All Forum Posts by: Jason Turgeon

Every state writes contracts for real estate differently. But somewhere in that stack of stuff you signed there should be something with some dates on it and some language that says what happens if you can't obtain financing. Usually the financing date is several days/weeks prior to closing. 

Best course of action is to call a real estate lawyer and see what your options are. Don't take advice from strangers on the internet on this kind of legal matter.

Call several local credit unions and see what they can offer. 

Or just pay cash and refinance out when you are done with the renovation. But even then, call local credit unions.

Have you tried just going to the office that handles these things and asking if they can help? I have to assume that they can search by name/year of death and get a short list of names, then you can go from there.

http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/vital-records/office/

14" deep is really not that big for a sink, which is why you are struggling to find anything that fits. Ikea makes a super narrow 11" deep vanity for NYC studio apartments. You are essentially asking for something like that, but 6' long.

Just get over the idea of having a 6' long counter top with 2 sinks and buy something that fits the space properly. I don't know anyone who ever uses both sinks in a double vanity, anyway. It's just a status symbol. And don't spend $1500 on it unless you are building a very high end house with a very high end selling price.

Doesn't sound like a bad deal, but only you can decide if $370/month before repairs and capex and incidentials is worth it for the headaches of self managing. I like my deals to have enough meat on them to support professional property management and have some left over to set aside for maintenance and capex and vacancy and still put a few bucks in my pocket. But if you know the neighborhood and are confident in your numbers and management ability there's nothing wrong with this deal. Do this 20 or so more times and you have a nice $100k/year income stream. 

I wouldn't touch a long-term loan at 7%, though. Hopefully you can do better. Check with some of the local credit unions, or some of the lenders here on BP. If you know you are going to unload it in a few years you could also try for an interest only 5/1 ARM or something, which would boost your cashflow but leave you with no equity paydown.

@Cassandra Brown to hell with trends. Don't paint that woodwork! Get better lighting if you want it brighter inside.

Lead paint is tricky. Do you still have time in your inspection period to hire a lead inspector and find out the extent of the problem? The best advice is to delead your unit, according to the laws in your state. If you can't afford to do a full delead, do everything you can to minimize your children's exposure to lead. It's the dust and the small paint chips that are the real culprit, so deleaders worry about friction surfaces (painted doors and windows, painted trim that gets banged up, staircases, etc.) much more than they do about walls that just sit there. Of course, if you drill a bunch of holes in your wall and create dust, that is just as bad. Or if the paint on the walls is peeling and coming off, that's also bad. But if your house doesn't have painted doors, windows, windowsills, staircases, and trim, the main areas of concern for lead paint dust are minimized. 

We did not plan on having a kid, so we didn't delead our unit. Then we had a kid (oops!). We had replacement windows, so that isn't a concern. But the painted windowsills, doors, trim, and so on are all suspect (I never tested for lead, since given the age of the house we're certain to find it). We have blocked off his access to the windowsills with bookcases and other furniture so he can't gnaw on them. We try to be as clean as possible, including using a HEPA vac and wet mopping to capture any tiny lead dust particles. So the main areas of concern are 3 interior doors and a set of pocket doors, plus some baseboard. I have considered replacing the beautiful solid doors and trim and ripping out the pocket doors, but am hoping I don't have to since it will not only be expensive and disruptive but also detract from the historic nature of the house. Right now his blood level is 4 on whatever scale they use. Under 5 is considered safe. If it gets up to 10 the state will require us to delead the unit, at a cost of ~$10-20k. If it were to reach 45, he would need medical treatment to bring the levels back down. 

Obviously, we keep a close eye on it and I am keeping money put aside for deleading just in case until he is out of the danger zone (he's 21 months now). Deleading would mean we would have to move out of the house temporarily (including removing all the furniture in the impacted rooms) so I am really trying to avoid it - if you are at all considering deleading, do it before you move in! 

