All Forum Posts by: Johann Jells

Wow, is Aimloan really as good as it looks? If it is, I'm biting. I've been waiting 5 weeks for my f'd up local bank BCB to give me a GFE on a refi they hold the note on, after dealing with f'd up PNC and their refusal to correct an absurdly defective appraisal (sq ft under by 20%). What a change to see all the info you need right there!

I don't know how things work in FL, but if you were in NJ, I would say you need "the right attorney", someone with longtime connections to the local permitting authority, this should not be unresolvable. I had a big buildings dept problem (complete BS actually), $6k+ in fines and rising, a $2000 "retainer" to the right lawyer made it vanish. One of the partners in the firm was made a city judge last year, go figure.

I also have one with a local bank on a commercial property, but the rate is 6.5 last I checked. We really only use it as a "cheaper than credit card" bridge loan if we're low on cash. Most properties here are higher than the $150k limit on the line, so we gain little with the ability to make a cash offer using it.

I agree the question revolves around what you want your life to look like. I buy and hold. I live in an urban multifamily that throws off ~40k in income, besides living free in a place that would rent for $3000+. Including 2 other properties I have 12 rentals. So I spend time at maintenance, but it's not a full time gig.

The way I look at these investments: if you buy a place for 25% down that just pays it's own way over a 15 yr mortgage (debt service, maintenance, everything) at year 15 you've made 9.4% on your money even if the property didn't appreciate at all and the rents didn't go up. 9.4% is very high for relatively low risk return, Bernie Madoff only promised 10%! However we pay for that with high participation. But rents always go up, and values usually do too, values here are about back up to late 2005 levels according to Zillow.

I don't view RE as a living, or a fast money scam like some newbys seem to, but as a secure retirement, since my other freelance business does very little for me in that way.

Real Formica(tm) on plywood substrate is what you see serviceable in those 40 year old kitchens, not the home center thin laminate on particle board, which inevitably gets wet and self destructs. I'm with Cody on granite tiles, although I'm not sure about the numbers if you have to pay a contractor rather than DIY. To look good it needs to be a precision job. You can do amazing things with a good tile saw and a set of diamond buffs for a drill. A recent post of mine about cabinets has a pic of a tile top.

Be extremely careful buying front loaders, even new. The Frigidaire-whirlpool models are notorious for bearing seals going, and the "spider" casting that hold the drum corroding out within 4 years, resulting in a totalled machine, as repair is nearly the cost of replacement. I have a LG stacker, I simply would not buy a domestic model anymore.

Regular white top loaders can be had on Craigslist for far less than repairing one. I put those in the basements of my multifamilies, though physically moving them is getting intimidating as I decay.

Ibrahim, this is the most useful of what I found http://www.lsnj.org/pdfs/tenantsrightslsnjorg.pdf

Thanks. I did find some guides on the subject, most from the POV of the tenant fighting eviction! Not only do they have to have the money at the hearing, but they are supposed to commence the withholding with a notice to the landlord of what they're doing and why.

I wasn't going to play hardball with this lowlife but he started it. Today I'm going to give him notice of termination of his current M-M and a new lease for $100 more (what the appraiser said it should rent for) along with a requirement that he post 1.5 months security, as I currently have none. He'd need $5550 by March 1st to keep playing.

This tenant told me in mid December "I don't have it". I filed the papers and have a court date for 2/25. I just had my 1st contact with the tenant in 6 weeks, and he's claiming now he hasn't paid because of my "poor maintenance". I thought the door was closed on this kind of crap, that to "rent strike" you had to put it in escrow or they'd throw your argument out. Anyone know the law on this in NJ?

This thread would be much more informative if people would include the GRM of the described properties. Just the rents mean nothing if you don't know what the place cost.

By the standard of this thread we invest in b-c areas, even though we pay $80-90k per unit in multis, that rent $1000-1300, I can't imagine buying a home for under $50k, never mind under $30k. But we believe the area will be the next one to gentrify (our 1st property in 97 did VERY well in that regard), and we rent to young educated people priced out of that kind of space in better areas.