally zoned multi families have become scarce due to a blanket rezoning of parts of this neighborhood.

What was the outcome?

Currently in contract, awaiting title, taking contractor bids.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned more in the past 6 months by missing out on 3 excellent deals than ever before in my pre-investing educational journey.
This area is rapidly appreciating and sellers rarely sell in this particular pocket of Olde Kensington. I learned a lesson by missing an opportunity to buy 2532 N Hancock for $95k the block over from this property. I took too long on my due diligence and the sellers lost confidence in me and decided to list the property on MLS. 2532 N Hancock sold for $137k.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I represented myself as the buyer 😎

Hey Bartosz,

Alooooooooooot of properties in Philly are illegally used in ways different from what they are zoned for. 

The 3 most common zoning uses you will find are RSA=single family, RM=multi-family and CMX=commercial.

Properties zoned for a single family home (RSA5) get chopped up into "rooms", not even apartments, and then marketed to buyers as a "multi-family" or "duplex/triplex". If a property is legally zoned as RM (multi-family) you still have to get a zoning permit for the exact units you would like. For example, a home is zoned for multi-fam but was used as a single family for decades. If you buy it, you must apply for the zoning permit to convert the property to its intended use as a 2-3 unit.

A variance is required when you want to convert the property to a completely different use, i.e. commercial (CMX) to single family, or single family to multi-fam. This is when you have to meet the community organization, discuss your project with the neighbors and hope the zoning approval board allows the variance.

Definitely read up on the city's zoning guide that @Yuriy Skripnichenko linked to.

ditto....Anthony Gallasso: www.LeadSafeResources.com

Step 1: Go to: https://property.phila.gov

This page will give you most of the vital data, in particular the "Market Value" of 2538 Cecil B https://property.phila.gov/?p=324036000

As you can see, it was re-assessed from $27,700 in 2018 to $150,000 in 2019.

Use this page to also verify zoning in the grey box to the right. Large areas of Philly were rezoned to RSA (single family) and  props are still being marketed as multi-family, RM. This is multi-family, 1380 sqft, 3 story (grey house, orange door on google street view)...could be a nice  2-3 unit rental!

Step 2: Click on the "View Tax Balance" button. This will take you to the Tax Revenue site and you can look up the actual property tax amount (I like the old site): https://legacy.phila.gov/revenue/realestatetax/

Property taxes went from $445 to $2099 with the reassessment. 

Step 3: https://atlas.phila.gov is a bit more comprehensive and has most of this info central with the links to their main city pages (i.e. deeds, permits, etc).

Always go to the source for city/municipal info.

So they started a sophisticated grow operation a few weeks after your rep saw the basement? A whiff of marijuana makes the tenants large scale suppliers of weed? You people are hilarious!

To give you some parictical advice, the strong Philadlphia market has attracted sellers with occupied properties. They try to pass off “long time, good paying” tenants as a bonus to buying the property. I would only buy an occupied property if: 1-tenant lease was executed legally with valid rental license, rental suitability cert, written lease etc. 2-tenant is in good standing, payments up to date, preferably paying with bill pay/Venmo/cash app; get proof of payments 3-property in good condition. 

Anything else is risking a lot of headaches of trying to convince tenants to pay you rent or most likely having to evict them. Let the current owner remove the problem tenants they brought in in the first place. 

Www.Coreinspectiongroup.com

i read your post and don't need to read the 5 pages of everyone else comments to tell you this: 

1-fire this property manager. He tripled his estimate without warning you. He sounds like the typical investor/developer who also has a property management company and tries to monetize his management clients by marking up jobs, exaggerating turnover repairs to take the security deposit etc

2-Next property manager, put a clause in your agreement in big bold letters "Owners permission required for any expenses over $XXX" (usually $250-500 or 10% of rent)

If you have any questions feel free to ask me.

Good Luck