All Forum Posts by: Jorge Jimenez

@Kimberly Jones I've been looking at Bywater and Algiers Point, but I can't believe the prices. Is the lakeside of St. Claude a decent place these days? When I was living there in the 90's I would've been scared to walk down St. Claude after dark.

@Kimberly Jones What part of the city were you in? And, if you don't mind me asking, what was your occupancy rate?

@Kimberly Jones I am. Or at least I used to be. I grew up there, but I've been in the Northeast for almost twenty years now. Most of my immediate family lives there though, and I'm trying to move back. Things have changed a lot though, especially since Katrina.

What about New Orleans? I'm looking at buying a duplex there and living in one side while renting the other out. I've been tossing around the idea of a STR. I know they recently changed the laws there regarding STR's but if I read them correctly, it sounds like you just need to apply for a license and as long as you live on the property, and it's not in the French Quarter, you can rent out an STR for an unlimited amount of time.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice. As of right now, I believe I'm going to hold on to it. I plan on living in it until at least the end of the school year, I'll rehab it during that time, then get it rented out after I move to New Orleans.

Any thoughts on how long I should wait/if I should wait to refinance after I relocate if I intend on using the equity I have in the condo to finance another deal? Should I use the equity? I know this is sort of putting the cart before the horse, but I'm just curious.

@Filipe Pereira - Right now I'm leaning towards buying my brother's half out, fixing it up while I'm here, and then renting it out. I'll definitely keep you in mind.

@Account Closed - A lot of things happened with my duplex. The two biggest cardinal sins I committed though were: paying too much for it, and being in a rush to find tenants and pretty much accepting the first people who came along. There were lots of other mistakes that I made along the way, but I'm older and wiser now as a result.

My brother and I are both carpenters by trade so we could definitely do most of the work ourselves, and we know guys who can help with things we don't do.

I haven't had it appraised, but I'd say in it's current condition the condo is worth about $100k. Comps in the area are going for around $150k. So a little bit of work could go a long way.

@Account Closed - I like your last thought on that. I've been leaning towards staying here for the next six months, fixing the place up during that time, and then either renting it out (using the equity to possibly finance another deal somewhere else) or selling it for a profit. My only real issue with that is, depending on where I move to, I would be managing the property from possibly across the country.

I'll have to look into what a 1031 exchange is, that's the first time that I can recall hearing of it.

I'm in an interesting situation. My grandmother recently passed away leaving her condo in Windsor, CT to my brother and myself. I used to own a two-family house in Windsor Locks, CT, but my kids and I moved in with my grandmother a few years ago because I lost my job and she needed help. I ended up walking away from the two-family because it was my first venture into real estate and I made a lot of mistakes, and learned a lot of very valuable lessons the hard way. I really want to get back into the rental market, but I also really want to move to be closer to the rest of my family (they all live in New Orleans, LA). 

So, right now I have this condo which my attorney says I can stay in for at least a few months as long as I keep paying the home equity loan my grandmother owed (about $9k total), the condo fee, etc... My brother doesn't want the place. It's a little run down, but not excessively so mostly just needs some upgrades (carpet, paint...) 

Basically, I have two options: 

A) I can sell it with my brother. We would pay off all of my grandmother's debts and split what's left. I would take my half and go invest it somewhere else. With this option there's the issue of finding a place to live (I don't plan on moving out of state until the end of the school year - so around June).

B) I can buy my brother's half out. I'm not sure of the legality of how we pay off her debts this way, but I'm sure the lawyer knows how to take care of that. With this option, I could stay here as long as I like, the bank basically gets a 50% down payment, and I could move when I want and keep the condo and rent it out later, or sell it later. The biggest issue with this option is rehabbing the place and whether or not we should do that before or after I buy my brother out. (I'm not trying to screw him out of any money, but I'm not trying to get screwed either.)

I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of information that would be helpful, but it's my first post so... fire away. I just want to get some opinions. What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thanks.