All Forum Posts by: Ian Tvardovskaya

Does your PM provide you with work orders? If so, you can always follow up on random work orders every month or two and ensure repairs were made to the tenant's satisfaction. 

Cleveland has a similar problem. In my experience you would need to contact the city and see if the city would let you apply to have the house properly zoned. The city may require utilities be changed and separately metered if they are not.

In general a HELOC will have less fees and a lower interest rate than a line of credit on an investment property.

@Aidan Fox if you found a deal that will work as a brrr and you want to keep the property then use the brrr strategy.

Given that it’s your first deal, I think it’s important you have multiple exist strategies and selling it provides that option.

@Sahleem Lee I would pull the parcel number(a) and check your county records to see how it is zoned and what buildings are on what parcels. A deed is an instrument of conveyance and could have been done right or wrong.

After you know the above you can find an ARV. If these are 3 duplexes then what are duplexes selling for in your area? If this is commercial then what is your cap rate?

@Andrew Reyes plan your rehab with the highest end of any estimate and then add 10% to the total number for additional repairs not foreseen. Rehabs always take longer and cost more than we think.

@Kje Franks first I would take the electric out of your name and tell them they must switch it by x date. Second, I would have a conversation as to why they are not paying their rent. It’s rarely because they don’t like you. Third, is never give anyone keys in the future until the utilities are in there name.

@Patrick Sanders at this point I’d apply for a personal loan and finish the work. After it’s done refinance or sell and pay off the personal loan. You’re half way there don’t give up!

@Alec A. If you are buying rentals for the long run the equity at any one moment is less important than the monthly cash flow numbers behind what you buy. I’d focus on buying a cash flowing property regardless of whether it’s yesterday’s economy, today’s economy, or tomorrow’s economy.

@Thomas Visaggio

Each housing authority is a little different but generally your understanding is correct. Essentially, you are renting the house as a conventional unit and converting it to a voucher unit. However, I wouldn’t recommend it as it creates a couple of complication and potential problems.

1) your HAP contract start date wouldn’t match your lease date, which is an issue for the authorities I work with.

2) here you can only get so many inspections before you have to wait a period of time. If you fail again you may end up in a situation where you can’t enter a HAP contract and then have a tenant that can’t afford the full rent and likely has to move to keep their voucher.

3) if you convert a unit from conventional to voucher you cannot raise the rent if the voucher would pay you more. In your scenario if you only prorate the tenant their portion and not the full contract (lease) rent and the authority found out, then the authority could claim that the rent for the unit is lower than your claiming and redo your HAP contract to a lower amount.

Most authorities have a landlord liaison position or something similar. That person would be the best to ask for your specific authority.