All Forum Posts by: Ben Skove

Lisa,

Before sealing the inside, you need to be confident that you've redirected water away from the exterior of the foundation. While that much rain can defeat what might ordinarily work, it would be good to review that your downspouts are directing water at least 5-6 feet from your foundation, that the ground is sloping away from your house, and that you have swales or french drains intercepting any water moving down slopes or hills towards the house.

On the other hand, if you're dealing with a high water table, it's a different ballgame.

My experience with Drylok is that it works well with minor amounts of water, but that any significant hydrostatic pressure will defeat it.

Amen to Roy about air sealing. Tons of insulation is lovely, but going up in the attic with a can of foam (fireblock foam where called for) and a tube of caulk is crucial. If you're working on an old house, you'll be amazed at how leaky the building envelope is - plumbing chases, electrical boxes, top plates, etc.

It makes sense that they would work through non-profits, rather than sending the voucher holders out to the wolves.

My guess is that sequestration has probably eliminated most of this particular program, though I may give a call over to the PHA and what is available and what their process is for becoming part of the program.

Has anyone had experience with the Homeownership Voucher Program? Evidently it's for Section 8 participants, except designed for meeting mortgage and homeownership expenses. It doesn't look like many are given out, but it varies by PHA.

HUD homeownership vouchers

Dawn, the Milwaukee office appears to give out 10 to 20 of these a year, if I'm reading the spreadsheet of vouchers correctly.

I'm reviewing that thread now, Bill - it's good food to digest. Given that I've had a fair amount of experience in non-profits (volunteer rescue squad), it does line up with some of my thinking. Thanks for the pointer to that.

It seems like there ought to be a way to get people into low-priced homes in a non-predatory way. Habitat and community reinvestment organizations do it on a nonprofit basis; however, the number of houses they can do is very limited.

I see local investors putting people into horrible houses that need complete rehabs on a financed or L/O basis, and require the purchasers to make the needed repairs. This feels like the equivalent of payday lenders or rent-a-paycheck organizations. It's just wrong.

At any rate, Bill, I appreciate your wisdom and apologize for wasting time on things that you've rehashed a billion times. From what I've read, there seems to be two main answers to why lenders don't want to lend under 50K: first, the profits are too small, and second, the costs involved reach the cap of predatory lending. Either, both, neither?

But you're right, I will probably stay with holding long-term. Stick with what you know. :)

@Bill Gulley Even after spending some time reading past posts to try to get a feel for the subject, clearly I've no idea! My thought (obviously not expressed coherently) was about if it were possible to assume the costs of originating the mortgage as the seller somehow? Or is it the flip side of predatory dealing - stupid lending? :)

@Sabrina C. I can see how it would appear that way - definitely not my intent!

@Bill Gulley I figured as much. Giggles from you tell me pretty much all I need to know. :)

Hi all,

I've nearly finished rehabbing a SFR that I intend to rent. The numbers, rent comps, etc work well on it.

However, just for kicks and giggles, I'm playing around with the idea of selling with seller-financing (this after my realtor urged me to just stick a sign out front after I'm done and see what happens.) Conventional financing would be difficult, as FMV would be around $34K - although there might be some local banks and CUs that would take it on.

My intent isn't to find a sucker and dump the property onto them. While it's obviously a cheap house, the immediate neighborhood is quiet and mostly O/O and attracts lower-income but stable folks.

My initial guess is that the fixed costs involved in order to achieve compliance (licensed mortgage originator/servicer, etc) would be fairly significant compared to the money in the deal?

Once upon a time, back when I was a student, I worked at the International grad student dorm. Rob is right - these students really like not having to deal with getting things furnished, etc. However, safety is generally a big deal for them - they're less likely (on average) to put up with sketchy neighborhoods than locals.