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All Forum Posts by: Luke Stone

Luke Stone has started 18 posts and replied 50 times.

The only lien is the current mortgage, which is an FHA mortgage, but will be paid off. Speaking with title, their primary argument was that since I don't own a second property, I could potentially move back into this one. From what I can tell this is not a regulatory thing, just a conservative underwriter, but the title person I spoke with said she spoke with several title insurance underwriters and they all said it would have to be considered homestead.

First just want to say thanks to everybody for such a great resource. I rarely have to post because so many topics are already discussed, but I think I finally came up with a Dooley.

Background is that I relocated from Dallas TX to Chicago, IL for my job and decided to rent my personal residence back in Dallas. I am now trying to do a cash out refinance of the house as its increased significantly value. My loan went the lender approval alright but now one day before closing the title insurance underwriter won't insure title for my property as an investment property. They are requiring it be insured as a homestead property. This presents the problem of increasing my title insurance by more than $300 and even more of a deal breaker us that you have to be present in Texas to sign docs.

The Dallas house is my only real estate, since I decided to rent in Chicago. So the underwriter is saying that due to thus being my only house it Kurt be considered a homestead. Can the underwriter require this? Seems that they are being overly conservative just feel more comfortable. It likely doesn't matter, but I always intended this to become a rental and if I can get this cash out, I intend to purchase a other rental.  So the property is definitely an investment property.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this would be appreciated or if anybody knows of a title company that would do remote close as an investment property I'd love to hear.

Thanks all ahead of time 

Post: Property w/ Possible Unpermitted Addition

Luke StonePosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 51
  • Votes 3

Honestly, I am thinking I might just find out the cost to have it removed. The property has been on the market a while and the main reason is because of the addition. It just makes the layout of the house very awkward. It doesn't flow well with the roof line. It only has one small window, which I think is really weird because normally you have more windows facing the back than front.

I dont think I would have too big of an issue with if it looked nice from the beginning, but the only way to make if flow with the rest of the house is to invest more money into, which I don't feel comfortable doing since it's unpermitted. No since in putting more money into something the city may eventually deem as illegal.

I hate these types of issues. The house would be worth the asking price if the addition was never done to start with and was just left with the original layout. But now the question is how much to remedy the issue?

Post: Property w/ Possible Unpermitted Addition

Luke StonePosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 51
  • Votes 3

Thank you all. It sounds like the best direction is to talk to an inspector and contractor to see what they think.

Post: Property w/ Possible Unpermitted Addition

Luke StonePosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 51
  • Votes 3

I'm actually looking at a property as a personal residence in Richardson, TX, and am posting here bc I can't find too much info. What I am a little concerned about is a 300 sq ft living room addition to the back of an older house.

I am not sure if the addition was done w/ proper permits or not. The current owner of 15 years stated the addition was on the house when he purchased it and does not know when it was added. I did go to the building permit department and the property only had 1 permit in its entire history back in 2009 for gas line work. The lady at the office stated though, the age of the house makes it difficult bc it was built in 1960 and the permit records aren't really accurate for things done before the late '80's.

My concern is that the addition makes the layout of the property very awkward and to make the addition seem more apart of the house, one of the structural load bearing walls needs to be removed (the wall actually used to be the outside wall before the addition; the brick is still on the inside wall of the addition).

So in order to remove a structural wall, I will have to get a permit and have it inspected. I am worried that if the addition wasn't done with permits properly the 1st time, that when the inspector comes to evaluate the wall being removed, he'll just say the whole addition wasn't done properly and I will have to get the addition removed.

Do anyone of you have any insight on additions without permits? What are the chances it would have to be torn down? I've also heard that sometimes city inspectors will work with you and just require things necessary to bring it up to code? Does the age or rather unknown age of the addition have any bearing (based on the fixtures I'd bet it was built in the early '90's, but that's not full proof)?

Brian,
The reason the house can't be level completely again, is according the engineer, moving the house back to level would put too much stress on the structure. The engineer also stated that there it's to estimate how level it will be before the work is completed.

Right now the property is heaving on one corner and then diagonally the opposite corner is sinking. Those 2 trouble areas seem to be affecting all the other rooms.

Carlos,
This is my 1st potential flip and I haven't put a bid on the property yet. I guess that is what I am trying to determine, is if this property is worth bidding on.

The walls are dry wall. I haven't been able to figure out the plumbing and electric. Regarding the plumbing all visible plumbing is copper, but really the only thing visible are where the pipes come out of the wall to connect to the faucet. All the faucets are coppe, including all outside connections. The electricity I have no idea about (I've been wanting to find out, but was thinking electric is likely a job for a pro). What is the best way to see if the plumbing and electric is up to today's standards?

Also you're absolutely right about getting too many bids through the realtor, but the agent won't let me have my own contractor in for estimates until I put an offer on the property. Once a contract is in place I have 10 days to get contract estimates and adjust my offer. I am not a big fan of the way the realtor is making do this, is this normal not to be able to get contractors for estimates until a contract is accepted?

Wow, great info. Thanks!

I think getting a good GC in there is what I need to do. I have tried talking to the 2 companies the realtor received estimates from and both have said that the crawl space under the house is enough to be able to do the work from underneath and not tear up the nice new hard wood floors. But I have been having trouble getting a straight answer from them regarding if they think any secondary work will be needed. I.E. repairing the structure and framing.

I am already planning on gutting the bedrooms to the studs. The other half of the house is pretty open with not too many walls, just ceiling drywall. So will gutting the dry wall (ceiling and walls) be enough for a contractor to determine if the framing needs repair? The house is 2 story and I was hoping to not have to touch the 2nd story, but the 1st floor is open to just about anything.

Note the exit sales price is contingent upon the repaired foundation not affecting the resale value negatively. And I guess purchase price is million dollar question. Is the seller willing to accept less than asking due to the foundation problems (and it's been on the market a while)?

Without the foundation cost and issues I would be looking at purchasing for $80k ($70k depending how much he will negotiate) and investing $35k. Like resale $170-185k. The neighborhood has sales as high as $200k and $225k.

The offer would the sales price minus cost of foundation work.

Hey all,
This is my 1st post, but I have been following the site for almost year. The information is great, but I've got a question about a potential flip that I can't find any info on.

I am in the Dallas area and there is a historic home in a great area but it has some major foundation issues. Normally I try to stay away from foundation problem but I was think since this is a pier and beam it might be affordable (which it is). The question is if it's worth it.

The realtor had and engineer look at that house and he has stated that it is not possible to get the house completely level and if you try it could damage the structure.

I was wondering this would have on the impact of the value and the ability to resell a property?

The property is a 1945 pier and beam home that has a lot of good qualities and has already been half rehabbed, but it needs 39 new piers and 5 beams of 90', 43', 2x26' and 20'. The floors are visibly uneven in just about every room.

I have estimates for the work ranging from 12-17k and I think I can buy the property for cheap, but am unsure about how the foundation will affect this property. If the property can be purchase cheap enough is it worth the risk?
Will it be really difficult to resell even if the repairs are done?

At what point do you give up and it becomes a tear down? The property has a lot new items throughout and I find it hard to believe it's not worth saving.

Thanks