All Forum Posts by: L. Brown

@Tanvir Sattar the seller and my realtor kept saying that I was getting the house for a great deal, and how they didn’t want to give me much on the inspection report because they are selling it at such a good price so I was kind of expecting it to be higher.

I’m under contract for my first property, which will be a home hack. I got the appraisal back today and it appraised for the selling price, which is fine. When I look at the comps used by the appraiser, it seems like the house could have been appraised lower than the selling price. Have any of you been in this situation? What did you do?

Thanks I appreciate your suggestions!

@Steven Domenech house hacking is a great way to start out. Bloomfield is a great neighborhood with a lot of multi-families.

Hey BP, I need your advice. I am under contract for a duplex where there is a renter in one of the units and I would live in the other. The rent role is $1900. The inspection showed some issues, which the seller is willing to give a $5,000 credit. My GC says it will cost more like $7,000. I have some renovations I’d like to do on the house and really don’t want to put out the additional $2,000 out of pocket. So I was thinking about asking the seller the give me a $7,000 credit and I would give her the rent role ($1,900) in the first month after I own the home. This would essentially pay for the $2,000 more that I’m asking for.

What do you guys think? Am I missing anything? Can I sweeten the deal? Thanks!

Thanks, everyone!

I am under contract for my first home, which is a duplex. I found an attorney and realtor that I felt comfortable with and seem to know the process well. I have some concerns about the advice I’m getting, though. During attorney review, the seller wanted to put in a contingency that said if items were not up to code they would not fix it and that if issues with the house weren’t a safety issue they wouldn’t address it and it couldn’t be a reason for me kill the deal. My attorney thought this was fine, but I didn’t like this so I asked her to push back and strike this. She did, and the seller agreed to remove this clause from the contract. They were trying to get the upper hand.

In a separate instance, the inspection showed some significant issues. My realtor said he spoke to the seller (who is a realtor) and she said she would give me a $5k credit. My realtor thought I should take the deal right away, but I wasn’t sure how much it would cost to get the repairs done. He said he didn’t think I needed to bring my GC in, but I decided to push and do it anyway. It seems like the repairs will cost $7k- not far off, but more than the $5k the seller was offering.

In both of these cases I am wondering if I have an attorney and realtor that are looking out for my best interest. What do you all think? (PS- they do not know each other, I found them independent of one another)

@Greg Scott what group did you join to learn the right way to buy properties?

@Brennan Hile Great point, I also asked about being able to Airbnb the basement and that said that’s illegal too (I’m in NJ). If I were to rent the basement out and get caught, the biggest downside for me would be going cash flow negative by not being able to rent out the basement. It blows up my whole idea of house hacking.

I recently experienced something that I’m wondering if others have experienced. My goal was to do a house hack where I lived in the basement and rented out the other units. I found a duplex I like and began the process for getting it under contract. I went to an investor meetup and as soon as I told them I wanted to rent out the 2 units and live in the basement they told me it was illegal- that I was operating it as a three family. I called the town the next day and they confirmed that it was illegal for me to live in the basement, even if I was the owner. After talking to a few more people about it, they said this was not unique to that town, that using the basement as my living space would be illegal regardless of the town. It was curious to me why I had never heard this in the books I’ve read or podcasts I’ve listened to. It’s always been spoken about as if it was fine. Unfortunately, I’m back to square one with how to get into real estate.

Has anyone experienced this?