All Forum Posts by: Kevin Cenna

Assuming you owe the floor guy ~$450 for the work he's already done, you're choices are basically $1k to finish out the hardwood floors or, what, ~$1k to rip them out and put in laminate, right? Seems a no-brainer to finish the hardwood. First, you gotta make sure the termites are gone for good.

Ida Grochowska you need to find a way to get your hands on the actual credit report from one of the 3 bureaus - Experian, Equifax, TransUnion - a criminal background check & sex offender registration and educate yourself on how to read each one. I'm able to get one in OH for ~$40 and I get the full report to make my own decisions. IMO, I'd get rid of that screening agency too. Sounds like they get paid when a tenant gets placed and you are seeing the conflict of interest first hand.

Sounds like a scam.

If the 3rd bedroom isn't already plumbed for water, sewer & electric, why would you convert it?  The cost to put all that in new - even if you can spread the cost over 12 months rather than cash out of pocket - has to be factored in.  I mean, even if the cost is $100/mo (for a nice round number), and you want to add $100/mo to your P&L, you need to figure if the market can support an extra $200/mo when you are already at the top of the market in terms of rent, just for a main floor laundry.

I'm of the same opinion as Dale.  It's likely to be more cost effective to improve the condition of the existing basement laundry.  Unless your strategy is to target older couples that want to avoid stairs, does it make sense to change your property simply to cater to that demographic? 

If the seller is moving out of the area but still wants "fair price", they aren't motivated yet.  If you really want the property, negotiate the heck out of that purchase price.

If there's damage, expect you will be paying for it.  If you do purchase the property, make sure you include language in the contract that says you will get all of the security deposits & if you buy after the 1st of the month, everything is pro-rated - rents, utilities, etc.

With a finished basement, you definitely want a professional home inspector.  One of the first things I would do is replace the sump pump (if the house has one).  They run ~$150 and last ~5 years but if they fail, you can get a flooded basement.

I second Raphaela's comments about the tenants having multiple jobs to make ends meet being a red flag.  Ask the seller for his past 3 year's Schedule E tax returns to see how much rent he's actually collecting from the tenants.  Seller may be "moving" because the tenants aren't actually paying.

The one thing that bothers me about this property is the size of the duplexes.  I don't have experience with this, but how confident are you that the area can support multiple 5 BR units?  How robust is the tenant pool that is looking for a 5 BR?  Finally, can you reasonably expect to rent out each side for a higher price simply because they have more BRs?  Obviously a 3BR rents for more than a 1 BR because most people are looking for a 2 or 3 BR, but is the same true when comparing a 3 to a 5?  Check rentometer.com to see if there are comps for what a 5 rents for in that area.  If there aren't comps, that might tell you that the market for 5 is weak and you might be stuck trying to find "just anyone" as a tenant.

Good luck & let us know how it goes.

If you don't charge them, you may be setting a legal precedent. If the next tenant does burns the carpet you may wind up in court arguing the useful life of a carpet rather than focusing on the cost of damage to the property.

$80k for an equity stake of future profits (if he sells) without interest payments sounds like an $80k lottery ticket to me.

If you are looking to have a different agent by strategy - one for SF, another for MF - why not discuss that with your current agent? If you are open and transparent about your strategy, they might even be able to suggest some people & then you are building your team. But if you are talking about having 3 agents show you the same SF so you can get 3 different opinions (and you don't tell them you are working with other agents), that's different. If I were the original agent I would feel misled & probably not make you a priority client, much like Russell Brazil said.

I believe Marcus & Millichap (sp?) has free analyses for major metro markets available online. They're worth a read to better understand each market from a 30,000 ft view.

Did you ask seller if they are willing to finance the extra $4k? Something short like 3 yrs @ 1%?