All Forum Posts by: Lucky Tran

Just curious if anyone knows any national or local lenders (Texas region) that do cashout refinancing on lower valued properties in the 50-110k range. I have some of them all that are paid off in cash and would like to pull the cash back out for investment purposes. Others are on 15% down, 20 year amortizations with 5 year arm at 5%, would also like to refinance those to 30 years if possible.

From the ones I look online, it seems like the minimum is 100k.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Seeking advice and opinions on those with more experience with foundation problems.

I am really excited about having this property under contract but am now questioning if it's a good deal or not based on the foundation problems reported.

Home inspection guy says he's not an expert but recommends structural engineer if I want to know specifics on how many years I'm looking at before I need to do some repair on foundation.

Settlement is normal for these properties in the area and for the age of the house.

Inspector's opinion is that foundation showing signs of movement that exceeds normal tolerances and changes in floor elevation of house greater than would normally be expected.

Not only does that sound like a red flag to me, but also the following::

- Soil levels against exterior grade beam appear to be too low

- interior sheetrock cracks and/or stress indicators (multiple areas photographed; about 20)

- floor slopes and/or unlevel areas (bathrooms, living space)

- misalignment of exterior doors due to foundation movement (very obvious)

- deflection cracks in exterior veneer (a few I wouldn't be too concerned, but there are pictures of about 20 areas that show more than a hand's width of defect with signs of poor "band-aid" repair)

Not sure if I can post pictures but figured the description is enough to determine yes or no.

Is this a good or bad investment stepping into?

Thanks all!

Thanks all for your input!

I checked out Anthony's suggestion about getting credit back and it turns out with Lubbock Power and Light, they can only credit if it affects the foundation or alley way water pipes.

I did have work done for pipe replacement a few months back, so I'm going to try to send an itemized statement from the guys who fixed it to see if it will qualify for an adjustment.

Will update and let y'all know how it goes!

As for the tenants, I do agree they are entitled to nothing, but to let them feel that they have "won" over something trivial is most likely best for future interactions.

Hi all,

Thanks again to the BP community answering my questions in the past.

Yet again, I find myself in a situation in which I can turn to you guys for advice/opinions.

A tenant was late on paying rent and paid in full when notified.

Since then, a handful of maintenance issues arose and I tended to the issues promptly by calling the fix-it guys the same day. Of course, there's the scheduling of times to access and obtain a bid, etc. These issues are not a safety or health concern, so it's not required by law to be rectified in a week, correct?

However, one pressing issue is a 'leaky' faucet. Maintenance says it's not a big leak so nothing to worry about but there was a delay on fixing for 2 weeks now because he was on vacation last week.

Tenant is furious that it hasn't been fixed and is running up their water bill. I told them to send over the water bills for past few months for comparison and see the difference and perhaps it could be reimbursed if the leak affected their bill that much.

Turns out, its only $5 difference. Really, I don't think the tenant should be complaining about the leaky faucet which is 'cranking' t?up their water bill since it's not that much. At the same time, it doesn't seem to warrant a reimbursement just because they complained about it.

Just for background, previous landlord never did maintenance. Since manaiging this property, I have been pretty good with their concerns and following up. They've been overall happy since I get things done but not this time. I blame it on them being upset paying late fees for last month's rent.

Advice on how to communicate with tenant in situation like this to prevent them becoming aggressive and what do you think warrants reimbursement?

Thanks all!

Hi All,

I am a newbie on BP and find the forum a good wealth of information. Was hoping I can get some advice or opinion on my current situation.

I have a couple that submitted a rental application and based on that application, met the requirements of monthly income 3x monthly rent. Their application was completed in full, so next step - verifying references and rental history.

Upon calling previous landlords for rental history, it turns out that the history may be unreliable. Either the lease was not under their name or they paid the person who the lease was under. I was able to get information (yes/no) to the questions when asking about rental history but feel that it doesn't pertain to the current applicant. Some of these questions answered were red flags - but to keep in mind, the lease was not under this tenant's name.

Because of the information I've gathered on this couple for rental history, I stopped there and didn't even consider in calling their listed personal references.

Is it enough information to justify my inkling to unqualify the tenant?

Thanks in advance for your help!