All Forum Posts by: Ethan Blue

@Rebecca Dillon

Thank you

@David Krulac In that scenario, you won big time!

@Tom Meade You might be right. I never really thought about the rebate thing, so I will definitely look into that. Thanks for the input!

@Rebecca Dillon Hi Rebecca, thank you for the valuable input! What was the process of "closing the furnace off to the other units" Did you actually cut the ducts or just close the vents in the other units or how did that work? Thank you for the good advice!

@Carlton B. Hi Carlon, thanks for your input. You're right, I could certainly rent it as a single family, but where I live, the premium for single families is not as high. I used to live and teach in Milwaukee and your guys' rental prices soar far above ours for good neighborhoods. By renting as a single family home, I would cash flow $200 or so less a month. If I'm not able to figure out this whole utility thing though, that might be the best way to go.

@Drew MacDermott It's nice to have a product like that available. I guess to speak to @Tanya F. point, I don't want the tenant to think I am forcing them into anything. I want them to be able to control comfort levels and take responsibility for themselves, but if I have no other choices, it seems like this product could be very helpful.

@Andy Luick Thank you very much, Andy. Your two menopausal women story is quite funny! I can see that getting ugly, lol!

Thank you for your suggestions.

@Arthur Banks Thank you for your input, Arthur. I share some of your concerns with shared utilities.

@Tanya F. Thanks that is some great feedback, Tanya. I agree with you, happy tenants stay and I would rather not get in the middle of their comfort. At my other duplex, it is so much easier to manage because everything is separate. That's the way I prefer it. I am going to do some additional research into your suggestion. Also, I am not really from Madison, WI. I just put Madison because I thought people would recognize that name. I'm from pretty far north.

@Jerry W. Our taxes are annoying. Ideally, I would want to separate everything, although I don't know if I could install another furnace without upgrading the electrical service to the home.

@Arthur Banks Hi Arthur, Thank you for the feedback, it is much appreciated.

Do you mostly focus on single family homes now?

@Dawn Anastasi Hi Dawn, thank you for your input. I totally agree with you. My biggest hurdle there is that those properties don't really exist in the area I live.

@Eric Y. Hi Eric. You are correct sir. I meant an average cost of $100/month for natural gas year round, so $1200/year. I'm thinking about installing a smart thermostat that I can control through the Internet. Thank you for your input, Eric it sounds like having a 4 family in that circumstance helped alot.

@Jerry W. Hi Jerry. I will try to give you as detailed information as I am able at this point.

The price is not solid yet, but the realtor seems to think 45k is a strong offer.

Loan length is 30 years with no prepayment penalty at 4.5%

No repairs are currently NEEDED to rent the unit, but I plan on personally painting and refinishing the hardwood floors. That work will cost me $1000

Taxes are $1222/annually

Once my repairs are finished the property would like be assessed at 65k or so. Real estate prices in northern Wisconsin are very depressed.

This deal is still very preliminary at this point, but all of your feedback is very appreciated.

@Raymond B.

By clearing I just meant taxes, insurance, mortgage subtracted from gross rents if the property was full though admittedly that was a bad choice of words.

That being said, I was unaware of the 50% rule, so that link was very helpful and I appreciate your input.

In the past I have also heard the argument that sometimes duplexes can be beneficial because the likelihood of both units being vacant at the same time is relatively low.

Do you guys have any input on that?

Thanks again for all of your input.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, this is a long term buy.

I'm also looking into some single family homes. I tend to be more interested in those as well. My biggest hang up on the single family market at this point is that I just can't make as much money, though the potentially higher quality tenant and fewer maintenance calls may be worth that, I don't know.

On the single family home I am looking at, I would clear about $250-$275. The duplex would be closer to $500.

The upper is occupied and does not expire until February 2015 and the lower was just vacated.