All Forum Posts by: Josh Lang

If you are looking to play around with some data the below website gets updated the 1st of every month with the previous months data. It lags a little behind and might not get you what your looking for but has tons of city data on recent transactions without having to chug away 1 by 1 at the Allegheny county assessment page or drill down into the sites like zillow

https://data.wprdc.org/dataset...

Turns out everything earlier was based on the 2019 taxes as reported by the seller/listing agent in the MLS listing. All of the paperwork and estimates from my agent/bank/title company were based on that listing. In 2020 the city reassessed the property at triple the amount and the seller did not inform his agent so when the final paperwork was done it was completed based on the new amount thus essentially tripping the escrow amounts for taxes the day before closing.

Lesson Learned: double check the tax amounts and calculate everything based on an assessed value equal to your sale price(or more) . Won't make this mistake again

@Greg Scott thanks for the information! sorry i should have been more clear... i was referring to the banks origination costs on the loan not the agents comission... I got some more information :) apparently all of the information prior was based on 2019 taxes. The property got assessed in 2020 and the value almost trippled. I actually noticed myself on the county site that the seller had not yet paid their 2020 taxes and sent a number of emails to my agent and the bank bringing this concern up to which they informed me that the title/closing process would pay this and close out the overdue taxes. This was a few weeks ago so their was some "information" presented to them on my part at least that the taxes were higher in 2020 compared to 2019.... On top of all of this i was just informed that the seller has the property looped into a jumbo loan with some other properties and just informed his agent today that he needs to come to closing with thousands of dollars to pay off that loan (which we presume he does not have). I am in the process of working things out and seeing what we can do but looks like closing wont be happening tomorrow (or at all for that matter) lol 

On the plus side, im learning alot here of what to do and look out for on my own next time around! 

I am closing on a rental property tommorow using a conventional mortgage with a local bank in Pittsburgh. (house - hack scenario ... will be living their for a year and then renting out). My decisions and math regarding whether or not the ROI numbers made sense were based on the disclosure paperwork the Bank had provided. Low and behold i am just now getting the final disclosure paper work (the day before closing!) with the final amount needed on a cashiers check. The total monthly amount has increased by $225 per Month and the total cash to close has increased by $2500. Essentially taking from this from a good ROI to a poor ROI considering the extra $225/month.

Clearly i am very upset and confused at this point, any pointers on what to do from here? Am i within my means the expect the commisions be removed or any adjustments made? 

I am still working on getting in contact with the bank to dig into "why" but in some emails they alluded to issues with the seller agent not being forthcoming on taxes when they quoted the title company earlier on (which is where the increase is coming from ... larger escrow and larger monthly escrow). 

@Michael Wolffs i think i am a bit of an outlier here. I am house-hacking and will be owner-occupied the first year so i was able to take advange of really low rates and low down payment options. I also was able to negotiate a decent amount below asking as the property was on/off the market for a few months with a motivated seller. Using conservative calculations i will be at about a 15% ROI per year after i move out in a year and rent it.

I am closing soon on a property in Pittsburgh. The seller took ownership of the property as-is in 2018 and flipped most of it before covid hit. In the MLS description the seller/agent included information that it has a new roof. On the SD they wrote down that the roof was replaced in 2015 (prior to them owning the property). I obtained an inspection report from the sellers agent (was paid for by some previous buyers who backed out out of the deal due to financing). The inspection report states that the roof is 20+ years old with some damage/patchwork and would benefit from being replaced. My offer was low enough and didnt include my own inspection/contingency so im getting a good enough deal that paying for the roof myself makes sense. Regardless, i am curious if i have any legal recourse here as the MLS description and SD seem to be providing misleading information regarding the roof?

