All Forum Posts by: Igor Messano

Hi everyone,

Has anyone in Philly or surrounding areas had metal interior stair railings (complete rail, spindles) installed recently? Any idea about costs, decent companies or contractors, etc?

Hi everyone,

I have a complex decision I am trying to wrap my head around. I am selling two SFH set to settle in Jan and am trying to decide if 1031 exchange is the best option. My main goal is to have funds for a development deal that I am pending the seller to clear some title issues on the land (this could be 6-8 months now with Covid). It's highly unlikely that I would be able to close on the target property in 180 days. The added benefit here is that I had 2 Helocs on these SFHs that I used to purchase a MF property. I just refinanced that property and have the cash to pay the loans in my account but did not apply it to the HELOCs.

Here are some numbers:

1) 156k in capital gains on the sale of the two SFHs
2) Only 76k in gross proceeds of the sale since I still have the Helocs outstanding
3) 40k estimated capital gains tax

So I am trying to find a way to 1031 out but in a way where I can still quickly pull out the proceeds from the 1031 within the next 6-9 months and leave only the 40k that would have gone to the government invested. Essentially getting the cash I need to develop and instead of giving 40k away, using it to own another property.

Note that the total sales price is 285k so I would need to buy something at least for that. and I know doing so and leaving only 40k invested is not an exact science but if I can come close to that it would still work.  

@Manzell Blakeley

It depends on truly what kind of shape it is. In my experience even when plaster is not crumbling, the walls are usually very uneven and ugly due to decades and decades of patching and painting. Depending on how nice of a condition you are going for it would require too much labor to make it look good so replacing is usually the way.

I have one MF that had old plaster walls with newer electrical installed OVER the walls through metal tubing. We rewired all of the units which required a lot of holes to run wires inside the walls, installed recessed lights, etc and then had a crew come in and laminate all of the walls with 3/8” drywall. Turned out absolutely perfect and didn’t need to remove plaster from 4000+ sqft.

Having a Sheetrock company install comes in very cheap actually. The bigger the job the cheaper the rates. If you were to do the full building it would be very cheap on a per board cost to hang, tape, mud, etc.

Hi everyone,

I am in the beginning stages of pricing the development of a new multi-use property (10 residential, ground floor commercial). I am trying to navigate my way through lending options and was wondering if anyone here has any recommendations for types of lending products.

With this development it looks like the ARV of the property once fully rented will significantly exceed the total cost to build. Our main concern will be ensuring that we are able to at a minimum, get some of our out of pocket costs cashed out. Does anyone know if there are ways to do this without having to finance it and then refinance it like a traditional residential property? Are there any loan products out there that require a 20-25% down payment during the construction phase (higher risk for the lender) but then allows some sort of cash out based on the appraised value of the property during the long-term financing portion?

Almost forgot - this is in Philadelphia where 4th floor rooftop decks have become very popular.

Hey folks,

I have a mixed use property that has two store fronts (1 story) and 4 apartments behind it (3 stories). The 2nd floor is entirely 1 apartment and the front window looks directly onto the roof of the commercial spaces. When I was doing some work up there I noticed that there were some old railings on the side and on top of the window along almost the entire width of the building is an old awning system. Seems like this rooftop was used as a deck in the past.

Does anyone know if it would be very difficult to put that deck back on as far as permitting etc goes? Construction it’s self is relatively straight forward as this would be a floating deck on top of the waterproof membrane. The window also looks like it was converted from a doorway to a window so turning that back should be simple.

I am assuming you have standard language in your lease that states that each tenant is jointly and severally responsible for the lease payments. This means that if a roommate does not pay their share the other roommates are liable. You should send them a note that you are not responsible for mediating the process of a roommate moving out and that they are responsible for the rent. If they choose to not replace the roommate then they are responsible for paying the full lease payment. That alone might change their mind. You can also use the roommate moving out as leverage saying that if you cannot replace the tenant he/she will continue to be responsible until lease end.

If you are essentially renting by the room with separate leases then the tenants have no say on someone moving into the unit. Yes they are being forced to share a home with someone but that is the risk they take when renting by the room and you take as a landlord in having to dealing with roommate conflicts.

Everything above might help you resolving the issue but note that with the current environment this is all more complicated and your recourse for getting rent if they just choose not to comply and not pay is limited at the moment. Be firm bu tread carefully so you dont turn a paying tenant to a non paying tenant out of spite.

@Mark H. Porter

I was afraid it would increase my insurance premium or have some kind of adverse impact for making the claim.

@Mark Fries I have to pay for tree trimming service going forward for a tree that I do not own? I don’t have the option to cut it down completely, why would I be responsible in trimming it?

@John Teachout this is what I was afraid of. It just seems so backwards to me. Specially if I am expected to trim branches over my property line. Why would I need to continually invite expenses to trim a tree that I have no ownership to? If I wanted I could just cut down the tree so I don’t have to worry about it but I am expected to maintain it?