All Forum Posts by: Natalie Schanne

Prash Sun - use the suggested vinegar and baking soda cleaning tips. Buy odor neutralizing fresheners (usually $1-2 each) at Walmart/Target and put them everywhere. Open the windows. Stop cooking anything with the smelly ingredients. Test the smell level on neighbors because you probably can't smell it. As an agent leasing apartments, the prospective tenant acts very strongly to smells. The landlord is already upset he will have vacancy because all of the showings for 45 days haven't resulted in an applicant. At the extreme end, you or the landlord may have to wash or repaint all the kitchen walls, and ceiling and clean the carpet. It cost me about $5000 to cover up smell in a 2400 sf house. I used Kilz paint primer to cover over thick smoking smell. The landlord will probably treat any lingering strong smell equivalent to smoking in the unit and take appropriate remediation until it's clean.

Michael Landrum - Consider the reasons why your cousin cannot qualify for a loan. Do you want to risk paying for her to live in your house for free while you cash out your brother? Evaluate if the house is worth more than $45000 or if that's fair. If it's worth more, why wouldn't you sell it on the open market? Option 1) Get a 20,000-22500 loan to pay off your brother's stake and get the title in your name, then sign an official installment sale (lease to own) contract with your cousin. She must give you a downpayment (more than a normal security deposit). She must give you monthly rent on the first (schedule your mortgage loan payment on the 10th). If she defaults on paying you, serve her notice and evict her. Keep the downpayment. Sell the house. Option 2) Convince your brother to go half and half with you on the lease to own contract. You each get paid 50% of the agreed 'rent' monthly. $45000 over 5 years without interest is $750/mo. Over 7 years is about $600/mo. Charge 5% interest minimum. Option 3) Apologize to your cousin and list the house for sale. Pocket half the money with your brother. Call it a day.

Michael Ash - is there any chance your neighbors are racially/socially discriminating? Did you read that social connections are really valuable to your overall health and happiness? If your neighbors are not calling the police on your tenants and you're not observing any abnormal damage, let her stay. I would actually try to renew her lease for a term so it ended at a high demand time for tenants for your market (and not so she could give 30 day notice in Nov/December). Does she want to sign through August? Next year? Her response will let you know how she likes your property. Total aside - I lived right next to drug dealers / very heavy users in a B+/A- area in Northern Virginia, but their frequent guests didn't cause any trouble to me (didn't break into my car or rob my house), so I left it alone. Their house went to foreclosure, was fixed up by flippers and bought by a young professional couple a few months ago.

Holly Yankus - Congratulations on your growing family! :) Talk with more lenders about a conventional loan for a SFH. Can you qualify? Maybe your DTI is high. Could you and your husband theoretically have separate addresses as primary residences? Can you close on the SFH and move in and your husband officially joins you in August? Or can you build a door into the other half of the duplex to expand your living space? (Is it rented?) The first few months of baby's life will be stressful, but not necessarily require that much more space. A crib is 4x2? You already have everything else. Ask yourself HOW you can make it work for 6-12 months. You'll figure out a smart solution. FHA loans require primary home ownership for a time because default rates are much lower on one's own home and you probably put down around 3.5% of the purchase price.

Joshua Martin - I can't see your original post in the app, so my savings are ballpark estimates. I would budget maintenance/capex at 10% of monthly rents. Save $100 I would eliminate the common area utilities paid by owner and roll into the units somehow. Pro rata water charge or whatever. Save $200/mo. I would check craigslist to see if I can raise rents - otherwise this doesn't pass the 1% rule. Where I live you can get $800-1000 rent on a $50k house. I would manage myself - save $200/mo. I would also make the property so awesome I'd minimize vacancy, so I'd budget 2 wks/yr vs 1 month vacant. - save $100/mo Then the property would cash flow fine. Overall it looks expensive if you have any rehab to do and you can't raise rents much.

Eric Bender - Welcome! Think bigger! I bought a 5 BR 3 BA for $255k and it's been great. Each marginal bedroom is usually not that expensive for the rent you'll get. Connect with a local real estate agent and ask her to send you current and ongoing info on all the properties in your target areas. When you get into town, keep touring until you find a good deal. Look through cosmetic problems since you can easily remedy these and other buyers may not bid at all. My house was a 1974-built foreclosure that reeked of smoke, but had nice cabinets and granite countertops. I had my first roommates within 30 days of owning it and they've been paying my mortgage since.

Kenny Oliver - Start in your own backyard. Join your local REIA and meet some real estate agents. Get an agent to start sending you auto emails for multifamily properties to consider. If you like some, schedule some tours. You can research expected rental prices on craigslist>housing>apartments>maps. With 100k down, you could buy two $400k properties at 75% ltv. Look at deals for at least 30 days before you do any. Get a sense for what might be a good investment. You could also be a private money lender at 6-12% to people in your new real estate network.

@John Barry @Kim Meredith Hampton - If you rented at an apartment at a big complex owned by Vornado, Starwood, Avalon, etc., and you died or lost your job, do you believe they would relieve you or your estate of your lease obligations? No. Not unless they were forced to somehow - and even then they'd probably attempt to charge some significant 1-2 month lease cancellation fee (whatever you agreed to in the contract). 

So, why would a smaller landlord be obligated to not collect that rent if it's in a prepaid account? Obviously, it's reasonable for you to 'mitigate damages' by starting to look for a new tenant after the on-lease tenant has given notice and vacated, and you cannot charge rent after the unit has been re-rented. But you wouldn't likely have to give any prepaid rent back until the unit was emptied of all tenant possessions and the unit was re-rented.

John Barry - I worked for a landlord in Philadelphia who accepted a years rent upfront because an international student couldn't qualify due to not having any credit. This was a good solution vs her being denied. I don't see why it wouldn't be legal. I'd add a clause that any assessments for damage mid-rental could be applied to money in the pre-paid rent account. That way if drugs/pets/guests happen, you haven't committed to them for a year. They can still break the lease and you have higher liquidated damages. Make sure you screen the mom and sister and have all 3 listed as jointly and severally liable for the house and any damages. Check their landlord / prev address references. Use the property records online in your county to verify his ownership for x years of their previous residence, if they don't list any other landlord.

Jason Harkless - Not a CPA. I'd report the total IRS reported 1099 income as on the forms and take an expense for the non existent payment and save myself a note. Less likely to get audited by a computer. Amazon FBA services issues government IRS reports that are ~30% greater than the $$ you get deposited into your bank account. I've been advised to expense out the differential.