All Forum Posts by: Luca Shaw

Hi all,

I am looking at a potential rental acquisition where the home contains a garage conversion into a room and it is unpermitted.

Note that seller has not included this room in the sq footage and i am not purchasing it with the assumption of conversion to permitted.

If i were to buy and turn into a rental - is there any liability to renting it out with that unpermitted conversion? I wouldn't advertise it as a bedroom and would make it clear that it is not to ever be a bedroom, but am concerned about the presence of an unpermitted room in general, but I may be overreacting. 

State: California

Thanks! 

Hello,

Have a 2/2 with no AC in southern California. Options are either to:

1. Install window AC/portable AC in the 2 rooms. Cost probably <=$~1k. cheap up front and low cost maintainence.
2. Have HVAC co install central AC or mini splits. Cost  ~$10-15k across the few bids I got it.

Is it worth it to get the central for future rent growth? Or just go cheap and do the portable/window? 

House is worth ~650k in an in demand area and rent will be slightly positive to P&I but negative to PITI and maintainence. I plan on potentially putting a 3rd bedroom on the house in 1-2 years.

 Thanks Greg. You are correct, 600k ish mortgage, so aboyt $710 equity build per month. This is also how I view keeping it and also as a retirement hedge - worst case if i can pay it off I can live there with no payment. 

 Hey Allen, By MTR do you mean something like furnishedfinder? Are there others? 

Hi all,

Last year I bought a 2/2 SFH in a suburb of LA (ventura county) fully intending to use it as a primary home. 30 year fixed @ 5.375%. Recent developments in my career lead me to have to move about 2 hours away. That leaves me with deciding what I'm supposed to do with this property. Its a 50s property but I've updated a ton of things about it. Roof probably has a few years left on it, only real weakness is eventually I'll have some major mainline work needed.

My options appear to be the following:

1. Rent it out. I can get $3000-3500 rent pretty confidently after looking at comps and discussing with various property managers. This would leave me basically cashflow neutral/slightly positive on my P&I but negative after taxes, insurance, and expected maintenance (assuming 1.5% of home value in maintenance per year). After all of that, I'll be ~$1k negative per month but likely hoping for some solid appreciation as a source of return. I can afford negative -1k monthly with this new job but obviously I don't love it.

2. Sell it. I can probably sell it and after fees probably lose 20k or so (as far as down pmt + closing costs + improvements).

Renting (even though negative) seems like a good way to go because I have a good risk tolerance, however I am worried about California landlord laws + unexpected maintenance/capex. Looking for BP community suggestions as this is weighing on me.