All Forum Posts by: Lin Ding

@Colleen F. thanks! I totally agree. If not a primary residence to house hack in NJ, the cash flow might be in the negative and the housing stock is low but I'm looking :) 

@Theresa Harris

You're right. I lived in the house for 3.5 years out of 6.5 total years. Do you have recommendations for RE friendly accountants? 

The girl is being difficult and uses unavailability/privacy/security as her reasons and since I'm out of state, I'm not able to do showings in person, I have to rely on her to open the door for prospective tenants. The third room isn't rented because it's a much small room with limited storage space and it has to share bathroom with one of the other two rooms which are advertised to have private bathrooms. I'd also prefer to rent the whole house so I don't have to deal with the roommate dramas but because the leases were signed at different times, they move out at different times. Also due to the age of the house (even though it was renovated in 2017), it start to require maintenance which is another thing I want to get away from.

Do you have recommendations on which cities to buy if I'll get property manager might as well. I can self manage if I buy one close to where I am now but the prices are so high here in NJ.

@Kristina Kuba @Alex Olson @Michael Haynes

Thanks all for the advice and tips! I bought the house in 2017 and moved out of State at end of 2020 during covid to be close to family and kept the house as a rental since I moved away. I won't move back and I purchased a 2-unit multi as my house-hack primary residence this year in NJ where I work now. Anyways, I thought about selling the Tampa house and 1031 into another small multifamily but house prices in my current market are so high. To get into a good property in a good location, I'll have to put all equity from the Tampa house sell as the down payment on another investment property here. That's why I haven't moved forward yet. Also I don't want to spend 6 months to list & sell the Tampa house so I'm exploring & entertaining some offers I received from other peer investors that contracted me.

Hi BP masterminds,

I purchased a home as a primary residence (3B2B) in 2017 and I moved to another state in 2020 and kept it as a rental since then. It's rented by room (2 bedrooms 2 bath to 2 girls for a roommate situation) for a total $2250 rental income per month and the mortgage is about $1600 a month so it gives me a monthly cash flow $650. It was cosmetically renovated in 2017 so I didn't have much maintenance cost but I start to have repair cost now. The roommate situation sometimes gives me headache when the two girls don't get along. Especially one girl was also giving me a lot of headache with late rent or no payment, but she finally moved out in August. It's the first time I have vacancy for one month now. Now the other girl remaining gives me crap about being unavailable for showings so she's sharing the house with nobody now.

With that being said, I'm looking for advice whether I should keep this rental and continue rent it by room (roommate situation); or try to get the remaining girl out and rent it as a 3B2B to a family; or cash out refi or sell it and reinvest into another newer small-multifamily or SFH in a nicer neighborhood.

This house I have is located in a mid-class neighborhood centrally located in Tampa, 15min to airport and downtown. I see a lot of development happened in Tampa in the last few years and it continues to expand. However property prices are also much higher now with high interest rate. 

I've been procrastinating this decision and considering all factors while watching the interest rate progress. Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks a ton in advance!

Sincerely,

Lyn

Thanks Joseph! I've reached out to RTR and Zach lol

Thank you so much for the advise! It definitely stresses me out to think about the renovation especially since I've never done it. The benefit of renovating a house would be I can design and have a house I like in a location I prefer. Versus these newly constructed properties in my price range are located in upcoming neighborhoods that's further out and distant from the train (commute to the M-island). I'm concerned with the vacancy even with a brand new contemporary house in those areas. I would definitely prefer to have a new house w less maintenance to worry about but each has pros and cons in my area I'm looking at.

Hi All superstars on BP forum,

I'm thinking if I should buy an older house to renovate or buy a new construction in today's market? I'm in an expensive market (Jersey City, NJ across the river from Manhattan). There have been a lot of development here. I plan on house hacking but in this already expensive market and under this high interest rate environment, it's so hard to find a property in a good location that can cash flow. I looked at a few new builds to try to get a good deal in this market as price has lowered for some. I also found an older house that was last updated in 2014 but is no where near a newly designed/built new construction. If I buy it, I plan to renovate it and reconfigure the floor plan and add a parking garage to it.

However, I've never renovated a house myself or even hired someone to renovate a house before. I don't know where to start. What would be your advise for me in this market? Should I pay a premium to get a new construction house to house hack or try to figure out my first fixer-upper house hack? Does anyone have experience renovating a house in JC? How long does it usually take for say permitting, vetting & hiring GC, the renovation process, garage addition, etc. I guess I'll use FHA 203k for mortgage+reno financing.

I'd love to hear some advice for this dilemma. Thank you so much! Hope you all have a great holiday and do well in the midst of this economy right now.

Best,

Lin

Quote from @Joe S.:

How much earnest money do you have in the deal? For the price point house you are buying 10,000 additional reduction is probably something the seller would do IMO, With that being said so you asked for a $10,000 reduction and the seller agrees and then you’re back to where you are today. $10,000 off of that priced house is next to nothing. The real question is do you want the property and at what price.

Hi @Joe S. - yea I totally agree 10K is like nothing but something after negotiating to an agreement point with the seller in October. However that's old now. What method(s) do you use to calculate the price you want on a property? Thanks!

Thank you so much @Caroline Gerardo for all these good advice! I'm re-entering the negotiation game with the seller and explore my options with the lender now. Will update here if new progress has been made. Thanks all for following along so far on this post. You guys are awesome!

Thanks all! @Joe S. yes that's what I'm trying to figure out at this point. We got the offer accepted at $835K for $849K listing and seller concession of $15K towards closing which was agreed to after inspection done end of September. I'm trying to figure out what number will make sense now the market has changed. Either David Greene or someone else said this, there's always a number that works. No bad deals but the number that will make a good deal. I have $20,875 in earnest.

I just heard back from the seller that he got from the city that he'll have the permit next week then it will take 3-4 weeks to do the job and pass inspections. And the seller will cover the rate lock extension which is $164/day. (if 4 weeks, 28 days, that's $4,592)

The second time being under contract he might be motivated this time around. I don't want to get emotional or feelings involved here. Yes the seller wasn't honest going into this but he's trying to get this thing sold. I might be able to take advantage of that to get this flipped to work in my favor in the numbers?

So what if I get the seller to cover all closing cost except the down payment (I put 3.5% down) including a rate buydown to maybe 4% or 5% rate (currently locked at 6.125), plus the lock extension which he agreed to today. Do I have a deal? Or is there anything else I should throw at the seller.

I do have a high appraisal which was updated (the house was appraised in June for 865K w the prior buyer, then my 1st appraisal came in early Oct was 815K then my agent worked w the lender and got it updated to 900K). I'm not relying on that number in this changing market. I mention it just to answer to Caroline's concern on the lender part.

@Caroline Gerardo This is in Jersey City I'm trying to buy a househack in. I'll need to commute to Manhattan that's why I need close proximity to the city commute. I'm outpriced in other areas which have transportation to M-island and are also safe. This house was built in 1910 but only recently gut renovated during the pandemic. I did the sewer scope already with the inspection.