All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Bruce Lynn

@Bruce Lynn
I am living in it but only until I hand it over to property management and they find me a tenant. I plan to relocate somewhere far. I originally bought the place to rent to students per room. But not knowing a house hack like that would involve me closely managing if not living in the property because of litigations in the city. Now, there are two universities nearby but this wave of COVID had a big impact on the market, classes are all online and people would rather not share common areas which is the case in my property. Many nearby listings are single-family units but much smaller in size (less expensive to buy..), are fit for the 3 stranger rule, and even single-family. There are some listings that need major remodeling work right off the bat but worth the investment as those can be brand new multi-unit or move far from the city (popular) area and buy already made multi-unit. All these options have their unique challenges but not sure if those are worth pursuing than holding onto this property which may make me lose money over time? 

My basement is unfinished. The property is currently multi-unit zoned i.e. RM-1 but not a multi-unit itself. So, renting by the floor will violate city rules. I still can do the minimum remodeling to make it multi-unit, i.e. add a kitchenette and/or bathroom on floors that don't have them but that may not go with the regulations. Plus, should I dump money into a 100-year-old house or wait for it to get worse then demolish the whole place if I choose the remodeling route?
Do you have resources for this type of analysis: the cost to remodel vs the rent?

Some of my old relative's friends are in real estate as well and I should've asked for their advice before buying this place. They are very pessimistic about this place as a source of rental income and even saying that I may not recoup the money even if I sell it now :( I originally liked the place very much but they are influencing my decision now. I want to make a well thought out next step and not just react.

About posting it for sale, are you saying to post without a seller agent? I am very close to handing this over to property management for future rental, and it may violate their contract but something I can ask I guess...

@Filipe Pereira It can make a difference of $600/m or $7200/y.

I tought of those options. Philadelphia doesn't make rent per room that friendly to landlord. I can only have maximum of 3 strangers occupying the property which makes it unlawful to rent to group of five roommates. Making it solely an airbnb place didn't look economically profitable either plus I am physically far from the place so can't monitor much of the airbnb myself.

I made a rush decision buying a property. Some red flags I ignored:

1. The property was supposedly in the market for two years and wasn't sold.
2. It's not a duplex or triplex but too many rooms for a single-family. 
3. I can only have 1 lease and no more than 3 strangers (according to Philly rule) but I have rooms for more than 3 strangers.
4. There wasn't much room for negotiation and the seller took advantage of my sense of urgency.
5. He sold the property as is and I fell for it..
6. It's not too shattered for complete remodel work.
7. It's not duplex or triplex so now I am getting backlash from family and relatives who think the ultimate solution is to remodel or just sell.

I spoke to a seller agent who said the max I can profit is around $15k which isn't profitable at all. And it doesn't make sense to remodel a house that's livable in my opinion. It's a 100-year-old house and if I remodel, mine as well demolish and start over. I can't afford that big of a project now, so I don't wanna touch the remodeling. 

Now, how do I make a decision to hold or sell.. keeping in mind that there are duplex/triplex property deals I might be losing right now and some fix and flip opportunities that won't wait for me in few years down the line? 

Can someone tell me how pricey the process is to get rooming hosuing license in Philadelphia? I was told I would have to hire a lawyer to bring my case to the city and to get it approved and it would cost a lot of money and time. Can I transfer the license to prospective buyer and have that as a selling point in future?

Some context: I have a 5 BR/2 BA single family home that's RM-1 zoned. I looked at rental analysis few well reviewed property managers gave and looks like I won't be able to recoup my monthly mortgage out of rental income if and when I have tenant in this property. Some suggested to get rooming housing license and rent per room to maximize income. I wanted to know more about this process and it seems like the philadelphia gov site doesn't have much resource on this. I am in the process of making some phone calls to lawyers but your input is greatly appreciated. 

I have a 5 BR/2 BA single family home that's RM-1 zoned. It's very hard to find single family that will occupy all 5 bedrooms. So would this be a good idea to give tenant flexibility to host airbnb on the unoccupied rooms? This way I can charge a higher rent and attract more tenants. But I also read about the liability i.e. if guest causes any damage, my landlord policy won't cover it. So what would be more logical approach here?

@Jennifer Donley thank you for sharing. I will take a look.

@Sheryl Sitman  This is my first investment and didn't wanna jump right to section 8 yet. Plus I am not too familiar with that target group. I am continuously looking into property management companies. Some companies I spoke to didn't show interest in visiting my property and giving free advice. I guess the thought process being if I don't move forward with their company, it would be a waste of their time. But so far, finding a pm company looks like the next approach.

@Ross Yeager thank you for the reply. The properties around my area are only appreciating in value. It's definitely profitable to sell now but if I can hold onto this property, it will earn me higher profits in the future. That's one of the reasons I wanna hold onto it.

For Airbnb, I found urhip, a pm company. Would you recommend any you know of? 

How would I know the Airbnb pm company or anybody else isn't opening his or her own account and listing my property to earn money separately without my consent. The only way I think of is me checking on Airbnb frequently to see if the property got listed more than once. Does Airbnb have any protection against listing the same property more than once under different accounts? 

Making multi-units will stretch my wallet at this point, I am trying to think of a more economic yet hassle-free solution to this situation. Any thoughts?

I bought a house three months ago to use as rental. I furnished it hoping I can try out airbnb while posting my rental and waiting for prospective tenants. But I am not liking this airbnb as I am not in the mood of hosting guests. I would rather rent and tenants take care of themselves. My job keeps me super busy for me to clean the house and comply with all covid laws while hoping to not get sued by guests. I couldn't find any property management (pm) company that manages airbnb in this area (Philadelphia, PA). Plus I am not sure how to trust a third party to manage airbnb long term while I am not occupying the place which is what I am aiming for as I want to move out of state next year.

I got suggestion to sell the house and gain some profit but I don't want to. I like the location and want to hold onto the property.

I was suggested to do house hacking, i.e. rent the rooms but am finding it hard to get a pm company to do this for me as Philadelphia law doesn't allow rent per rooms. Then again, what surprises me is how all the large univisetiry apartments get away with it. They rent rooms to individual students on separate lease? How?

Anyways, if a pm company isn't doing this, since I won't be in the property, the house hacking doesn't work for me. So far, I actually found couple folks who wanted to manage my property under the radar but they will be doing cash business.

At this point, I am going back and forth...this is stressing me out. So I call pm companies and they want to know how I wanna rent the property. It's furnished. But it's a SFH. If I rent to family, they will want to bring their furniture. I have dresser, bed, desk in each room suitable for students and young professionals and not for families. So I would have to literally sell all these furniture that I just bought a month ago! Also, the property is near two universities and single families wouldn't wanna live here.

Then comes the harder part. It's a five bedroom house and I am not sure if this property falls under Philadelphia's educational housing district which will make it unlawful to have more than 3 strangers living together. So can I rent this house to group of friends who want to pay for the whole house under one lease or would that get me in trouble?

2nd fl has 3 rooms 1 bath. It becomes too much sharing imo. 3rd fl has 2 rooms 1 bath. I was told to remodel the 3rd fl to have 1 unit. So do I HAVE to remodel this house to make constant cash flow while staying out of any trouble from authorities. It's a 100 year old house and I was hoping to get 10 more years of use from this, and gain some money. So, in future I can do a major renovation instead of doing piece by piece now.

Any thoughts? Appreciate all the suggestions. I need to find a decision soon to better gear toward right group of people. Thank you so much in advance.