All Forum Posts by: Jessica S.

Hi Helme,

Is this a nice house that you would be happy to live in?   Is this a better house than you would be able to afford if you were just buying a single family home?  If both of those things are true than maybe this is still a good purchase, even if it's not a great investment.

Otherwise, I think you should avoid negative cash flow.  And please remember that your realtor only gets paid if you buy house, and the sooner the better because that means less work for him/her.  Try to remember that they may also have an agenda when they're giving you advice.

 Craigslist still rules the rental market, unfortunately.  You should put your ad up and then just prepare yourself to deal with the annoyance.  

Since you mentioned you've had difficulty finding tenants for both your units, I suspect you may be setting your rents above market rate.    You might want to revisit that because you really shouldn't  be having any problem finding good tenants right now.

Dealing with vacancies is one of the reasons that so many people end up hiring property mgrs.

Why are you marketing to people in pre-foreclosure when you don't have a strategy to actually buy anything?

These are people who are in danger of losing their homes, of being put out in the street.  If you put them under contract and then can't deliver you could be putting them in serious jeopardy.

I think you need to really think about what you're doing here.

 Jay is right that there are cool/hip/trendy neighborhoods everywhere here, but you can no longer buy a duplex in most of them for $280k, unfortunately.   But you can still find something in that price range, just maybe not close in.

The problem that I see with your plan is that it may be difficult to figure out how much you can afford to pay each month for a mortgage without knowing how much you'll be making at your next job.  

Keep in mind that you may end up taking a pay cut.  Our housing prices are lower here, but so are our salaries.

Congratulations on your upcoming purchase.  

Are you planning to do all the work yourself?  If not, your subs can easily pull their own permits.  Otherwise, if you're the homeowner you can get permits to do the work yourself. But keep in mind this can become an issue during closing.  Some loan underwriters don't like to see rehabs done by unlicensed people. 

As far as the actual permits, some of them, such as plumbing, you can get online.  But you'll need to go down to the city with drawings to get permits for the structural stuff you mentioned:  removing walls, adding windows, etc..  The stuff you mentioned is pretty minor so you should be able to get the permits issued the same day.  But there is always a slight possibility that they'll be sent down for "further review," which can take weeks.  The planning staff are usually quite nice to homeowners doing their own work, so maybe don't let them know it's a flip.

The last downturn hit Sandy quite hard.  Lots of people lost their jobs which meant they couldn't pay rent.  

Sandy can be a tough place to self-manage properties as you may already know.  I always dread it when our units there go vacant because of the sad stories of some of the applicants.  A family of six hoping to rent a two bedroom apt, a mentally challenged woman with two small children trying to escape an abusive husband, and a young couple, maybe nineteen or twenty, who were looking for a place they could share with his parents who'd just had their trailer repossessed are some of the people who applied for my most recent vacancy.  This was about eighteen months ago, not during the recession.

Could be worse:

http://vancouversun.com/business/real-estate/vancouver-home-sells-for-1-million-over-asking-price

Aimee, congratulations on getting your offer accepted, that's great!

Your best bet is to negotiate on repairs only, not upgrades.  For example, replacing a broken furnace would be considered a repair, but replacing a dated carpet would be considered an upgrade.

If you present a big repair list filled with small ticket items, you do run the risk of annoying your seller.  Instead, focus on negotiating for large, needed repairs and make sure your budget will be able to absorb paying for the upgrades yourself.

I always prefer to get a credit for the cost of a repair rather than having the seller do the repair prior to close.  I suggest you do the same if that works with your timeline.

@Mike Nuss, sounds great.  I'll buy you a beer 😀

Hi @Robert Laird,

Thanks for tagging me on this one.  The couple who own the space near Alberta are in Costa Rica right now getting married (!)

But I think I can come up with a good Eastside Meeting spot, even if theirs isn't available.  Jon and I are out of town until April 15th.  Would the third week of April be good?  Let me know and I'll get something sorted.