All Forum Posts by: Gabe G.

@Peter M.

I just recently bought another primary residence. So this just occurred a few weeks ago.

The area, is ok, good schools. But it's a tract home, so upside is limited, especially in indiana.

I have a former primary residence. 

I am wondering what forum members would do.

The house will likely sell for around 155k

I owe 55k on first, and 50k on second

Market rent, is likely around 1250 a month.

Roof was done recently, it will need a hvac sometime soon.

But other than that its been a low maintenance house.

My mortgage payments with taxes/insurance on a 15yr fix at 3.25 percent is 800 a month.

I am 5 year into the mortgage, and pay down about 400 a month in principal each month.

Thoughts?

I am buying a primary residence and after looking at the property tax record for the property. I saw there was a small 7 foot parallel line easement granted from my property to the neighbors on one side of the house.

I asked the sellers and apparently, a small part of the neighbors driveway when built crossed over into the property i am looking at buying. It was this way for  years, and apparently, when the neighbor went to sell, my sellers, ended up granting him a legal easement for this small sliver of land, so it was all legal.  My question, is what /if any resale value is effected on the property i am looking at buying by this small easement. Would the land be usuable to my lot at all? No not really. its to small and just would be another strip or two to mow.

It doesn't effect the use of my property at all, except, that their drive way is a little closer to my house, then it should of been.

Any thoughts, on how this might effect resale value?

I am in the process of closing on a primary residence through conventional financing.

I have a unsecured line of credit, that i occasionally move money into my main checking account, when I pay contractors for work on rentals etc.  This amount, has been less than 1800 dollars in total deposits over the last 30 days.

My downpayment will be somewhere around 93k for the primary residence.

My question, is will the underwriter look at these funds coming in, even if they are small compared to the overall downpayment and deny the loan? Or if they do see them, will just ask to source it, and if I say it was from an unsecured line of credit, that amount will not be allowed to be used for downpayment.

I normally due this process, but lost sight on how the mortgage company might look at it.

Any opinions?

Thank you

@Jeff Dulla

I did read that, and am waiting a response back from my lender.

So am i interrupting, that if I sign the document indicating the new purchase is going to be occupied. I would be allowed to purchase my new primary residence, before, selling my current one?

Given, I meet the other DTI criteria etc.

Thank you for any help you can give.

I currently have 10 mortgages. 9 rentals. And the one i live in.

Under the current fannie mae rules. Would I be able to buy another house, that I will be occupying, before I sell my current primary residence? I have my current house for sale, but am wondering if fannie rules allow, me to buy and close on a primary residence, without selling my current one first?  Thank you

@Andrew Kerr

Thank you for the response.   I get what you are saying.

With that said, If a tenant took a sledge hammer to the outside of the house, I wouldn't have video to prove it was 100 percent them, however,  I would still deduct it from the security deposit. However, in civil courts the burden is much lower than criminal. Based on all the evidence, I don't how see how any reasonable person, would say that anything other than they caused the fire.  Yes, it could of been much worse.

However, my main concern, is making sure the tenants are smart enough to not to do it again.  I thought this would be common sense,  but I guess not

If they get off scott free, by lieing to me, and not have any consequences for their actions, it reinforces their behavior.

I feel like I will write a letter, indicating the cause of the fire, confirm with them the electrical is fine. And ask them to ensure they are disposing and putting their cigarettes out properly to avoid any future occurrences.

 Unless your state has some weird law, preventing you from proceeding with eviction, due to health issues. You really have no choice.  If you find out the hospital he's at, and maybe drop by and see what his condition is. I know it may sound heartless, but say he goes into a coma, you aren't legally allowed to enter the house and rerent, without a formal eviction process. So you would have no choice but to file for eviction, I would guess.  Then tell the judge the situation. Likely you would have to pay to have his stuff moved to a storage unit, then you could rerent the unit.  You shouldn't have to be losing out on rent, just because someone else, unfortunately had health issues.

But hopefully it does not come to that.

So I got a call, from a tenant on one of my rentals, this week, to tell me the house was on fire. I'm like ugh, ok.  ha.

Tenants said they weren't home, and a neighbor had called the fire department and put it out.

Tenant sent pictures, and for a fire, that damage was not too bad, damaged some vinyl siding etc.

So, obviously since the tenant was not there, I am thinking it must of been some electrical issue. However, both me and my contractor looking at it, It appears the fire starting from outside, and came up against the house, rather, than the electrical, which would start inside. The drywall inside on the other side of the fire, was undamaged.

I also ordered the fire report, from the fire department, that indicated a cigarette, as the likely cause, and noted it's presence, in the area of the fire.

So now I have evidence, my tenant is lieing to me. The evidence, points that, they went to smoke outside of the house(they don't smoke inside), and tossed a cigarette causing the fire, as the first started, right by the front porch.

How would you approach this? Damage, to replace vinyl etc, is likely to be relatively small of 200-300 dollars.

Would you fix it, and then keep the evidence to take out of their security deposit when they choose to move out, or would you confront them with the evidence, and post a bill for the amount of the work?

The tenants keep the house relatively clean, and while they are late on rent alot, they are currently up to date.

Thoughts?

Well, I am starting to run some numbers for 2017.   Over my 10 properties, I had operating expenses of 32.8 percent of gross rents.

I had one property that had over 100 percent of operating expenses, and one that had 15. But it averaged out to 32.8 percent.

Keep in mind , I had less than 1 percent vacancy, which obviously helped things.

Any thoughts?  What type of operating expenses is everyone else seeing for 2017?