All Forum Posts by: James W.

 You are correct on 1 and 2. Neither are my fault, but nonetheless - you are correct.

Luckily for me, the property is worth more than 60k so I'm not terribly concerned about losing money on the investment at this time... I'm just trying to determine how I want to proceed.

Thanks for the feedback. :)

 The mold is actually caused by the tenant leaving their clothes in a place that they knew water collects when there is heavy rain. 

It's not my job to clean their mess.

This particular duplex is almost 100 years old and fixing the foundation and leaks may end up costing more than just razing the place and rebuilding.

With that said... I'm well aware that I could be sued for anything, by anyone, at any time. 

My question is do I have a legal obligation to fix it? If so, I may want to just dump the property - there are plenty of people out there that are far more capable than I to handle something like this.

Thanks for the comment :)

 Thank you for the constructive feedback Linda :)

Before anyone starts judging (not that I care :P)... I just purchased this one along with 10 others, and these are some of the problems that were handed to me. I've had the properties for about a month now and I've already fixed more in that time than the last owners did in 5 years.

I've still got an easy $100,000 worth of issues to decide what to do with.

MY kneejerk reaction is to fix everything right, but that's not always possible or the right way to be an investor.

Continue, please...

Hey BP!

Say you have a duplex that you paid $60k for.

Rental income is $1000/month. ($500 upper / $500 lower), property taxes ~2500, insurance ~$600, no major expenses on my end, utilities all in tenants name.

Basement has water issues and foundation issues. Lower tenant is a slob, has clothes piled and molding. Upper tenant is smoking in the unit, also a slob.

Both rents are paid on time, they have no intention of moving.

Do you do anything to fix the water issue, considering the tenants don't care? Do I have a legal obligation to advise them maybe it's not a good idea to live that way? Do I have a legal obligation to fix the water issue?

The property obviously cash flows, so I'm torn between just ignoring it and keep collecting the rent... speaking up and giving them a pep talk (which is a waste of my time)... or putting it up on the market and letting some other heartless bastard worry about it.

Yep. Paying cash, FSBO.

Realtor friend partnering on this one with me works for a realty that also owns a title company so those fees are going to be extremely low as well.

IF we have to list it, the realtor fees that would go to the company will be 2%, which we would split out of the profit.

Thank you for the feedback sir! 

There are no realtor fees. 

Since I'm replying here, I'll mention that the property is appraised higher than we thought - 130k

Thanks everyone!

"Wholetail" - I love it :)

Everyone seems to be missing the part about how I only want to put money into repairs if we have to do so in order to get a buyer approved for an FHA or VA loan.

I probably posted this in the wrong section, since everyone here is looking at putting money into a home to increase value. 

- The house is worth 120k as-is and we can get it for 85k (this is the reason to do the deal). 

- We believe we can get it to pass an inspection (if needed) for 10k or less.

- We believe it won't take long to find a buyer.

@Bryan C. the inspection is a good point, thank you for that. I'll order an appraisal before continuing.

@Vincent Crane can you give me a link to a 70% rule discussion?

@Christopher B. I understand your assumptions, and they are valid. Thank you for your feedback.

Again, I was only looking for comments on the numbers. Perhaps I should have posted this in a lending section, because that's really all I'm doing - putting up X with the expectation of receiving Y returned in Z time. 

Is my % of return too low for that amount of capital and time? (That should have been my original question. I'm learning! :D )