All Forum Posts by: Paul Winka

I'd like to get both opinions and some supporting regulations regarding this matter of bedroom count in a property. Of course someone can sleep in a room off the kitchen (or in the kitchen itself!), but that's not what I am getting at. It's more of if it's generally common and accepted, and if there is a regulation against it, to cite that.

Could a room off a kitchen count as a bedroom? 
Could the entrance room of a house be a bedroom and still have it count in the total # of bedrooms? 
Could a living room be "labeled" a bedroom to up the bedroom count, i.e. 4 bed / 2 bath / no living room as opposed to 3/2 with living room? 

@Bill Gulley had mentioned in another post that having a bedroom off the kitchen would violate the "no passing from one room to get to another rule". It makes for a weird, dysfunctional floor plan, I totally agree. 

Thanks for your input.

Would it be considered a conflict of interest for a lawyer that is working for a title company to also be a broker representing the seller in a transaction closed at that title company? The closing agent is not this attorney, but he does work in the title company and oversees the closings and weighs in on them.

Reason is I’ve got a transaction that’s gone bad after closing, and in seeking remedies, unbeknownst to me when I started talking to the title company attorney as a “neutral party”, I shared some things I normally wouldn’t have.

I found out through the grapevine about his dual role AFTER I had the conversation with him.

Shouldn’t this attorney disclose that he is also the managing broker for the seller before talking to me?

What can I do with this? 

What should I do to fix this? My first inclination is to buy a big tub of red devil spackle and artfully slap it in there with a few spackle knives of different widths, but I know that's not the right way. Note water leak causing the damage has been stopped. Thanks for the help!

@Bruce Woodruff True, true, Bruce, good input. Not sure about your area, but I don't have a list of subcontractors that will pick up the phone and snap to it within a reasonable time to give an estimate. Just wanted to get a ballpark idea in short order to see what I'd be looking at, and HD does that for small amount, plus they do a measure so I can take that. Yikes, $5K. That's nearly as much as a the waterproofing job. 

I am trying to decide what is easier and makes more sense between these two: Get spun up on laying tiles and fitting that in my busy life, or deal with the draining experience of getting a contractor to show up, give an estimate, then appear weeks or months later, do an honest job, stick to it and finish on time. 😀



 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I got a home depot quote to do LVP over the 850 square feet or so, and it would be around $5K, it's a lot! 

Or I could just put the contrasting tiles around the edge, make it look intentional, not like a nice-try-but-failed attempt at finding something close. Now I have to learn how to set real ceramic tile. 

I just recently had my finished basement waterproofed and need help figuring out what my options are for making it look pretty again. The floor had ceramic tile and a vinyl baseboard. The tiles adjacent to the wall and the baseboard have been removed, the drain tile put in, concreted over, and this has left a depressed section 18”wide that has a drop off of ¼” from the existing tile.

For a quick, low-cost solution, I was thinking of putting floor leveler in, then painting it a similar color to the tile that’s there, then putting the baseboard.

Or as an alternative, just letting a professional handle leveling the floor and putting LVP down. A little bit more about this ceramic tile is that the height of the tiles one next to the other is not even, this can be felt by standing on the grout lines, all this to say that it might make sense to remove the ceramic tile, level it, or both remove and level it before laying the LVP.

First plan would probably cost no more than $300. I’d hire out for the second option. Probably more than $6000 for my 1000 square foot basement.

What would you do?

Hey Larry, that sucks and this may not help much, but I've written some letters to the credit bureaus and just stated my case without hardcore evidence. It worked, but that was over 15 years ago. 

I'll let the professionals weigh in on this, but just telling you this like we're strangers chatting at a bar so take it with a grain of salt, but I believe it puts the onus back on the creditor or collection agency to reinstate it or show proof they really did try to contact you if you dispute it. If they never reply or can't prove it, then it will be removed by the bureaus. You kind of have the last word. I'm curious how this will work out for you. Good luck! 

Been wondering about whether a purchase loan from the get-go is the wisest strategy each time to buy new properties, or pay cash and then refinance shortly afterward?

What would be the value added (if any) to pay cash for a house, then refinance it? It seems like a mistake to buy with cash then immediately refinance because I have never heard of anyone doing that, but can’t think of a reason to never ever do it. My thoughts are:

REFI PROS: Immediately buy the property, put the capital to use in the shortest time possible. Also, buyers would go to the front of the line when competing with others to get the property by not having as many contingencies. All cash offers are rather compelling. Closing quickly, possibly paying less with removing financing contingencies too.

REFI CONS: Some duplicated costs, say with an appraisal, -OR- skip appraisal and risk overpaying, then do another appraisal at bank’s behest in a few weeks for the refi. Plus possible other duplicated costs, like recording fees, transfer taxes, a few other administrative hurdles with insurance. Since they bank knows I own the house already they would choose to drag feet on refi loans over purchase loans for other customers.

PURCHASE PROS: Anecdotally have heard that the timeline for purchase loans is faster. No duplication of certain costs, like deed recording fees, appraisals, etc. The process will protect me somewhat from overpaying because of the appraisal. Also, less hassle with appraisers because they “magically” seem to come in close to the offer price.

PURCHASE CONS: Longer timeline to get to ownership, less competitive offers because financing could fall though.

Ok, so I will let you know what happened. I tried to outdo what the appraiser had done, and while I know that non-MLS sales would substantiate it, it just wasn't practical or worthwhile to try to make the case. The appraiser never called me back, probably following some code of ethics about never having a conversation with the prospective borrower. Just wasn't worth chasing down, call out the appraiser, make them re-do it. I lost this battle.

So, I let it go. Yes, $495 down the drain. But not really down the drain. I chose to frame this as "keep focus on the big picture" type of thing. I mean, I am getting 9 appraisals at once, close to $4700 spent on appraisals. Most of them were WAAAAYYY higher than expected, all offered significant cash out save for the one that came in at $70K, so if a 4 of the others were $5K less than what they were, I would be in the same spot as I am in now, and wouldn't raise an eyebrow. Going beyond that, I calculated that in the case of this one property at $70K, it's not worth refinancing, so loan fees for that one.

Having the right mindset as an investor helps a lot. Admittedly, it's hard to see it through that lens at first. 😀

Appraisal came in way low in zip code 39209, Jackson, MS.

Paid $90K in May 2019, at the time appraised for $95K. Getting refi now, the appraiser says it’s worth $70K.

There were multiple things wrong with the appraisal. 

AREA: Wrong square footage used, 17% less than actual. Easy enough to fix that...

USING OLD SALES DATA: Appraiser mentioned the last sale data was the one from the previous owner, not from my purchase. Trouble is, on sites like redfin, realtor.com, and zillow, the data from my purchase of the property is not there, but yet the county assessor has the correct ownership data. But the price paid is not showing on the assessor’s website. 

COMPS: Sales & rental comps were not very good, using properties that were visibly in worse shape, had carports instead of garages, rented for less than my property is now, etc.

According to the lender, only MLS sales data will be considered for assessing the property's current value. I talked to the seller, who is a turnkey provider; he can provide HUD1s for recent sales of similar properties and is willing to assist me. However, HUD1s from non-MLS sales will not be considered. I think this is wrong and non-MLS sales should be considered. If they don't work with me to assess the value with real sales data, seems like this would be grounds for a refund on the appraisal.

What more would you do to get a fair appraisal? What works with appraisers?