@Michael Wolffs great post! i am curious about this myself as well as I want to stay in the city long term. I am local to Pittsburgh and am closing in Sep on my first rental property in lawrenceville. Most of these areas are rather hard as its almost seems like we are "too late" but from personal experience it is possible to find deals that work. Most of what ive seen locally mimicks what Jesse had stated, people are buy existing places and rehabing them or converting to multi-units. The new multi-family construction that is happening seems to primarily be going up as larger syndications (like the two recent apartment buildings near the 40th street bridge and the countless going up in the Strip). Ive seen some other new construction for 3-4 unit condos but those are all super pricey and targeting a different crowd... Personally im seeing alot of action and updating happening in Garfield and Staton heights. East liberty is super popular right now with my generation (young professionals / 25-30s) and garfield is smack in between East Lib, lawrenceville, and bloomfield. Once the Penn Plaza development project near Penn/Negley finishes i wouldnt be shocked if things start progressing down Penn towards Garfield/Lville. There have been alot of cheaper run down places in garfield popup on the MLS that get snatched up within a few days/weeks in the last few months. Im not as tuned into the off market action but i suspect its happening their as well.... ive also got my eyes on Sharpsburg as a long term bullish area as well. Houses are still on the cheaper end and the breweries/coffee shops/etc.. are starting to get popular there. Its one of the last "flat" areas as well that isnt on the expensive side of things yet which i think will be more attractive compared to living up on top of a hill without easy walking/biking. (like garfield/troy hill). the city is planning on extending the bike trail from Millvale down to Sharpsburg and over the Highland park bridge to East Liberty! Its also in one of the better school districts in the area so it could attract the 20-30s crowd looking to start a family but also be close to the city/action.

I just bought a house in Pittsburgh and am a new local real estate investor in this area. The specific area is a hot area with lots of flips happening over the years and is highly desirable for young professionals such as myself working in the growing tech presence in the city. I noticed when buying my house that the next door house was being gutted/renovated with a TON of trash in the backyard. Putting my "biggerpockets hat" on i thought id try to connect with them in case they were an investor that i could learn from for my future endeavors! In the process of trying to track down the owner on our county website i found out it was bought by an out of state investor for wayyyy more than a non-renovated house should go for. Interestingly enough 5 days before they took ownership (about a year ago now) it was bought by Fortune Forclosure LLC just a few days prior for significantly less. This made me scratch my head so i stumbled upon this thread as well as some of the bbb reviews out their. It looks like this person got caught up in this scam as well. On top of that on our counties code enforcement website i see a number of formal complaints were filed to the city on this property by various neighbors. The city went to inspect numerous times from June-now(august) and nothing seems to have changed. They recently issued a criminal complaint with a formal court order number documented! It sounds like everyone should stay very far away!

If anyone seeing this from out of state got caught up in any Pittsburgh properties related to this guy feel free to DM me. I would be more than happy to help with anything on the ground for you! 

Thanks Elise, great information! Im on the other side of the cemetary in upper lawrenceville just a block off butler and on the closer end to middle-lville. I have central air and all of the common updates, i do not have parking however (there are some empty garages and pads close by that seem to be un-used so i plan on trying to work out a relationship with one of the neighbors while im living there and see if i can pay for access to their extra parking). I essentially looked at the current available rentals and $1700 seemed like a conservative estimate based on what i was seeing for similarly finished non-parking places in upper.

One of the bedrooms has a walk-in and its own attached bath, i have enough free space in one of the other BR's to build a walk-in there as well so i plan on doing that while i live in the house to make it more appealable for a higher rent. 

I plan on self managing to start and will keep you in mind down the road! 

I am closing on my first investment property in the upper Lawrenceville area of Pittsburgh. I was able to get a nice low down conventional mortage and negotiate a good deal under list price. I will be living their with my gf for a year or two and plan on renting it out or AirBnb'ing it afterwards so i can move onto my next property. I did the ROI calculation as a rental unit long term assuming $1700/month and a 20% maintenance/vacancy escrow. Its a recently top-bottom renovated/flipped 3br 2ba so these seem like reasonable assumptions (agree? disagree?). Its working out to about a 15% roi on my downpayment+closing costs. I am curious if anyone has any input on expected ROI's based on your experience with rental properties in the Pittsburgh market? I also did some analysis and have a SouthSide flat's property identified that would be about a 15% return as well for someone with a low owner-occupied downpayment (happy to share this with anyone looking to partner up on it!). I utimately passed on this for the lawrenceville property.