All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Bronte

Hi BP,

I'm working my way through a refi on a duplex in South Buffalo and my lender is requiring a current survey of the property.  I don't hear about these surveys much.  Are these all pretty much the same?  Any referrals would be appreciated.  

Hi BP,

I'm under contract and about to close on a Duplex but, because the seller has been slow to provide the required documents, the closing has stalled and the contractors I had lined up to begin the rehab have had to move on to other jobs.  It's possible that no one, aside from the PM, will be in the property for maybe a month or potentially longer.  I've been considering ways to set up a basic home surveillance system just for my own peace of mind while the property sits empty (and maybe even into the future) and was wondering if anyone else has done this?  Probably just an unnecessary expense but I don't know....thoughts?

Hi BP,

I recently connected with a lender who is helping me with a cash-out refinance.  They asked me to provide the following information:

• Borrower name and ownership
• Project description – address, purchase date, number of units, sf, etc.
• Current rent roll
• 3 years’ operating statements (if available). If no historical results, provide a proforma operating statement.
• List of renovations completed on the properties and the costs associated with the renovations
• Current personal financial statement – please include all assets/liabilities even if housed in LLC’s or other entities (see attachment if needed) – if you are providing your personal financial statement on a different form, please just sign and date our form.
• Two years’ federal tax returns with K-1’s for all principals of the Borrower
• Global real estate cash flow of each principal – see template
• Resume or bio of work and real estate experience of principals

Rather than using the back of a napkin, I'd like to put this information together in a professional looking way but I'm not sure about what best practices here are or what that might even look like. For sure I'll be including the BRRRR report that Bigger Pockets generated for me, but there's much more information requested here than even that provides. Anyone have any ideas or examples of something similar that they've done? Thanks for reading.

Thanks for the input folks.  That's all great and useful advice.  In response to some:

I do have a contractor coming through that I plan to bounce these ideas off of.  I'll advise what the options are.

I also have a property manager who will be walking through to property soon to give an idea of what rents will be reno vs. no reno, but I'm anticipating something in the neighborhood of $800-$900 for little/no reno, vs $1100-$1200 for light rehab (patch/paint drywall, some floors, and probably these bathrooms).  I believe the neighborhood is sort of a C+ neighborhood bordering some B/B+ neighborhoods.

I want to renovate the baths for two reasons. First, I'd like to force some equity for when the time comes to put a mortgage on the property and cash-out. This will be far from a perfect BRRRR as I'll be leaving cash in the deal for sure, but if I can spend $10k on the bath and get an extra $15k on appraisal it seems to make sense. Second, I feel like the property would be crossed off of a lot of potential tenants lists having no shower, and in its current configuration, if I just threw a shower in there without replacing the window/tub/surround it would only be a matter of time (probably not much time) before water started getting out and eating the house which I hope to own for a long time. I try to imagine my young kids using this bathroom and what it would look like over time if they did, and based on how it looks now, I'm certain my kids would have that place consistently soaked with water going everywhere and covered in mold/mildew/rot within less than a year :P

I'm definitely not against leaving them as is if it makes more sense financially, I'm just not convinced that it will in the long term.

Hi BP,

I have a duplex that I plan on using as a long-term rental.  There is a single bathroom in each unit.  In each bathroom there is what appears to be an older clawfoot tub that has been "built-in" with painted plywood or cement board.  There are no showers, likely due to the fact that the bathroom window prevents installation of a proper tile or prefab surround.  I have come up with the following options so far:

-install shower with glass block window with tile surround and bath vent fan (no idea as to how waterproof this may be)

-demo old tub, wall off window, install prefab tub/shower combo and bath vent fan 

-reframe window to be much smaller and higher on the wall, leave existing tub, install tile surround and plumbing for shower

-leave as is and hope tenants don't care about not having a shower

In most of these cases it seems to really just boil down to whether I want to have a window that can be opened to alleviate wet room moisture, or install a vent fan.  I'm kind of terrified of water penetration/damage in general.  Any opinions as to my current options, or new thoughts as to how to make your rental unit bathrooms bulletproof in terms of water damage would be appreciated.  Thanks!