Besides the safety of your own children, you also need to worry about the safety of your tenants. You cannot legally discriminate against families with small children, so there is always the concern that you may need to make the house lead safe if a family moves in (or your tenants have a child). You should take the EPA 8-hour lead safe renovation course to learn the ins and outs if you will be doing work on the house yourself. 

EPA maintains a huge amount of info on lead paint and lists of approved deleading firms, so you can start there. A lot of lead work is done at the state level. South Dakota seems to be pretty hands off, so you might want to look at how other states do it. Rhode Island has a fairly common sense approach to the issue and lots of information for landlords on lead mitigation techniques that they consider acceptable besides the full removal or encapsulation of all lead paint.

What are the benefits of having a real estate license?

1. You can legally work as a real estate agent and make commissions when you are involved in a sale or rental
2. You can join your local MLS (for an ongoing fee) and get access to a better source of data for your local market than Zillow, etc. (although that data advantage is shrinking as the big national players get more aggressive)
3. Especially when you are just getting started, it can lend you some credibility
4. If you choose the brokerage you join carefully, you may be in a position to learn a lot from your team

Aside from these, there aren't many benefits. It's certainly not essential to being an investor, and it does come with added costs and obligations. But if you're young and hungry, it can be a good way to get started.

In answer to your other questions:

I heard you get money from every deal you do with a real estate license, even if I buy a house?  If you are buying a house for yourself and the house has been listed with another agent and the listing includes a split to the buyer's agent, then yes. You are the agent procuring sale, and you get your portion of the commission. At least in my state - things may be different where you are and you should confirm with your broker.

Will I be able to get hired as an agent even if I'm only 18? Real estate sales operates on an antiquated model that can be quite exploitative to new agents. Some things to know:

• You don't get "hired," you join a brokerage as an independent agent who works entirely on commission. The broker allows you to work under him/her, and in return they get to charge you a huge array of ongoing fees and take a portion of your commissions. Be very careful who you choose to work under, as these fees and commission splits can be downright usurious, and very rarely do you get the kind of support you are promised.
• Because you make money for the broker through ongoing fees and they also take a portion of any commission you make, brokers will approach every new agent who gets a license from the state and try to recruit them. So yes, you will get "hired" regardless of your age, because your broker will make money on you even if you never sell a house. Choose your broker wisely. 
• Just because you sign up with a broker doesn't guarantee you'll ever get a check. Your age may work against you when you are trying to sign up clients. But there are lots of stories of successful young agents out there. @David Greene has likely hired more than a few people your age. You will need to be focused, hard working, and patient, but if you really want to be a successful real estate agent you can do it even at a young age.
  

Good luck!

What does your lease say about dogs and noise? Start there and proceed accordingly.

I love old properties, and I am a preservationist at heart. My own house is an 1845 Greek Revival. But man, historic renovations are expensive and having a HARB or similar body will add a lot of time and expense to your property. You can make money on old houses, but you need to be prepared for a different level of expense than you are used to with cheap 50's and later construction.

These boards do serve a purpose but be prepared to have every single thing you do to the exterior of the house reviewed, questioned, and approved. No cheap vinyl replacement windows, no vinyl siding, no cost-effective pressure treated exterior decks, no hanging a ductless mini split off the front of the house, etc., etc. As mentioned above, get to know your local board and their rules and make sure you know what you are in for before you close the deal.

In general, they only have jurisdiction over the exteriors but they definitely can get involved in paint color, trim, siding, doors, windows, etc., etc.  And if you are buying an old gem in a historic district, you are crazy if you want to rip out or change any of the historic interior details even if you are allowed to. Those details are what makes the place more valuable to sell in the future, and many tenants also are willing to pay a premium to live in a nicely restored place with period details.

I wouldn't advise anyone to own a historic property if they don't love and treasure these old gems, inside and out. If your goal is to do a cheap renovation with big box materials, don't buy this place. 

Fair enough, although that makes it a little bit harder to quickly analyze deals in various markets around the country. I've only evaluated one self storage deal, in a 3rd-tier market with only one other true competitor. Both of them had high vacancies and high management costs so I ended up passing, but I think there was a deal there for the right investor.