All Forum Posts by: Kamran Rahman

This is very helpful! Thank you. I shot an email to my HOA. I agree with what you said about the HOA. I will assume the worst.

I closed on a sub-ground condo less than a month ago. Last week I found a damp area in one of the bedroom closets. I’m anticipating that it may be due to a crack in the complex’s foundation, since it is localized to a single area, and is adjacent to the foundation. 

I’m planning for the worst case scenario expense wise, so I wanted to see if anyone has been able to find ways to write off these sorts of repairs for their owner-occupied units?

I am renting out rooms in my place, and want to use a digital lock for the front door instead of physical keys. It seems like it will be easier to manage versus managing physical keys, especially as room tenants come and go. 

Does anyone have any recommendations for digital locks? Would love to hear recommendations for and against specific models of digital locks. Appreciate it!

So I’m a tech guy from Seattle, and I’ve been exploring interesting real estate datasets. 

One of those datasets was one I found on Zillow’s website, particularly around breakeven points (measured in years) on buying homes around the U.S.  Their original report and map report can be found here:

https://bit.ly/2Fb3uxo

One challenge I had was that while I could see breakeven points on a U.S. map, I still couldn’t understand the statistic at a higher level. So what I did was created a distribution chart that allows me to see everything plotted against a bee swarm plot. Through this, I was able to see interesting anomalies and patterns around cities that seem to have faster break-even points versus slower ones. 

The report is live and available here:

https://bit.ly/2DsjZnf

I would love to hear BPs thoughts on the data, as well any additional questions they may have. 

Hope you all find this interesting!

depends on the situation. I bought my first place with significantly more student loans than yourself 5 years ago. 

You just got to do the numbers and see if a particular property can work for you (e.g. buying with a big down payment, house hacking, etc)

Greg,

That makes sense. I have no problem with accepting section 8 tenants. My confusion is, are section 8 vouchers just cash or a check from a housing authority entity? I am trying to understand how I convert a submitted voucher into actual funds in my bank account. 

I’ve got a potential tenant who is interested, and mentioned they would be paying in section 8 vouchers. 

I’m not really sure where to start. For those who have tried to process section 8 tenants, what did that process and experience look like for you?

I am getting ready to rent out some rooms. Can BP share reccs of a comprehensive service I can use for running background checks for applicants?

Wow. Glad I created this thread. This will be more of a “rooming house”. I personally don’t spend a lot of time at home because I travel a lot, but I see you’re point around offering month-to-month options with notice-to-vacate clauses. Have you done this particular scenario before?

I am looking to rent out only rooms in a property of mine, so not the entire place. 

Please share your favorite sites to find tenants/roommates, and why. 

I’m aware of sites like Craigslist, and Facebook marketplace, but would love to hear from people about their preferences and experiences