All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

No.  Terrible deal.  You only have $100/mth cash flow.  That is awful.  On a duplex you should be getting at least $200/side and even that is not enough.  Ideally you'd want one side to pay your note and expenses in case the other side was vacant.  Ideally you'd also want at least 10% cap.  Most investors I sell to won't go less than 12%, many not less than 15%.  

You should only be paying about $60-70k for this deal. Unless your plan in the future was to convert it to a SFH and convert it and sell it for around $250k.

My advice is to walk away.  There are many better deals out there.  

 It's strange that all the windows and doors and interior walls were straight.  Of course we demoed all that anyway.  The floor was about 1-2 inches off though on the left side and we fixed that.  Now I just need to hide the lean on the outside.  

That phone pole in front is leaning way to the right too, which doesn't help.  

I've got letters from the jacking companies saying that they do not recommend jacking up the house and I'm getting an engineer to write a letter saying that the building is structurally sound and not sinking anymore.  But I don't want a buyer to pull up, see it lean, and drive off without going inside.  

The seller took me in through the back door when I first looked at it and when I went out front I only went in the front yard and could not tell it was leaning.  About a week before closing I looked at it from across the street and saw that it was leaning.  Now every time I look at it, it looks like it leans more each day.  

The property is a 100+ year old 4 family.  Everything is flat and straight on the inside, but the outside is leaning to the left.  I've had two people in the business of jacking up houses say that they don't recommend it because the weight of the house will crumble the stone foundation and it will likely damage the bricks.  

The property is three stories tall and about 4000 sqft so I'm not sure shrubs and a flower bed will do it.  I'm thinking more like small trees, but perhaps a landscaper may have some tricks up their sleeve to break up the ground transition like Matt said.     

I have a house I'm rehabbing that is slightly leaning to one side.  It's only noticeable from the outside.   The inside is fine.  But when standing in front of the house you can see it leaning to the left.  Is there anything I can do to hide this?  I'm thinking about planting some mid size trees in the front yard to hide it.  

I can't jack it because I was told that it is too heavy and will likely crush the stone foundation and cause more problems than it will solve.  

I'm looking for advice on how to hide it.  

Hello.  I'm in the STL area too.  

Does anyone have any experience selling town homes with shared back yard? I'm thinking about purchasing a property that would be two town homes and they would share a back yard. They would each be priced about $50k less than a regular SFH in the area would be priced at. Regular SFH is 1,600 sqft at $185k. These town homes would be 1,800 sqft at $135k, but have a shared back yard. Do you think any buyers would be ok with the shared back yard?

Hello Ben, Welcome to STL REI.

Too bad you are not on my buyers list.  You could have paid $20k less for that property on Magnolia.  Seriously, I was offering it for $55k.  And I rehab and sell most of my properties in that area and I don't think anyone would have minded the substation.  However they would have balked about the vacant apartment building across the street. 

If you want better deals in STL, you can join our buyers list at www.jdspropertiesstl.com 

Can anyone give me an guesstimate on what it would cost to replace a load bearing beam in a basement that is 50 feet long. It would be (3) 2x12s and a new 6x6 post that is 8 feet tall every 8 feet. So 6 post, 8 feet tall that also go into ground on concrete 36 inches deep. Not looking for someone to come out, just throw out a ball bark # on here please.