All Forum Posts by: Katherine S.

I posted before seeing your after photos...well done!

I recently got an estimate to paint half the cabinets you have there....$1000.  To do it right, so that it doesn't chip and peel, you have to do a lot of prep work.  

If the laminate is in reasonably good condition, I'd keep it.  If you want an inexpensive way to perk it up, change the hardware.  I bought stainless pulls and handles on Amazon for about half the price of the big box stores, no sales tax and free shipping.

Tiling the back splash is a good idea, because I think it would be easier to keep clean than a painted wall.  

Here's our before and almost finished after of a kitchen we refreshed:

@Susan K.

I will check on that asap.  What would the legal hotline be able to do in this situation?

@Hugo Alves  @Susan K.

This company is both the property manager and the listing broker.  We get no response from the listing agent, the broker, the property manager  or the broker's wife.  I think even the receptionist would like to ignore answering the phone.  Believe me, I have gone up the food chain as far as I can.  No of them is ever "in the office", answers his phone or returns his messages.  I guess it's not just us...there are dozens of 1-star ratings on them, citing the same kinds of concerns.

The seller holds this property in his IRA, and although I know his name, I don't know where he lives and Google tells me that there are several people by the same name. I do have the name and address of the Trust company that holds his IRA, although I don't know what good that information would do me.

The broker is not responding either.  We've tried several times.  He has never returned our calls.

I've been looking at a couple off market packages of SFHs for our portfolio. In this latest one, the seller picked a price for each of 5 houses that looks to be about retail market pricing. He's shopping it off market before deciding if he'll list them on the MLS.

I know what numbers would work for me (and it's not anywhere near retail prices) but as a general rule, is there a typical discount off of retail that's expected in an off market deal?  It doesn't sound like the buyer is distressed or in a hurry.  I'm trying to figure out if other bidders are being more aggressive than I am.

We're under contract for a SFH which we want to put into our rental portfolio.

The listing agent/property management company appears to be completely incompetent and has brought the entire process to a grinding halt through their inaction and disorganization.  They are also totally unresponsive, and we have tried to reach everyone there.

What can I do to close this deal?

@Jeff V. I am so sorry! I did not notice the age of your original post. I too am trying to figure out the accounting aspect, including capex. Have you read "Profit First"? That may be a good method for me.

@Jeff V. 

I don't understand how you will use an Escrow for Vacancy account.  Vacancy isn't an expense, it's a lack of revenue.

Hubby and I have had our eye on a property that is in our ideal location for our retirement, but is unsuitable for me to live in because of my wheelchair.  It's been on and off the market for a couple years, and they've just dropped the price again.  

There is also an adjacent vacant lot that we tried to buy last year, but discovered it would require a very expensive foundation.  That seller refused to adjust their price to reflect the unexpected costs, so we walked.

We've started talking about possibly purchasing the property with the house and renting it out for a few years before knocking it down and building our personal residence.  Hopefully, by the time we did that, we could come to an agreement with the owner of the vacant lot and combine the two parcels.  

Is it even possible to do something like this?  Legally, tax wise, mortgage wise?  Is there a better way?  (We can't buy it outright and build right now because we've jumped into the rental portfolio business.)