All Forum Posts by: Kathy C.

Waterproof Luxury Vinyl planks are the best rental flooring. The only other option I like is the wood look tiles. 

That area is incredibly restrictive. You can rent a room out while actively living there, you can also rent it out for 30 days or longer as a full house. You'll have to check if they limit total number of rentals per year. They may have restrictions on how many people per bedroom. I'm not sure as they passed the rule several years ago now.

I decided to not invest just based on the saturation of the rental market. It was just a race to the bottom on rental pricing. It just wasn't worth it. My investments are a few hours from there. Have you looked at Coastal areas up north or in nicer areas like Hilton Head island in the south?

Be aware that some of these condo buildings will not allow guests to use the facilities, this includes pools. I came across this several times while looking. I don't remember the numbers (Maybe 30% down?) , but when I looked at Condotels it was nearly impossible to find a lender. It depended on the building and how many owner occupied units they had. Most needed to be cash.   Looking at vacancy rates and rental rates made it not appealing. Have you looked at houses?

You may need to pay off the cards in order to get approval for a mortgage. That's completely dependent on your income, credit score, etc.   It may end up affecting your rates and cost you more per month on your loan. What does a home in your area go for? Will you be able to afford any minor/major renovations? Do you have money set aside for closing costs? It seems like you two are very capable of paying debt and saving quickly! Best of luck with your goals. 

Looking at possibly buying a home to live in as a primary residence. I'd also like to reduce my mortgage costs each month as much as possible. Seems like plenty of homes coming on the market have basement rentals with full kitchens. Are these legal? If not, how would I make it legal? Are permits required to rent out a bedroom or two if I went that direction? Thank you

I do have an excellent cleaner but the pricing isn’t cheap. What are you looking to pay for this service?  Send me specifics about he unit, size and what you need done. I will ask if she has openings and if she is interested but I don’t want to waste her time. She does laundry and cleaning. What’s the zip code and is parking available? I’ll pass the info along. 

Sure! From what I’ve seen from investors is a home becoming available and it quickly gets rented in between for a very minimal  increase. It’s not from too many properties being available or new build rentals. The market has really gone up price wise for buying. So many bought when prices were low and have low mortgages. Buying at 80k vs the same home now is 160-170k for lower end. So many have lots of inventory that they price low to keep I think rented. I feel it’ll be a few more years before we see a good rate on return. If you buy now. That’s my take on it. 

 I think the issue is more they can’t afford the large home they want. Three bedrooms for a baby that doesn’t exist yet and for the future possible grandparents to stay. They are putting zero down and only have 60k they want to use for Renovations. They are also expecting the parents to pay for half of the monthly expenses. Even if they found a low downpayment option that would probably still limit them to a much smaller home. I have a few younger friends that can’t seem to understand the concept of buying what you can afford. They fully expect the parents to bail the money out i for they need a quick 10-50k. The train shes taking needs to slow down and work on needs vs wants and get realistic. 

With the housing cost van and low rents it can be very difficult to get that 1%. Look at Charlotte, perhaps that could be better. Seems like in raleigh and Durham many investors are keeping rental prices low.