All Forum Posts by: Megan A.

We did use multiple examples of leases from corporate rental properties and I did my research on all of the MN laws as well as read a few books on the subject. I am the type that is overly cautious and I am a bit of a worry wart so I want to make sure that I  doing things correctly. I guess I want my butt covered if there ever would be an issue down the road! Thank you all for your input I sincerely appreciate it. 

Thank you all for your helpful replys, I am amazed at how generous people are with helpful information in these forums. I will definitely be contacting an attorney, for peace of mind if anything. 

My husband and I purchased a duplex about a year ago and occupy one side and rent out the other to a wonderful tenant.  When we purchased the property we did our own research on state laws and used outlines that we found online to come up with a new lease, we also used parts of what the previous owner had the lease. At the time we felt we did not have the money to hire a lawyer to review but now we are in a better place financially to do so if it is necessary.  I feel like we have a good handle on the laws but I want to make sure we have all of our bases covered for the future.  What is your opinion and can anybody recommend a good lawyer in the Minnetonka, MN area that specializes in this kind of law? Thank you.

Thank you all for your helpful replys! We originally wanted to refinance into a conventional loan but we were concerned that the appraisal plus closing costs would be costly and it would take a long time to recoup the expense to make it worth it.  We have done quite a few updates and with the values of real estate rising in our area I think we would have sufficient equity. I guess it's just a matter of how long we will hold onto the property.  Are there downsides to refinancing besides the upfront costs? Thank you!

I just realized that you wrote if our loan was taken out prior to January 2015 it would be worth it, I was thinking it was 2015 still! So no, our loan was taken out July of 2015 so it may not be worth our while to change anything.

@Zack Karp

Thank you for taking the time to post that response. The interest rate that we have locked in on our loan is 3.5% and it looks like we pay $156 per month for mortgage insurance. I contacted our current lender and the person I spoke with made it seem like it would be very difficult to get better terms than that. Would you suggest that I start contacting other lenders for more information? The letter we received today had a note at the bottom in fine print that said the rates quoted were based on an adjustable rate mortgage after 5 years with no more than a 1% increase per year, is that what our options would typically be? If so, I would just stick with our current fixed rate loan. Thank you for your input. 

Mike,

I know this response is late but I searched this same issue today on here and this was the most current posting about it. What did you end up deciding? Like you, we have been getting letters in the mail once every few weeks about FHA streamline refinancing. It seems too good to be true so I haven't called. We have a duplex that we owner occupy and have been there for about a year. I would love to hear what you ended up doing.

Megan

Thank you Kevin Manz for your reply. We have definitely discussed having her move into the updated unit. Logistically we aren't even sure how that would work. We would have to move our stuff out and clean/paint and have it empty for her to move in. So where would all of our belongings go? I guess maybe a storage pod. We will have to cross that bridge if she would decide to do it. We thought maybe we could send her a notice staring her options: stay in her current unit and pay the increased rent without getting any upgrades, move into our updated unit and pay the increased rent, or move.

My husband and I purchased a duplex in July 2015 and inherited a wonderful renter who always pays her rent on time. She never causes any problems and is a quiet person to live next to as my husband and I have moved into one side of the duplex to update it. Our renters lease ends September 30th and she has voiced that she would like to stay another 6 months because she is saving money to buy a house. Now for the problem, we bought and moved into this duplex to build out the unfinished basement on our side and add a bedroom as well as a family room in order to charge more for rent. We are almost done with the project and we're hoping to move into our renters unit to do the same thing starting on Sept 30th. The financial breakdown looks like this: -Our renter pays $1,025 (she has a 2 bed/1 bath) -Our mortgage/taxes/insurance/PMI-$1,520 -Market rent for a similar property for a 3 bed 1 bath is approx. anywhere from $1250-$1450 in our area. I am confident we can get at least $1300 for our updated unit but potentially more. -We have done all remodeling/updates ourselves and have spent approx $5,000 -We do all maintenance ourselves and our renter pays all of her own utilities. The dilemma is, do we let our great renter stay another 6 months even though we could be renting our updated unit out for $300 more a month if we moved into her unit in September? It's scary for us because we haven't had to go through the process yet of finding a new renter so what if we can't find somebody or what if we end up with somebody who doesn't pay rent on time? There's also the part where we will have 6 months where we really can't do much work to our renters unit so the whole project gets put on hold. Our goal is to fix the other side up and then move out. I am confident we can be collecting at leastz $1300 per unit at that point. We also may be able to refinance this summer from an FHA loan to conventional to get rid of our mortgage insurance. We have to run the numbers to see if that even makes sense to do or not because interest rates have increased since we purchased our home. Does anybody have any good ideas or advice? Thank you!

Hello!  My husband and I purchased our first rental property, a duplex, in July of 2015. We are living in one side and renting out the other.   The basement on both sides is unfinished so we are in the process of adding a bedroom and living room in the basement of our side to increase our rental income potential. We hope to be finished by June and plan to move over to the other side of the duplex in September when our renters lease is up. Then we will do it all over again!  When we bought the property I never thought I would be so interested in continuing to invest in real estate. I can't wait to find our next deal, hopefully by this fall. We are interested in multifamily properties and are playing with the idea of buying something near a college campus.  My husband is in the construction business so he does all of the work himself, which is a blessing and a curse! We love bigger pockets!