All Forum Posts by: Karen S.

I think a cover on the pool...physically covering it...is the only way to make sure kids don't get in. It is expensive, but would make a good selling point to people that also have kids that are buying the house. That's what I would do if I owned a pool. Maybe a less expensive solution would be for owners to alarm the door leading to the pool? You just don't get very far, I think, trying to convince kids to stay in line who have no idea of the concept of "behaving". Sometimes they actually do not even understand what you mean by "stay with us", they have never done it before!

hi Delmas

I like your house! It is very appealing. There are many good options here, including selling the house if a buyer happens to come along quickly enough. I am most interested in Vincent T's suggestions, especially "rent to own" with you holding the note. this way, two families' dreams can come true, even if the banks don't believe in you. For our business, we were able to get the HELOC from our local credit union. They did access our credit score, so maybe this is a future option for you, rather than a right now option. Detroit survives..I believe it's on the way up. Look what is happening in Buffalo (my home town). Good luck to you.

@Gen SteMarie thank you very much for the concrete example of how to do this. I really like your idea of including a purchase agreement in the letter.

Haha @Jeff Copeland. I agree completely...will get that agreement out. I know I read it and I can't believe I would have signed anything indefinite. I am 99% sure it was for that property only, but could have been for a short period of time. It's been more than 6 months and I think it's over but will make sure before making a move. Looking for a title company now! I have a couple of properties in my sights..but as so many here at BP say...letting myself be held back by fear. planning to overcome that fear in the next couple months.

Thank you so much everyone for your comments. We are seasoned buyers and in fact, we are pretty good at inspection. The low cost of the properties we are interested in, together with the desire to make offers on off market properties, led us to this strategy. Some custom software we developed is helping us identify the prospects (typing for dollars, I guess). We are ok at negotiation-- possessing the most important skill which is the willingness to walk away. I think we are going to give the non attorney non agent off market real estate purchase a try. off to locate a good title company...I guess i will be lurking through BP!

one additional question..we have in the past had a buyer's agency agreement with a realtor. I don't think it was an indefinite agreement, I will have to look at the paperwork. How long are those agreements typically written for, BP friends?

Thanks for your reply, @Antoine Martel. Yes, we are thinking of doing the purchase with an attorney. We don't have a particular attorney in mind yet and are trying to learn more about how people go this route before we pick one. Can you describe your process a little bit? thanks

It's really messy and it's hard work. The benefit of keeping your 1920s trim is that it is the correct dimensions for the design of the house. However, having done this with three houses, using various approaches, I can recommend the following: 

1) Paint the trim that is not too badly chipped. You might need to use oil based paint if you're going over oil based paint. Don't sand without lead protection (read this as DIY should not sand paint). 

2) For the trim that is chipped, see if you can live without it..for example, do you need picture rail molding? Or do you need baseboards and quarter round, can the quarter round be removed? Our 1920s trim boards were attached with 3 inch long finish nails...serious work removing them!

3) Then finally replace the chipped pieces, using the same size wood as the rest of the house. It's expensive, but it looks so much better on those old houses, especially if you're doing this for yourself. Typically you can replace 5 inch wide simple moulding around a window with a plain 1x5 (really 3/4 x 4 1/2) dimensional poplar board (no knots). If you pull that board a little bit out to the side of the window, it will appear to actually be 5 inches wide. 

Good luck, I know your pain...

Hello everyone.

We have a great realtor that we work with, but we are also interested in making an offer for a house that is not currently on the MLS or up for sale even. I know that people do this everyday, but I wanted to hear your advice for making a cash offer on a property (in Pennsylvania, especially) using a real estate attorney or other approach. We know the neighborhoods pretty well and have information from the county websites as well as some experience, so we would like to try this approach on our next purchase. WDYT BP?

I would add the names to the lease with a signed lease addendum if you can, especially for the brother who seems to be a good tenant. But if section 8 will not allow that, then you have a situation. I am sorry, but I don't really understand section 8 which is one reason we don't offer it. We have had to evict and it would have been much much worse if there were extraneous people in the unit. One time we had a problem with extraneous people (parents) that we didn't realize were living there. It wasn't so much the potential need to evict-- they were great tenants-- but our elderly sewer system couldn't hack it.

Greenfield is very very close to Oakland. I wish i had invested in Greenfield earlier. Now, for our strategy (BRRR), we can't really afford it. You can really even walk to Oakland from Greenfield on a nice day.