All Forum Posts by: Mark Plesha

A family member recently passed away and they owned a home on 30 acres with a pole barn. My wife and I are interested in potentially buying the property and we currently own a duplex that we are thinking about selling. Is it possible to sell the duplex and 1031 it for the family property if we can prove that the pole barn was being rented out and producing income? We would be living in the property as our personal residence, so I’m guessing the answer is no, but I was just looking for a definitive answer. Any insight would be great, thanks!

No difference in fees, 5 yr is 4%, 10 yr is 5%.

I need to decide between a 5 yr and 10 yr HELOC. I see the benefit of locking in these lower rates for 10 years, however I'm going to be finishing my basement in the next few years to add another 1000 sqft. So if I do the 5 yr, and finish the basement, plus have another 5 years of loan pay down (15 yr mortgage) I'll have quite a bit more equity. I also see the potential for the rates to not raise dramatically in the next 5 years with the slow growth of the economy. Supposed to be going to underwriting in the morning and need to let the lender know. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I thought I was going crazy when he told me that. Time for a new realtor I guess. Thanks for the feedback!

Ive been under the impression for awhile now that you can get a 30 year mortgage for a small multi unit, in this case a duplex, even if you aren't living in one of the units. I went to look at a property today and my realtor told me that it would be considered a commercial loan and the longest term I could get is a 20 yr with a balloon after 5. Is this true?

I ended up sending a letter to both addresses. I haven't heard anything yet, but I'm still sending letters to both monthly.  

Hey Cody Breunig , my advice would be to spend some time listening to specific podcasts about buy and holds, although they're all with your time, and read Brandon Turners book on investing in rental properties. You should get a very solid base of info to work from and set yourself up well to succeed. Good luck!

Hey Kevin, I live in northwest Indiana and work for a company that is a sub of NIPSCO, the utility company up here for gas and electric. I was on a job with a gas crew and asked the same question and was told that all of the work that they would do would be of no charge because they would make more money once the units were separated. Having said this, you would then be responsible for everything that needed to be re-piped inside the house to run to the new meters and would have to meet with the town/city engineer for inspection. 

Appreciate the feedback, fellas! 

My brother and I are in the beginning stages of starting a wholesaling business. We've been digging through BP articles and listening to podcasts non stop for a little over a year and are planning to jump into wholesaling in the next couple of months. Our plan is to start out wholesaling and then from there, after we've built up enough capital, we will begin investing in buy and hold properties. Having said this, does it make sense to start a basic LLC now for the wholesaling business, and then a new one when we transition into buy and hold investing , or can you restructure the business to get the added protection when you become a landlord. I know we need to take action and get started, but I don't want to create a bunch of problems for ourselves down the line either. Any advice on structuring the business when you're getting started would be much appreciated. Thanks!