All Forum Posts by: Lance Peterson

@Jeff Young, any luck on finding a property manager?

Summary: my 3rd floor condo has a water leak that needs to be fixed by cutting a hole in the ceiling of the 2nd floor unit. Would be a simple fix, however, the 2nd floor unit is owned by another landlord who let me know that his tenant has COVID therefore the plumber cannot enter. The water only leaks when my tenant runs the shower or bathtub.

My initial thoughts for solutions are:

1: Ask around for plumbers who would be willing to enter 2nd floor unit... I know that is a long shot and probably not the right answer.

2: Demo the floor in my bathroom (which has new tile...) and access the pipe from that way. Initial estimate I would guess this to cost around $2,000.

3: Wait until 2nd floor is COVID free and plumber can enter, and then give my tenant a large reimbursement on this months rent due to her not having a shower for potentially a couple weeks. Probably cost around $350-$700 (rent is $700)

4: Wait for COVID free and in the meantime get the tenant a hotel room. Probably cost around $1400 (assuming 2 weeks at a hotel @ $100/night)

I’m leaning towards option 3 with 1 and 4 being throw away options. Thoughts?

@Zach Hergert

Hey Zach, I just bought two properties in the past year so I won’t be able to buy another for a little while, but would definitely be interested in working together if you go through with the turn key idea

I have heard @Brandon Turner mention it on a recent podcast as well, but he might have said that it was for android?  I wish you guys would come out with a version for apple so that I could evaluate deals on the move!  I don't know about you guys, but even thought the app is not the most user friendly, I still use the app way more than I use the desktop version. 

Hey Dave, did anyone ever reply to your post?  I am also interested in finding any wholesalers in the Omaha area and would love to share any contacts with each other. 

HOA is doubling down on outlawing AirBnBs, however they are considering either a monthly fee or fine of sorts in order to allow people to continue doing AirBnB while also raising funds for the HOA. Has anyone ever heard of this? How much would this typically charge? One board member is concerned that doing this would change our HOA from being non-profit to a for profit business and would require us to become ADA compliant (historic building that does not have elevators), pay extra in taxes, higher liability, etc. Does this sound like a legitimate fear?

I would agree with Mark and Anthony that N Omaha is so hit or miss and completely changes from block to block. I wish that it was being revitalized but besides one new apartment complex that just opened last month I have not seen much progress. I think if you want to go forward with the deal you would definitely need eyes on each property and a great realtor helping out.

I think this deal sounds good if you can manage to do it without PMI. I've heard of Quicken and some small local banks being willing to do 10-15% downpayment on loans without any PMI. But you would definitely need to live in it to qualify. I know it sounds risky because you won't have much for cash reserves (assuming $31,000 downpayment and $5,000 closing costs and such) but doing it this way would be better in the long run in my opinion.

Thank you all for more great information and opinions on this topic.  And for the record, I did move out back when I was 18, I only moved back in with my parents while I was looking for a real estate deal that I could possibly use as I mentioned above or for a house hack. 

@April Vogt when you mention creating some secure areas, did you lock a closet or seal off a room or anything that the guests could not access? 

@Jenessa NeSmith I sent you a colleague request. I am not dead set on a condo, I was just thinking that the location would help with the STR listings being that the condo I was looking at was downtown. But, this condo I was looking at just went under contract yesterday just as I was going to make an offer.

@Erin Spradlin the pro STR feelings were not in any docs, just the feelings of the condo president, but that condo I was interested in went under contract just when I made an offer so I hesitated too long on that one. What is a medium term rental if you don't mind my asking?

@Nancy Bachety thank you for the encouragement! 

Thank you all for your responses.  I will take your comments into consideration so that I do not make this decision based off of emotion and hate for a long commute everyday.

@Joe P. I have housed hacked before and had several "short term ish" military roommates before AirBnB or other vacation rental websites were popular. So besides leaving valuables at my parents house I would be comfortable with having strangers in my home. And so far my math is working out that mortgage, HOA, taxes, insurance, and possible maintenance comes out to about $750 which I can definitely handle if I do not make anything on this STR. If the place were to rent out every weekend I would be at my parents place anyways. I have thought about doing a house hack as well, but the one bedroom condos I'm looking at are around $80,000 and the 2 bedrooms are around $250,000, so I would hate to eat up all of my capital available and miss out on a possible multifamily that I could try to purchase this summer (I'll keep looking for a deal even if I do this condo!). I have also thought about a single family home, but of my previous deals the only one that did not cash flow is my only single family, and finding one in Omaha in a decent area is difficult. I guess I was thinking that perhaps I could live in this condo for a year or so during the week and STR on the weekends, and then switch to either full time STR or a long term lease for $850-$900.

@Julie McCoy I would be at my parents farm on the weekends anyways, but this would shave an hour of my drive each way to work and about 100 miles total off my vehicle each day.  I understand that most months I would not make a lot of money, if I could come close to breaking even I would be happy (I think $100 a weekend during an off month is a reasonable expectation for downtown Omaha) and then during Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in May I think I could easily make over $1,000 and then over $2,000 during June and the College World Series (my condo would be a long walk or short cab ride to both events). 

@Jimmy Dudley I know this is not a cheap option, hence why I reached out to you guys as the experts!  I have been looking for three months now and made several offers but it seems that all of the multifamily homes are either in real bad parts of town, or the owner won't budge from a very high listing price.  I will definitely keep looking though, even if I do decide to put some of my capital into a condo. That's a great idea to look around for farms with multiple dwellings, even if it was something like an old farm house with a smaller farmhand quarters I could make that work.  But this would likely not solve my commute problem, and farms and acreages are way overpriced around here (growing up on a farm I can speak to this!).  I think I would be able to deal with an hour commute better if I was on the coast, but being that I am driving over 50 miles each way in a truck I am getting tired of this drive (commuter car that I had was just totaled). And I have already listened to all of the BP podcasts, so that only solves about an hour a week of my commute.