All Forum Posts by: Mike Lightcap

Genaro Quiles I've been a realtor since 2003 but I haven't practiced the last 6 years and have my license with Coldwell bankers referral program. I'm pulling out and making it fully active so I can more easily search investment properties for myself and submit offers without worrying about coordinating with an agent.

not all sections but a lot of it is bag and getting worse.  It's night and day if you grew up there.  

this feed is making me want to look into Germantown.  I grew up in the Mayfair section of philadelphia and always thought of Germantown as not that great of a neighborhood but I'm sure that has changed.  Mayfair has actually changed a lot, it went from police, fire and blue collar, hard working families to a lot of section 8 and drug addicts.  

Mark Redmann thanks, I will look further into it.

If a property is zoned as cmx-1 in philadelphia does that property have to maintain a business operation on the first floor? A "duplex" I am currently looking at is zoned as cmx-1, however, the first floor has been converted into a one bedroom apartment. I'm assuming they didn't get the proper permits to do this,therefore; I'm a bit leery into pursing this as I don't want any complication arising from renting out the first floor as an apartment and maybe having a neighbor or whoever turn me in. This would hold up renting the property and so forth. If it is legal to do this then I'll look into the property further, I just don't want to be doing anything illegal. I know the first answer is going to be contact a real estate lawyer but instead of dishing out $$ I'm asking the question here because I'm sure someone has run into this exact situation and therefore can offer insight. Thank you, Mike

As a realtor the earnest money deposit I tell my clients in PA 1 or 2 thousand, regardless of purchase price. Putting that much money down at least let's the seller know that you aren't just throwing in a ton of offers and seeing which one hits. However, say you go in at the same price as someone else does but the other buyer puts a 5k ED as opposed to your 2k ED, the other buyer with the 5k ED has a stronger offer given that all other variables are equal (credit score, money in the bank, type of financing etc). The buyer with the 5k on the line has more skin in the game and therefore is less likely to back out of the deal and risk losing 5k. I would say put down 1 or 2k, if they want to negotiate and have you put more down as an ED that's your call. There are always other ways to back out of the deal while keeping your ED such as the home inspection

If a property is zoned as cmx-1 does that property have to maintain a business operation on the first floor? A "duplex" I am currently looking at is zoned as cmx-1, however, the first floor has been converted into a one bedroom apartment. I'm assuming they didn't get the proper permits to do this,therefore; I'm a bit leery into pursing this as I don't want any complication arising from renting out the first floor as an apartment and maybe having a neighbor or whoever turn me in. This would hold up renting the property and so forth. If it is legal to do this then I'll look into the property further, I just don't want to be doing anything illegal. I know the first answer is going to be contact a real estate lawyer but instead of dishing out $$ I'm asking the question here because I'm sure someone has run into this exact situation and therefore can offer insight. Thank you, Mike

Welcome to BP, I'm new on here as well and there is a ten of information. I've gravitated towards the podcasts, I've been listening to at least one per day and they are very informative. GL on your endeavors. Mike Lightcap

Here's another question. If I can find out anything on the zoning and legality of how it's arranged now and decided to go forth with an offer, based on the provided info, what would be a good offer to throw at him? He's collecting $1400/month right now, doesn't the 1% rule say that a $140k offer applies in this situation? Is there possibly some wiggle room on the 1% rule given the recent trend in this area and appreciation?

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I think the rents are a little low but for the condition they can't go too much higher either.  @Joseph Scorese the renters are both locked in to year leases but I didn't get as far as asking for how long.  I just wanted to see the property before digging any deeper. Also before digging deeper, I wanted to do some due diligence to see if the numbers worked, as this will basically be my first property.  (It would actually be my second rental but the first one I own out right so I didn't really need to do numbers on it).

I was aware that I would need a lawyer to eventually look over the terms of the seller financed mortgage but that would be a one time fee which yes comes into factor.  

Anyhow, I found out through the brt that this is a cmx-1 property, however the first floor is functioning as a one bedroom unit with kitchen and bath.  I'm not even sure if it is legal to rent that portion out as an apartment and I don't want to have to deal with getting it rezoned.   I think the answer might be clear to stay away from this property, what do you guys think?