All Forum Posts by: Jared Espindola

@Diane G.

Hi Diane, I grew up in a family of 6 with 2 bathrooms in our house and have rented a place with 1 bathroom &2 roommates (3 of us total). Maybe it's rare in your market, but I can definitely vouch for the possibility of living with 3 people per bathroom.

@Maxwell Ventura Thanks this is definitely helpful - one thing that I've been concerned about, since I'll have my sister with me, is unintentionally moving to a rough part of town. I'll do a little more research on the neighborhoods you mentioned, appreciate the tip!

Hi all, hoping to piggyback on this conversation a little - hope that's okay. 

I'm planning to move with my sister to the San Diego area at the end of the summer. We still have a lot of family in Boston, so are only planning on being out west for a year or two before moving back. I've been considering the option of a long-term/live-in flip while we are out here as an alternative to renting. I have some (admittedly limited) experience in rehab but I'm confident that I would be able to take care of cosmetic updates to add value to a neglected but structurally sound property. Ideally I would like to fix up a place like this and then either move out & hold as a rental or sell & cash out on the sweat equity. I recently spoke with a lender who said with my current cash available for down-payment($40k) income/debt/credit etc. I'd qualify for a mortgage around $575k. 

My impression so far is that this might be feasible in some of the neighborhoods farther out from the downtown/waterfront area. (Example of a property I saw on my morning zillow search today: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1014-Kelton-Rd-San-Diego-CA-92114/17082323_zpid/). Does anyone have any advice or thoughts about this live-in flip strategy in this market/thoughts on what neighborhood would be a realistic option at my price point? Would love for someone to poke holes in my strategy to give me more to consider or any general advice would also be great.

Thanks!

@Wayne Brooks

Thanks Wayne, I didn't fully understand the terms of a RM so appreciate the info on this and on changing brokers.

My family is worried that by leaving the house on the market they will lose their offer and never find another one. If I had a nickel every time I heard the phrase "a bird in the hand..." I could buy the place myself lol.

Thanks for the feedback, I've passed it along to the family.

@Lynnette E.

Thanks Lynette, that's is what the plan is as if now. We're going to counter offer and I'm working on convincing them to hold an open house this weekend. (I'm getting pushback on this because my parents read online somewhere that open houses aren't effective but I don't see how it can hurt)

Appreciate the advice!

@Theresa Harris

Thanks Theresa, agreed it's ultimately their decision. They're historically not great with money so it's fallen on my parents to take care of the situation. The realtor is a friend of a friend of the family so they are reluctant to push back, thanks for the tip on the appraisal I suggested this but the family voted the idea down-didnt want to pay for it. We're meeting with the realtor this weekend and most likely going to counter offer for asking price plus closing costs. Not ideal financially but I gave my 2 cents and the end of the day it's not my call.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi all,

A little background since there is a lot going on here: 

-My parents recently bought a duplex and my grandparents are moving into one side as their house is too large for them to take care of at their age.

-The profits from the sale of my grandparent's house will go towards paying the duplex's mortgage. 

-My parents are currently evicting some inherited tenants from the duplex and the other side is rented to new, hopefully long-term tenants so my grandparents will not be able to move in for several months. 

-My grandparents unfortunately had a reverse mortgage several years ago and currently owe $290k on their house.

The realtor set an asking price of $399k , this is low in my opinion - the house needs a little work but is large (4 br, 2 bath, parlor, dining room, kitchen, laundry room), they have a big backyard and a side yard the size of another lot in a good neighborhood. Other smaller houses in the neighborhood have sold for $450k+. The house went on the market Thursday and today they had a family offer the asking price (minus closing costs which they want my grandparents to pay). Their realtor told them to accept the offer instead of holding an open house or waiting for other offers. She also took awful pictures of the property, listed it as a 3 br and did not mention the laundry room in her listing.

After looking through the realty company's past sales, 90% are at or below asking price and sold within a week of being listed. It looks to me as if their business model is to turn around a large number of sales as quickly as possible. My grandparents are in no rush to sell so this seems like a bad fit. The more money they can get from their sale, the more breathing room my parents have to cover the mortgage of their duplex.

My grandparents are stubborn and want to trust the realtor / sell to this family that has offered asking minus closing costs (they met the family and liked them, want a nice family to move in and "don't want to be greedy"). 

1. I've been told my grandparents have a contract with the realtor so they cannot switch to another realtor. I'm a newbie on here but is this possible? I would think that they could choose to find a new realtor that better matched their interests, especially since the one they have seems lazy and uninterested in getting a fair price for the property.

2. Are there other possible solutions besides my grandparents selling the house? Can they keep their house and rent it out or will is this not allowed with a reverse mortgage?

This is moving faster than I had anticipated and I'm worried my grandparents will be pressured into selling their home for much less than it's worth. I've been trying to do some research on my own but any advice anyone can offer or if someone could help point me in the right direction I  would be really appreciate it.

Thanks!

@Cody Furman Personally I would evict, for all the reasons listed in the multiple responses above.

Have you also considered taking the approach of telling your tenants that you're the property manager and these decisions are made by the owner? It's not lying since you are acting as both property manager and owner, but creating that appearance of separate owner/manager entities may help your relationship with tenants and prevent any backlash against you personally. Food for thought.

Good luck, hope everything works out for the best!