All Forum Posts by: Marcy Moyer

Only if you have enough savings to cover both mortgages if the market turns bad and you lose your job and can't get a tenant for the rental. Many people who did this before the crash ended up losing both homes because they could not cover the mortgages.

Gayle you may be able to convert the downstairs unit to a legal ADU, which will cost some money, but also had huge value to the house. You should be able to get a free 30 minute consult from a lawyer if you call the County Legal Association and get some advice. There is a huge push to get more housing in the county so as long as there are no health or safety violations there is probably a way to solve the problem.

My advice: buy and hold. You have a great investment. Unless the population of Denver is decreasing the grass is not necessarily greener. You have virtually no vacancy factor which tells you that this is a great location. Hold tight. In the future you can take some cash out to buy another investment or a personal residence. Jerry Orbach was famous for never leaving a broadway show. Sam Waterson said of him : "Someone told me Jerry never quit a show that was running," Waterston said to general laughter. Why sell a winner for a few hundred dollars more in cash flow and no assurance of more appreciation. If it costs 50K to sell and you get $300 more a month in cash flow  it will take you 166 moths to break even., over 3 years. If you get 5% appreciation a year in Denver and 1 % in someplace like Oklahoma on a 500K property you would lose 20K a year. Sorry the numbers just don't add up to me.

If you needed someone to be on title with you to qualify for the loan it is not likely the bank will agree to letting you take that person off the loan.

People with pets are not a protected class. It is possible that your PM and the potential tenant are confused. There is a law that applies to HOA's that prohibit them from completely banning all pets. So they have to allow at least an indoor cat but can ban dogs. As far as I know that is the only protection on the books for people with pets. Since you are not a owner of an entire condo building you have a right to ban all animals, not just pits. Even if the dog is a comfort animal, as opposed to a service dog, if renting to them would cause financial hardship you don't have to. Not true for service animal. So if it were me I would terminate the PM and let them try to file a law suit. It won't get them anything. And I agree with everyone that renting to a person who threatens to sue is a bad idea.

You are welcome!

@Sreenidhi S. if you have not been to the site yet you might be able to go with an agent, have them sign you in, and then have them get a commission. Then you just have to get through the contract and hope it doesn't say no rebates. If it does, you can probably negotiate getting the agent to prepay some HOA fees for you after close. Again, you may be able to get an additional 1% in credits if you can't have an agent.

@Sreenidhi S. did you ask them if you can use an agent?

@Brian Ploszay. the way the builders in California get around the not FORCING dual agency s to tell the buyer they are welcome to use their own agent but the buyer will have to pay for their own agent.

The builder will only pay a commission to an agent who introduces you to the complex. Since you are already on the priority list is unlikely that they would pay a realtor at this point. Plus, many builders are only giving realtors a flat fee, generally 10K and in the contract state that the agent is not allowed to rebate any money to the buyer.  It is not likely you will get money back by trying to bring in a realtor. Most builders will not negotiate on price. You can try to get them to give you a break on upgrades or closing costs if you use their preferred lender. I would push hard on the upgrades rather than closing costs as it will bring down the basis for property taxes. Also you may get a better break on taxes if you pay the closing costs. You need to ask an accountant about that. It can't hurt to ask for some credits. The worst they can say is no.