All Forum Posts by: Jim D.

If you are selling it as-is anyway, why do you have a preference whether a realtor, investor, etc. buys it instead of an owner-occupant who fixes it up? Are you thinking that the "owner-occupant handyman" you describe would give you a higher price?

It's never been a problem for me. I had one group of renters decline to rent the place once they found out I lived in the other unit, but I took that as a good thing because I figured maybe they wanted somewhere to party. 

Oh no, that's terrible. I suppose the first thing you need to do is take photos of everything you think may be important to prove the seller was hiding something. Second, you obviously need to figure out where the water is coming from, and whether it's a one-time event or a source that would clearly be recurring. If it's a recurring source that the previous owner clearly would have encountered, you should have a pretty good case.

I don't know what the next steps are legally speaking, so hopefully someone else can chime in.

I think Brent brings up fair points if you really value flexibility. I bought my first house a single dude 4 years ago and have since gotten married and moved to a different state for my wife's job. But that doesn't mean I regret the purchases... far from it. It's not that big a deal to hire a good manager while I'm gone, and let them keep growing. I'm going to have to move again in 3 years... if I waited until I was really "settled" to start investing, I would have missed out on at least 5-7 years of returns for each house.

In buy and hold investing, time is of the essence. Buy well and buy soon.

Can you look on AirBNB and see what comparable units go for in your area? You might also be able to contact those owners and see if they're willing to share how many nights a year they are rented.

Every time I've run the numbers for my units, it makes far more sense to rent them on year leases rather than short-term rentals. You just have to run the total numbers for the year:

Year-long lease at $1200/month: $14,400 in revenue
Nighly rentals at $100/night, rented for 120 days per year: $12,000 in revenue

For me to do short term, the revenue would have to be much higher because it's so much more wear and tear on the unit, as well as pain in the butt coordinating with the people, showing them the unit, cleaning up after they leave, etc. But again, if the property is in a very attractive destination and you can get high nightly rent and fill lots of days, it can beat a year-long lease.

 
In your situation, this would probably be the correct answer. Lots of fees on a full refinance.

How much do you expect the $10-15k of upgrading to increase the sale price of your home?

All depends on the location. Is it near a university, ski resort, canyon, or other attraction? 

I've never owned a short-term rental, but from what I can see they can do very well if they're near something that brings in a lot of short-term visitors. If they're in the middle of a suburb, not so much.

I think if you generally know what you're doing and are doing at least 2-3 deals a year, it can make sense to get your license. If you're doing less than that, may not be worth the hassle/cost.

I think in this case it's up to you. They aren't putting any money into the deal, but are taking some risk by allowing their credit to be used in the loan. The answer is just whatever you can offer them to make it attractive enough.

I had a similar offer made to me last month (co-sign on a loan for 1-2 years until they could re-finance and get me off the loan). They offered to pay me around $3k up front and $100/month. Not bad for not having to do anything. I passed since I didn't know them personally, but perhaps your friends would accept a similar deal since they trust you.

Hint: for house hacking, it's all about the price per bedroom. A 4 bedroom usually only costs slightly more than 3, and will bring in a lot more rent income while you're hacking.