All Forum Posts by: Luis Arellano

I'd love to buy property and use it as a Short Term Rental or even medium Term Rental so that I can use it for 6 months out of the year, and rent it the rest while I'm traveling.

I'm technically based in San Francisco, so I would like a property near the bay area. I was thinking somewhere in Tahoe or Santa Cruz, but I know there are some restrictions on STR per counties.

Which ares would be best?  any other advice on things that I should watch out for?  taxes implications (e.g accelerated depreciation) or other house hacks I could use?

Thanks!

 Hey Carlton, What happened during the inspection? Why did you have to scrape and paint twice? Did the painter did not have a lead certification or was it another issue? 

Thanks!

I have this beautiful old victorian house. The exterior needs major work, the paint is peeling and given the age of the house I have to assume there is lead paint.  So far my options seem to be:

1) Scrape old chips + Repaint the whole house.  ~11k.  (+ any wood replacement)

2) Replace the whole siding of the house.  ~34k 

3) Creative option? 

The value of the property is around $550k. How would you approach this decision? I'm leaning towards simply repainting the house, but I'm afraid I will not end up liking the end result. The painter said "Since this home has many areas of large peeling paint the surface after primer and paint will not be smoothed as before will have texture."

Any thoughts? 

Hi BP community!

I'm about to list my duplex and could use some advice on how much to charge for Pet Rent? Also, the property has a two stall garage, and instead of simply giving one spot to each unit, I'd like to give preference who whoever is willing to pay a little extra. Any advice on this?

Thanks!

Luis

I'm currently applying for a renovation permit on my rental unit. I'm not making any structural changes, simply upgrading the kitchen and bathroom. My plans have been approved and now I need to pay for the fee and I believe schedule an inspection. 

I have a couple questions:

-Would it be a problem if I've started the work already?

-I also still need to apply for a new rental license. Will I need to schedule a second inspection (on top of the rehab inspection?) 

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I'm looking for a good contractor for a remodel project on my rental property. I'm looking to redo the kitchen and bathroom and would like to hire some help. 

Does anyone know a good contractor?
Thanks!

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the tips. I did take a look at some of the rental pieces, but most look cheap to begin with so after 9 months I might have spent quite a bit. I think it would make a lot more sense to rent if I could find places that rent west elm type furniture, but haven't found anything like it. Do you have any recommendations for rental companies? 

I recently bought a large duplex as an owner occupied, mainly for the better financing terms, but my goal is to move out as soon as I can to start generating cashflow on both units. 

To give you some more context. Each unit is a 3 bd apartment, and It will be too much space for myself so I'm considering making my unit (the owner occupied) into an Airbnb while I'm there. However, I'd have to invest in furnishing the whole place and I might be moving out in 6 to 12 months anyways so that seems like a waste.

Any ideas? Does anyone have recommendation on furniture rental, cleaning services, airbnb apartment management services ?

Thanks!

I'm in the middle of buying a beautiful property, but during the inspection we found area in the house with knob and tube wiring. 

The seller got a quote from an electrician for 10k and we agree on splitting the costs. My agent is talking with some insurers, but sounds like they would not write a policy knowing about the wiring or if they do they won't cover the house in case of a fire.

Seems that my options are:

1) take the risk with a dodgy insurance, and fix the issue after closing. (getting some credit from the buyer towards closing costs)

2) convince the seller to do the wiring job before closing, and for me to contribute the electrician costs.

Note: the seller had a cash offer that was not much below to what I offered so they might not have a strong motivation to do the work before closing.

Any advice on how to save this deal??