All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Sounds like I should get a dozen cats into the unit and let them "fight fire with fire" - then I can legitimately tell the renters these are cat smells... brilliant...

Thanks for all your input. Yeah it was disappointing about ServPro. Then again I was not the one who hired them, and the landlord is a bit elderly -- may have been a communication issue.

The subfloor is concrete, so I don't know how much we can do there. I wonder about the vents, since the bathroom has just one vent and I don't know where that leads -- I am not touching anything in the unit if I can help it.

I found a product called Smelleze that has a "corpse smell" version for funeral homes and hospitals, etc. - maybe I'll try that first.

A favorite realtor trick for open houses is to bake some chocolate chip cookies - but then again I don't want to ruin my appetite for chocolate chip cookies.

I'm trying to figure out if steam cleaning would do it, or if the ozone machine is the way to go.

This is a studio apartment in a highrise building. The space is small but the smell is intolerable. The unfortunate part is that the bathroom and closet near the body has no vent and is literally trapping the "dead air" - pardon the expression.

The landlord is fed up that he shelled out $$$$ to ServPro and still did not resolve the issue. They even removed only part of the carpet at first, and the landlord had to demand they come back to pull all the carpets. Then the guy insisted he did not smell anything after "cleanup" and it was only when the building manager agreeing with the landlord that the smell was still present that he agreed to come back and finish the job. Awful. I gave the landlord the crime scene cleanup specialist's number but guess he wanted to go "cheap" - if only he listened to me in the first place.

Makes me want to put in "dead tenant" clause in all future insurance policies.

I'm working with a landlord whose last tenant killed himself in the unit and was not discovered for two weeks in the middle of summer. The landlord hired ServPro to "clean up" the place but the smell still lingers. He got it repainted and it helped a little but the smell is still there. What's a good way to remove the odor for good? Can't rent the unit until this is resolved. Any ideas or suggestions would be very much appreciated!

It's a retail buy. I like the fact that it's move-in ready and in a good commuter location so I can get renters quickly. Your point about having reserves makes great sense.

I'm interested in purchasing a condo and rent it out. I could put down 40%. However, there are two units in the same building for sale. Does it make sense to buy both and put 20% down for each?

Thanks for all your feedback. The truth is I'm not sure I want to stay in my current town if the taxes keeps going up. I may stay another few years until my kids finish up elementary school then find another town that's more affordable. I will not buy investment properties in this town, but other areas more convenient for commuters and with better tax rates. That's why I consider renting my primary residence since I don't want to buy and have to sell in a short time if my personal housing and education plans change. On the other hand, I would hold on to good investment properties for as long as possible.

In a nutshell:

I want to sell my primary residence and rent a larger home to live in, while using the cash from the sale to buy one or two multi-family homes for rental income.

Detail:

My family is outgrowing our primary residence which we purchased in 2000 and have about 5 years to go on our 15-year mortgage at 5.125%.

We need a larger home, but our town just reassessed recently and even though our tax bill remained about the same, all the recently renovated homes and new constructions were hit with massive tax increases. If we sell our home and move to a bigger house, we will expect to pay between $17k-$22k in annual property tax.

I noticed that our monthly mortgage payment including property tax escrow is about $3,200. We could rent a decent house at that price.

I don't want to fix up our current home; there are too many things that could be done better if only the previous owners didn't cut corners. I'd rather just sell it than put any more money into it.

Instead of buying a new primary residence and restarting with a bigger mortgage, I'm thinking of buying multi-family homes with the sales proceeds that will offset or cover our rent.

Do you think this makes sense? Can I make this work?

Thanks!

Sure it can cost HUNDREDS depend on what you want to do:

This is from the post office web site: (Under USPS.com's "Business Mail 101")

So if you want to keep mailing every year, there is an annual fee; if you want to mail from multiple POs (if you use two different printers and each enter their mail into a different PO) and so on.

Rather than getting your own permit you can use the printer's permit for a fee and they can take care of everything. Doing it all yourself is not for the faint of heart and not cost-effective for the one-off marketer.

@David - I recommend two books to get you on your way:

"Mastering the Art of Selling Real Estate" by Tom Hopkins - good and solid info.

"Insider Investing for Real Estate Agents" by Walter S. Sanford - great for helping you become an investor yourself and work with other investors.

My company name alludes to my graphic arts background with Christian undertone:

North light is the natural sunlight coming through a north-facing window. It's the most ideal lighting for studio painting.

North refers also to the city of God on Mount Zion, the sides of the north.

Light refers to "the Light of the world."

And the words are simple and easy to remember. I never have people ask me how to spell it.

Best of all the domain name was available! ;)