All Forum Posts by: Mario F.

Hello, I'm interested in buying a duplex in NE LA and was wondering if anyone knew how I can track down the exact utility costs for a property so I can punch in those numbers to get a better pictures of overall costs. 

thanks!

mario

Hello, I was once told that going to the seller's agent directly and giving them the full commission of the property you are looking to buy will give them more incentive to close the deal with you. Any thoughts about this? Advantages/disadvantages?  How would you contact the seller's agent without your own agent?

thanks

mario

Hello, I'm looking into purchasing a duplex in north east LA. The price is low for the amazing location which is close to downtown (cypress park) and in an up and coming neighborhood. I had a contractor look at this property today and said the foundation needs about 20k to fix it. My brother tells me it's impossible to fix foundations so don't even bother,. It's tough to let this deal go but I have to admit, it sounds like it'll be massive project. Probably around 200k to fix it all up. The list price is 500k for two 1 bed 1 bath units.  Does this sound like a deal I should run from?  

Here is the address you can see the photos:  426 isabel st.  

The duplex is propped up on a hill. Has a nice view but a unique situation foundation wise. The surrounding area along the edges of the frame is OK, according to the contractor but the middle needs to be redone. Any thoughts?

@Kent Newmark  Yes you're right. This particular lot is only 4000 so I'm kind of tied to the duplex long term unless something miraculous happens which I can't count on.  There is definitely rent control in this area.

@Archie Robb I went to the LADBS today and they said that's it's extremely  unlikely that I could add anymore units on this piece of land so you were right. Thanks for the advice though. I didn't know you could find out about that information so quickly.

0k

@David Eiges thanks! Sounds like we're trying to do similar things here haha. Would be great to keep in touch as we learn more about all of this.  

I was thinking about buying the property with 10 percent down instead of twenty so that I could take the rest of the cash and invest in the new construction almost right away.  

Do you have any idea how much a new construction of a duplex/triplex would cost overall?

@David Eiges  ther eis one tenant but they will move once the property is sold.  I wonder if the property would be sold off by the time I get all the information about the zoning. Sounds like a long process but I'll ask my agent about it to see if he has any thoughts on who to contact

@Account Closed It's pretty discouraging trying to find a place where the numbers make sense in Los Angeles. Don't think this duplex would be considered a great deal but it would be a start and a foot in the door with some potential in a neighborhood that is changing.  With some rehabbing, it could be a decent place to solve a couple of issues. Getting out of rent and finding a place for my mom to live in.  Would it make sense to get into a mediocre deal for these reasons?  I don't think I'll make much cash flow from this but perhaps it could be a great way to lock in a mortgage before inflation gets any worse. Does my logic make sense here or am I walking into a bad move?

http://library.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/Califor....

I found some interesting information on this page. Seems like the overall lot size would need to be much bigger to accommodate four units.  So I wonder why my agent told me this could be rezone for more units.

I just looked it up. It's an RD2 and has 4000 sq ft of lot space. So is it possible to change it to RD4 in this case?  Or anything more than that?