All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Bolcon

I recently bought my first property in West Warwick and had some conversations with the building official about the "apartment/in-law" in the basement.  Which you may have guessed is not legal by my use of the quotations.

It is grandfathered in as a two-family but from talking with the building inspector there would need to be more lot square footage as well as enough parking spots to make it a three family.  I assume Providence also has similar requirements although I can't be sure.

One option would be to try and finish it as part of one of the units. Of course this would still require all the codes for egress and everything be met, but you could do it without a zoning change and charge higher rent for the larger apartment. Another option (although I'm not sure about legal requirements for this) would be to make some storage units in the basement if it has good access. Possibly much better ROI because it would cost a lot less to put in.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to make the basement area legally part of one of the apartments.  Which would turn the unit from about 1050 square feet, 2bed 1 bath to something like 1500+ square feet 3 bed 2 bath.  Good luck.

Hello BiggerPockets Community,

 I am just starting out on my first property.  I am trying to get a lease situated (don't worry I plan to have an attorney look at it) and I was wondering about parking.  The property is a side-by-side duplex in RI.  There is sort of a driveway on one side but I don't believe it is wide enough to fit two cars, so the plan was to assign that to one unit.  But the rest of the parking is on the street without any designated parking.  How would I handle the parking in the lease?  Since the street is a public street I can't really assign specific parking for the tenants (other the the spot in the driveway to one unit).  Does anyone have any advice on how to call out the parking in the lease?  Thank you for any input.

@Filipe Pereira Thank you for the input. I did see your post on using Google Docs and it looks like a very interesting idea! I am going to look more into it.  It seems that your guidelines for credit score based on property class are mostly agreed upon by people who are looking for a minimum score. This is great information for me.

@Linda S. I agree that the whole story matters.  But it still seems that setting a minimum can save you a bit of headache from having to look at too many candidate's stories?

@Katie Stewart I forgot to mention the class. I think I would classify it as a B.  There are a good amount of rentals in the area, but quiet dead-end street, I would live there.

@Nancy DeSocio @Frank Patalano @Anthony Thompson Thank you for the feedback especially in my general geographic location.  Do you find that you get plenty of applicants above a 650 credit score?  My understanding from some other landlords I have talked to in RI have indicated that this past year especially they have been getting a flood of applicants whenever they put a house up for rent.

I think that no matter what even with a minimum standard on credit score it is still just one piece of the whole puzzle. And there are more important criteria, however, it can still be useful.

@JD Martin Thank you for the advice. I agree that the context matters.  But if you happen to be getting a good amount of applicants in a B-class area would setting a minimum hurt?  What I am leaning towards is that you can still have discretion above a certain score number, weed out some low hanging fruit, and also protect yourself from accusations of unfairness by having established criteria.

Hello everyone,

 I am set to close on my first rental property on Monday (fingers crossed it all goes well but it is conventional financing and not a short sale or foreclosure so there shouldn't be any surprises).  The house is a side by side duplex in West Warwick, RI. I figured I would get a head start on figuring out tenant screening and that is where I am in need of advice.

What do people (especially in RI, MA, and CT) set as minimum credit score for applicants?  I understand that there are varying opinions on if minimum scores should be set, and I also know that just the credit score is hardly the whole picture.  But I am looking to see if anyone has good/bad experience with setting a minimum score in this area.  Will 650 be too high and leave me with too few applicants?  Thanks for all the knowledge everyone brings together on here.

A very common issue is the circulator pump (if its a hot water system which it seems to be).  If the circulator pump is on the way out it may be struggling to move the water upstairs and might explain that the water moves for a few seconds but then slows to a trickle.  The heat from the water in the boiler may be able to heat the pipe for a certain distance, especially if the pump is still moving the water at a low rate.  But it won't be pumping at the required rate to get enough volume of water upstairs before it loses its energy (heat).  I'm not a boiler tech so this is just speculation.  I know it happened in my house last year that the boiler was running but the heat wasn't working upstairs.

Hi Richard, I'm fairly new to this game so I am hoping to learn something out of this too.

I think your question may be difficult to answer given that there are a ton of factors that go into insurance.  How high are your coverage limits, deductibles, etc.?  One thing I have learned so far is that some insurance companies will insure you for the replacement cost of the dwelling, however, others will just give you a buyer's policy for up to a certain amount.  The difference being that the buyer's policy does not cover total replacement if the house burns down and it essentially just covers your investment in the house.  I don't know what area you are in but in most areas of RI the mutli-family houses are very old.  So the total cost of replacement on a home that large is 4X-5X (or more) as much as the actual market value of the house, far more than what you paid for it.  This could be affecting your insurance rate.

$3500 does sound really high but it depends on a lot of factors.

Thank you @Alex Franks and @Sam Shueh for the insight. 

So a bit of an update.  I did not get a chance to talk with the building official prior to putting in an offer on the property.  So the offer went in based on having to do work for the permitting.  And running the numbers the property should still work out well even if it needs to get torn out completely.  The seller accepted the offer after trying to negotiate, but myself and my partner stood firm at our offer, citing the lack of permits for the additional living space so it doesn't officially count.

Also I figured I could use my due diligence period to get more info from the building department which is what I did.  Talking to building official it seems that as long as the egress is fine (which it seems to be based on a home inspection) I should be able to pull permits and have it all inspected.  The process for getting it properly inspected may require some breaking into drywall to access electrical or plumbing but in my opinion that should not be a huge deal provided its not overly extensive.  All in all it seems to me that getting the additional bedroom and bathroom to be legal should cost under $1,000 for permitting and inspection and potential drywall repair.  That is good considering I believe I am buying it at a price that does not really reflect that additional living area being there.