All Forum Posts by: Heather Schmidtknecht

I have never purchased a property with tenants in place. I have read on BP that I should have a signed estoppel agreement, in addition to a copy of the lease.  I have made an offer on a property with tenants in place until May 2021.  Does the estoppel agreement vary by state at all?  The property of interest is in Minnesota.

I’m looking at a small duplex for sale that is about 130 years old... when I viewed the property, the basement floor was wet, despite the fact that it had not rained for over a week. The house is built against a bluff (hill), and the realtor made a comment that the wall looked wet near where the floor was wet. I have been told anecdotally by others that it is not uncommon for basements in this town to be wet, and that some even have running springs (what?!?) in the basement! So my question is... is a wet basement ever no big deal??

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Winona.

Purchase price: $119,000
Cash invested: $5,000

3 bedroom, 1 bathroom SFR
Rents for $1200/month + tenant pays all utilities and is responsible for lawn care and snow removal.

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

I have two other 3 bedroom houses in the same area and I have realized that there is good demand by families looking for this type of rental in my area.

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

I found this deal by putting the following post on Facebook:

"Tired of being a landlord? I am interested in buying a 3-bedroom home that is or can be rental certified."

How did you finance this deal?

I refinanced my other two rentals for a better interest rate & to get rid of PMI -- and I refinanced them in a way that they are now viewed as a portfolio, and I can easily utilize the equity available by cross-collateralizing to partially/totally fund a downpayment & avoid PMI. Thus, I only needed $5k of my own money to do this deal -- I could have used my equity to go into this deal with zero of my own money, but then I wouldn't have much equity available for another deal in the near future.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

This was my first purchase of a FSBO -- honestly, I was glad that I had the experience of working with a realtor for the first two purchases, as I kind of knew the steps in the process and what to expect along the way.

@Tyron White — I have contacted landlords that are advertising (on Facebook) a house that looks nice to rent, and I just let them know via PM that I’m not looking to rent but was wondering seeing if they were interested in selling this or any other rental properties. I have received just as many “yes” answers as I have “no” answers and none seemed annoyed that I asked.

I have also put a post on Facebook saying something like this: “Tired of being a landlord? I’m looking to buy 2-3 bedroom houses in ____ City.” I also had luck finding a few leads in this manner and one of those leads turned into a deal that I closed on 5/29/20!

@Pat L. — aside from the asbestos (seller is offering to take care of any asbestos wrap visible on the outside of this monster), was the reconfiguring of the ventilation for the new furnace an expensive process?

I had the privilege of seeing an octopus furnace for the first time today... what do I need to know about this beast? Should I swim as fast as I can from this deal?

@Patrick Froehlich, I started age 46-ish, and I’ve closed three deals in two years (summer 2018, summer 2019, summer 2020) — LOVE it!!

My biggest advice is to really think through what you want out of this venture. My philosophy is that I will not rent out anything I would not be willing to have my family live in... so I have bought three nice 3 bed/1-2 bath single-family rentals and am enjoying my journey so far!

Good luck!!

I'm looking at a small 2bed/1bath SFR that needs interior rehab... the big things, like roof, furnace, windows are done. Seller is asking $85k — interior rehab would be roughly $10k.

If this property needed no interior rehab, it would be worth $85k. I do not think the seller has a mortgage, and he made a comment that he is looking to downsize his portfolio by selling one rental a year.

I’m thinking about asking him if he’d be willing to do seller-financing, but I wanted to reach out here to compile a list of advantages on his end to do so. Any ideas on how to structure this deal are appreciated!!

What do I need to know about renting to a family whose head of household is in the U.S. on a work visa from Mexico?

I am using the "lease package" for Minnesota offered in the TOOLS tab of BP.com -- the lease refers to information & disclsoures on lead-based paint that need to be provided to the tenant with the lease, and I was able to find those documents online.  However, the lease also refers to a radon disclosure, and I was not able to find that online (not sure if that would be specific to MN or national, but I cannot seem to find either).  Does anyone have a radon disclosure that they use?