All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I've used a website called "Service Magic" in order to find contractors for certain jobs. Not sure if it's available in all areas, but it lists reviews, so you can see if the contractor's work justifies the price.

Hi Elizabeth-

It may be worth consulting a real estate attorney in order to get the in-law unit correctly permitted. I would try to get the unit permitted before throwing all of your equity away. You could always try calling the department to see if they have any information about how long the process will take. I hope you get to keep it!

I second Robert Leonard's post. If the rates on your loans are extremely high, then by all means, pay them off. If they are reasonable (6% or lower), then consider holding them and investing the money you would use to pay them for a higher returns elsewhere. For instance, I had some very high interest rate private loans when I graduated and some low rate federal loans. I paid the high interest loans in full, but keep paying on the low rate loans, which allowed me to save enough to buy a house and build my credit. Just a thought!

Student loan debt can be daunting! I had plenty of student loan debt from law school, but I managed to pay off the private loans (ridiculous interest rates of 10-12%), and it helped me build my credit. Now I can get a loan no problem due to sterling credit, so there's a silver lining, kind of. Good luck to you- I'm sure you will do well.

Are you purchasing one property? From what I've read, the hassle and expense of an LLC is not "worth it" until you own 3-4 properties. On a legal note, an LLC is meant to protect your personal assets in the event of a judgement BUT you can still be held personally liable if the injury was due to your negligence, so keep that in mind.

Thank you James! I think I'm going to wait a bit, and if it doesn't sell, it will reduce the carrying costs.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Tenant pays water. For arguments sake, let's just reduce the income to 27K would you replace wiring and carry it?

@Michele Fischer -
Thanks for the reply. College is the way to go in this market- they rent at roughly double what regular rentals do.
The old wiring could be a problem- my father is a contractor, so I'm going to have him look at the place, but you never know what's actually behind the walls- old plumbing? Mold? It could get expensive.

Ok, here are the numbers:
List: 265,000
Purchase price: 250,000
20% down is 200,000 @ 5.5% (I'm pre approved)- $1,136/mo
Insurance: $67/mo
Tax: $360/mo
Maintenance: $200/month
Total: $1763/month

Unit one: 985/month (1 bed 1 bath)
Unit two: 1475/month (3 bed 1 bath)
Unit three: 1965/month (4 bed 1 bath)
3100 square feet total

Tenant pays all utilities, heat, trash
These are the rents listed- I have not seen the rent rolls

Thanks for the replies- I appreciate it.