All Forum Posts by: Jeremy S.

Good for you for doing something smart with this money. I've seen people blow $20k on electronics and other crap and be broke again in a few weeks. What are your goals in RE? While it's not a huge amount of money in this particular business, it is certainly more than many of us started with. Depending on your goals, I would suggest investing in some education but he very selective. You could also try "house hacking" if that fits your life right now.

It sounds like you will be taking a lot of risk and putting in a lot of work to come in at $10k under ARV on this deal. That's going to be negated in taxes/utilities and lost rents if it takes you 6 months to rehab and get tenants in place. Also would this deal still cash flow after your refinance? I'm thinking not but it may be very close... there's certainly more to consider here including possible appreciation and your desire to learn from the $50k rehab... I would consider using leverage to buy a couple that are already done for that $160k and collecting rents from day 1

I don't believe that is necessary. I opened a dedicated bank account for my last flip and purchased all materials with that debit card. It made accounting very easy and I'm able to just give the final figures to my cpa at tax time.

I am currently in this situation but as a seller. We are scheduled to close on Friday but have been under contract for 6 weeks while I completed my rehab. I feel like my buyer got an exceptional deal on this home, mainly because I wanted the security of having it sold and at the earliest possible settlement date. I could easily see how a seller who doesn't care about their reputation would be more likely to cut corners and skip on some small details in this scenario. I say go for it but make sure your contract clearly states what is to be done to the property and should also include a timeline. Also, the less work left to be done would be better for both sides. Maybe just go check out the house, speak with the owner and see if you can come to a verbal agreement then keep checking in and sign the paperwork when it gets closer to completion.

Ok there is a lot to answer here but I'll try my best. Your "contractor" friend is completely off base. You are required to have one outlets so that no place on the wall is more than 6 feet from an outlet, aka 12 feet apart. However, that ONLY applies if you are building or renovating today! It is completely normal for older building to have fewer outlets than this and is acceptable. The AC making the lights dim for a second when it kicks on is also completely normal. I won't get to technical about it but you have nothing to be concerned about. The panel in your unit is called a sub panel, this is also normal and your limited access to the main panel is not a problem.

Your condo fee is killing the deal in my opinion. Does the fee cover some of the taxes, repairs or cap ex you are accounting for?

It's simple, those realtors,lenders and sellers all get paid when you buy the property. They don't care what your real cash flow is... Also most of those people probably don't realize the costs associated with owning rental property. Most people think rent-mortgage=cash flow. Unfortunately that's not how it works

Valves are just like any other mechanical device and it can wear out over time. The timing does seem a bit odd but replace the valve, it's easy to do. I would recommend buying a PEX crimper and learning how to use it if you want to keep doing this kind of work.

Property taxes are usually higher than you accounted for in Harrisburg. Just google dauphin county millage rates and get the assessed value from daulphinpropertyinfo and do your own calculations. There is also the required business and rental permit licenses required for Harrisburg city which isn't much ~$75. Also property management will be considerably higher. It will be 8% plus one months rent to fill a vacancy and you will have plenty of vacancies to pay for. You will also have flood insurance in SOME areas you mentioned. I also think your financing terms are optimistic but I haven't shopped that type of loan in awhile. There is money to be made in Harrisburg city but from my personal experience, owning 4 houses for 3 years, I would recommend it for a landlord who wants to be heavily involved and do your own maintenance and management. "Passive" income is tough in Harrisburg city... again this is my person experience and my property was not in the nicer area of second and front street.

It's all available on the MLS but if you don't have access you could try to look on Zillow. Agents often have a history of their listings on Zillow