All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Mullen

Does anyone have experience renting to the LDS church or others that have missionaries? I need to know how to word my lease agreement. They said we should name the church corporation. Normally you would have the tenants information on the lease but in this case the church is paying directly and the missionaries who will live there rotate out every six weeks. So the responsible party for paying rent is not actually occupying the property. The church representative who would sign the lease is their housing coordinator. He said he has a form validating his authority to sign for the church. People I have spoken to think this is a great opportunity to work with them and we would never have problems. I'm just not sure how to edit my lease to make sure we are covered. And if anyone has experience with this, please share any additional advise. I should also mention we just had this duplex built and this is our first experience being landlords. We plan to rent out the other side as well. Thanks!!

We did end up building the duplex. We are a couple weeks out from final inspection. The loan will be about 285k and each side should rent for about 1800. One side’s rent will roughly cover the whole payment. 33k for the lot was definitely a good deal. Zoning did in fact end up being a problem but I was able to overcome it and now the owners of neighboring lots are happy there are more options thanks to me. We still have yet to find out if we will like being landlords. So far this build has been a lot of work on our part. We would not go with the same kind of builder if we did this again. We went with one of the bigger companies that don’t customize much and charge a ton for any upgrades. We kept it simple which is fine for an investment property but we felt powerless and dissatisfied throughout the process unfortunately. I think it will turn out well overall though. Any feedback or advise is always much appreciated. 

I meant to say IS the 433k figure

The land is in a nice, waterfront small town in Washington state. While considered pretty rural it is only about 30 minutes from the largest employer in our area. The property has a small water view as well. Our total payment including taxes and insurance should be about 1850 worst case. Taxes and insurance are just an estimate at this point. We would do a 30 year loan. I believe we would have the tenants pay utilities. 

The zoning is unique which is why several lots in the area are not developed yet and why the cost was low. However I have dug into this and paid to get a determination letter from the county verifying we can in fact build a duplex. There are no environmental issues etc. The lot is only a .25 acre but large enough for the structure and good size yard. 

we are using a builder to complete the duplex up to wall texture, then we are taking over (this is fine with our bank financing). It is the cheapest option we can find that gives us flexibility to save some money finishing it ourselves. Total with an estimate of all costs included isn’t the 433k figure. 

My husband and I are new to investing and are considering building a duplex and need some advise on whether this is a good deal or not. The land purchase price is 33k, total cost to construct including hook ups, excavation etc would end up being about 400k. Each unit would be 3 bed, 2.25 bath and 1600 sq feet. We estimate we could rent each unit for at least $1600/mo. based on comparables. Our total mortgage payment would be kept at $1600/mo or less given the cash amount we would put towards the deal. We plan to occupy one side temporarily, then move out and rent both sides. Does this seem like a good idea??