All Forum Posts by: Justin Park

@Jake Sklanka agreed! I'll send you a pm 

Yes, I think that in the unlikely event that the building actually burned to the ground, it would work out fine. My RE agent said the city told him they've granted variances in the past for similar situations. And my homeowners' ins said they would be pretty flexible on the rebuild in that situation while obviously following whatever zoning applied. Even if I didnt get a variance from city to do same MFH, I could build a SFH home with the same square footage, same number of bedrooms and separate kitchens and bathrooms, would just have to have common utilities so it's technically a SFH.

I'm more concerned about worst-case scenario planning for things I just don't see. Implications for resale as you pointed out are narrowing of buyer pool to more serious investors willing to seek non-traditional financing. 

Once purchase goes through, I think the buy'n'hold renting wouldn't be affected in any way.

Thank you @JD Martin for the input!

Hi BP, checking in with a question I probably should have asked this forum weeks ago regarding an issue that came up in the appraisal of a two-family university rental I'm under contract on.

Appraiser noted that a zoning clause in this particular area indicated that if the property were to be "totaled" so to speak, it would have to be rebuilt as a single-family home. Despite being a two-family for almost 70 years.

Initial mortgage loan fell through in underwriting because Fannie/Freddie won't touch anything like that, apparently.

Secured a portfolio loan that's actually better rate, but I am hesitant to sign the commitment since I feel like I don't understand all the possible implications.

The lender said she approved the loan because in their mind, a SFH might actually be more valuable in that unlikely event so it didn't affect their willingness to take on the debt.

I intend to buy and hold for at least 10 years, but I can imagine this issue will affect my ability to sell down the road, since a prospective buyer won't be able to get a conventional FHA loan just like I wasn't able to.

This property should cash-flow really well after some rehabbing to the one unit, but I'm realizing this limitation will also make doing any kind of cash-out refi more difficult as well.

Curious if this throws up any red flags for you veterans of the REI world that I, a relative novice, am not seeing. Would this be a dealbreaker for any of you? How would you all handle?

As always, I appreciate any help/advice you can provide! (Even dismissive, salty judgment of me and my query.) ;)

@Account Closed those are some words of wisdom! Definitely can't expect to NEVER have bad tenants--it's just a percentages thing.

I think the trouble last year was I was so busy traveling for work that I kind of took the first applicants that came along, so I was kind of asking for it.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on this. I think this was my first cry for help on BP and I got some great ideas in a very short period of time.

thanks @Tim Jacob. Luckily the location of my rental seems to attract grad students naturally. It's a bit further from campus and in a quiet area, just far enough from the party zone!

Strangely enough, I don't think I've ever had an undergrad apply. Perhaps the landscaping and fresh paint frightens them...

ha! Well the offer didn't bother me! Thank you

Thanks @Pam Storm! I will absolutely check it out. Cozy is just the first one I'd come across when I realized I needed to get more serious about screening, but I'm not married to any solution as-yet. Just think students especially expect to do everything online and I personally prefer it. Do you guys do any rent payment management at all?

@Roy N. that's a very helpful distinction. Will look into that type of attachment to the lease, request the guarantor's contact information and then send them the credit check request directly.

@Nathan Miller thanks again. I think I'll use Cozy to do the basic info application (it's free, after all). And then I'll send separate requests directly to the tenant and guarantor for background and credit checks, respectively. Either through Cozy or mysmartmove or similar after some further research.

@Nathan Miller thanks! Yeah definitely going to require automatic payments this year to avoid the constant following up. Cozy purports to handle this for me in the application process so we'll see how it goes and I'll report back.

How do you run your credit/background checks?

Thanks Ramar. Joking about the drug/blood testing but that's probably right. I may at least follow up on rental references.

I signed up for Cozy. Anyone have any feedback on using that service for credit checks? Wondering how I can have the tenant apply but have the parent do the credit check.