All Forum Posts by: Michael Karl

the first two posts are a great suggestion, just want to throw another option at you to consider, you can use a grinder with a concrete blade and use it like a sander and blend the batch into the original wall area to make the patch blend in better with the wall then use a basement paint like Drylock or a water proofing that is painted on the walls, its a little thicker then just concrete paint and will help to cover up the patched area.

@Emily Wu the UB area both North and South campus are both great for students.  You will attract different types of students around each campus.  Depending on what you are looking for you will have to evaluate the two areas because they are very different from each other, North campus is in an upper class town about 15 minutes north of the city and South campus is in the city itself,  also the UB medical campus is a more up and coming area in the downtown area.  You have to be careful with South campus and the Medical campus area because there are areas that properties are good for rental and only a block or two away they neighborhoods are very rough and nobody will rent from you.  

@Mohamad Khan welcome to Bigger Pockets, I am also in the Buffalo area.  Good luck with the purchase of your new property.  you have found a great website to help you learn everything you will need to know about property investing.  I am in your local area, if you even have a question or need anything feel free to reach out to me.

@Rickie Mincy congrats on making your first purchase. 

Aseperate checking and savings account is the way to go when first starting out. I did exactly that when I closed on my first rental, depending on your bank when using your online banking you can assign different accounts nicknames to help you easily separate the different accounts. As far as making repairs you can just use the money right from your personal checking account, since you are not creating an LLC the money from this rental will all go on your personal taxes. the Biggest thing to remember is to document every single thing you spend money on for the rental, to will assist your accountant when tax time comes.

@Grant Francke, remember that if the tenants are under contract you have to honor the existing contract.  I do like @Owen Dashner suggestion of including a copy of the agreement and even asking them to confirm that all information is correct.  I just had a similar situation, I do not have the letter I sent in front of me right now.  But remember when giving them your contact information to remind them that contact should be during regular business hours unless emergency and give them an emergency contact number.   Also its not a bad idea to assure them that you will be trying to make the transition as smooth as possible and if you are making any updates to the property right away to let them know that you will be improving the property.

@Abdul Siddiqui, I would have you say with 2 income properties under your belt you are a little past the infancy stage. But the question I have for you is what are you looking to get out of these rentals. If you are looking to build an income stream from them then you should consider a LOC to use some of your equity in your personal property for down payments for more rentals. At this point you seem to have the landlord aspect figured out, I do not know your area but something to consider would be multi family, like a duplex or triplex. you can have multiple tenants under 1 roof and increase your monthly profit.

@Cameron DePaola first of all welcome to Bigger Pockets, you have found a great place to get help with a project like this.  Since it sounds like you  are very new to this let me suggest a few great assets that are available to you for free, at the top of the this webpage there is a tab labeled "education," inside that is a tab labeled "guides," from there you should start with the "Ultimate Beginners Guide".  Also to figure out if this property is profitable you will need to know the average rent that each unit could take in, or if you are looking to sell what fully rehabbed houses sell for in your area.  After you figure out that if you are looking to hold this for a rental there are a ton of other things to consider as far as expenses are concerned.  For example, taxes, insurance, property management, ect... the list goes on and on.  Don't think for a second that I am discourage you from buying this but there is a large amount of information you need to educate yourself with before you jump into a project like this.  Another thing to consider, and I speak from experience with bank-owned properties in colder climates.  make sure you are very extensive with your inspection of the property,  I have had frozen pipes in a couple bank owned properties, many times you will see a sign or notice that the property is winterized but you could still have broken pipes, sometime inside walls that you will not see until you get water turned back on.  I feel like this is a topic I could talk about for hours because I have been in your shoes, but the biggest advice I can give you is education, education, education  you can not know too much before you make that first purchase. 

good luck and please let me know if I can help you more with this topic or answer any other questions you make have 

as many people have already stated in the forum you are better off going to a local bank. I am currently in a similar situation in Upstate New York. I attempted to contact the larger banks and was face with a very quick NO as you were. After that I contacted some local banks and have had a lot more success at moving forward in the LOC process. Many of the smaller banks will require you to open some kind of account with them before they will lend to you, but a basic checking or savings account is not hard to set up, if you do not use the bank for the loan cancel the account. And if you do get a loan from them you could choice to use that account to hold the security deposits for the new property you buy. It is not a bad idea anyways to start a small relationship with other banks and lenders to get your foot in the door for future purchases.

@Derrick Lu I purchased my personal residence about 8 years ago and the full bath in the house has bath fitters installed around the tub.  in my personal opinion I am very disappointed with the product, I have all the paperwork from the original owner, but my issue is with the tub surround area where the wall does not sit properly against the original wall.  After talking with a representative from Bath Fitters at a local home show this past fall I found out that since my unit was installed the company has upgraded a lot of the materials they use and now offer a lifetime warranty on all units installed.  I do agree with the other posts on here that you could find a cheaper option to refinish the bathroom.  but in my opinion you can not go wrong with the new bath fitters products if you are willing to spend the money.

good luck and hope you make out well with whatever you decide

@Matt Boyle here is a few things to think about. You can just end the tile around the sink and doors at the bottom of the cabinet if you are using a tile with a straight edge, or if you want to buy a trim tile to stop it in the open areas,  same goes for the door way.  also it would not look bad if you took the tile up to the ceiling, or to the top edge of the cabinet if the cabinets do not extend to the ceiling, and if you do stop at the top of the cabinet you will also need that trim edge.  honestly if you google the word backsplash and click images you will see hundreds or even thousands of examples, and as you mentioned in your original post this is for your mother, so a lot of the decision on this is personal preference and show her the different options and let her decide, any way you go can work fine