All Forum Posts by: Kelly N.

Hi Daniel,
I'm not in the northeast, but in the midwest. I see mostly gas (forced air) heat and a few boilers (I am looking at OLD houses) and most people I know have gas furnaces in their own homes, propane in rural areas. IMO, electric heat is too expensive.

I've seen a mix of gas and electric stoves, the same for dryers.

Have you looked into geothermal? Lots of cost up front but the savings is HUGE and you might get a nice tax write off to boot.

Kelly

Thanks Steve! I'll give that a try.

Thanks Bill, I am really just curious about the age and the history of the home. The previous owner did an extensive rehab including the electrical system, but we know we will still find issues- one thing on my list is replacing the floor tile on a small stairway landing, the inspector said it probably has asbestos in it but we wouldn't know for sure until it has been replaced. I figured when we had other work done in there we'd have that tile addressed- we have to get lead certified contractors due to the high probability of lead paint, I would think they'd be certified to handle asbestos too.

Thanks!
Kelly

Thanks Rob!

Our first house was built in 1913 and has the block foundation, this one has stone and brick. I figure once I have a little more time, I'll head over to the historical museum and do some digging there. I was able to find a lot more about the area and how it was developed by looking through Plat books online and from a few library books about the city itself- pretty interesting! The inspector also mentioned that he thought the house might have been a boarding house with the way it was laid out, so I was trying to find more info about that too.

Our realtor is actually buying a house nearby and they found a tunnel in the basement! I'm wondering if it was part of the underground railroad or more likely a handy hiding place during prohibition!

Hi,
We are investing in some pretty old homes, one of which says it was built in 1901. The inspector mentioned that this usually means they don't know what year it was built, but I thought that when they didn't know they put '1900'? Just curious if anyone knows what is typical.
Thanks!
Kelly

Hi Daniel,

Unless you go through Homepath or Homesteps, or a hard money lender, you will need 20% down. Also, I found that if it's a multifamily, they want 25% down.

Kelly

The other thing is, you might still get good tenants in the 'off season'. A friend of mine has a single family home and first tried to rent it out at the peak time (also a college town, but she's on the outskirts) and there were so many other listings she ended up with a bad tenant just to get the place filled. A few months later, after the eviction, they were the only home on the market in that area and had their pick of tenants.

Hi,

From what I've seen, it won't matter too much when you purchase IF the units are currently rented- ours are. Most leases in our area turn over in August, though our first property has two leases ending in the spring, our second property had two of the apartments leased for less than 1 year (8 and 9 months) in order to get them to turn over (or renew) in August.

If the house or units are already leased, check to see if they are at or below market value, and when they end so you know when you can raise the rate if need be. Both properties we bought (closing on second one soon) have room to increase the rates, but we made sure the numbers worked 'as is' prior to our offer.

We were considering a property for purchase in the same area that had never been a rental, and needed work to bring it up to code prior to renting. For that one, we planned on closing in April/May and would have been showing the duplex before the work was complete in the hopes of having someone move in in August.

You could always go month to month til the prime rental time, if you can find a tenant for the summer.

Kelly

Hi Karen,
That's great news, I can't wait to hear all about it!
Kelly

Landon,
Sounds like a great situation to be in, and you should probably go for it!

What were you saving for if not to invest? I'd aim to keep 3-6 months (depending on your tolerance for risk) of expenses in the savings account, but other than that I'd go for it! We're in the process of buying a second rental house (closed on the first in January) and that'll wipe out a considerable portion of our savings, however it's a great opportunity and we still have the 'safety net' in the bank, these two cash flowing properties, and a steady income.

Good luck to you!
Kelly

We've got Allstate, but as far as I know State Farm and various other big insurance companies do this. The broker I talked to last week handles mostly high risk stuff with smaller insurance companies, it sounded like it was something most or all of his insurance companies would do as well.
Kelly