All Forum Posts by: Richard Jahnle

As far as a blank lease form - I can send you a Word doc of the lease that I use, I copied one from a lawyer in Philly that uses it for his tenants.

@Lana - I use Cozy.co when my tenants want to apply. You just send them a link from Cozy and the tenant is sent a request for a background check and credit check. The tenant pays Cozy directly for both checks, total cost to the tenant is $40

@Chris Breezy If you go to a lender in New York looking to invest in New Jersey, you need to make sure that the lender and the loan originator you are working with are also licensed to originate loans in NJ. There's a good chance they will be since New Jersey is a neighboring state, but you just need to ask the lender.

Your lender can tell you if you qualify for an FHA loan. You will need to meet a minimum credit score, show proof of employment, be able to pay the down-payment of 3.5%, your debt to income ratio must be lower than certain percentage among other criteria.

@Matt Daley There's a lot of good info on this topic in this thread:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/432/topics/466893-zoning-permit-in-philadelphia?page=1

@Marc Izquierdo - I am not surprised that the numbers don't make sense when looking for multifamilies on the MLS.

If you do want to house-hack in Philly, it may be a good idea to tweak your strategy a little bit. Looking through the MLS, you are probably not going to find a property that will make you money or allow you to break even. There are other benefits - you still may be able to live cheaper than if you rented or bought a single family, you're building equity, and gaining tax advantages. You'll also be able to get your feet wet in owning rental property. Another few ways that you can save some money while you are still living in the house is to manage yourself, and rent out individual rooms in the unit that you are living.

@Jeff Schleyer - Try listing it on hotpads.com as well. I put my rental on there and it automatically got listed to all the other main sites (Trulia, padmapper). I lived in a rental a few blocks away on Gay Street, and I remember finding the listing through padmapper. Like someone said earlier, you probably want to target a family, or young professionals (22-25) who work in the city and want the nightlife of manayunk/center city

Train access is great, but it's tough to park in that area which could scare away people who drive. If you can find a local parking lot that is cheap, maybe list the details in the listing. Good luck!

@Jordan Turner I agree with @Jaysen Medhurst - It's going to be hard to find properties that meet those criteria. Like he said, if you want to get cash flow, you may have to sacrifice some appreciation and vice-versa. 

As far as calculating the return on your investment properties - The biggerpockets rental property calculator is great for that. This video shows you exactly how to enter in all the data and compare properties to each other. The more you play around on the calculators, the more analyzing numbers on properties will make sense

@Sabrina Romano I house hack a duplex in Roxborough near the intersection of Monastery and Ridge ave, so pretty close to that Manayunk/Roxborough border. I agree with you, it's hard to find a cash flowing deal in Roxborough, at least on the MLS. If I were to find a deal in Roxborough that would be great since I am familiar with the area, but I may look outside of it like you. Maybe Germantown or Mt. Airy, areas where there is a better chance of cash flow in the present, and (hopefully) appreciation in the future.

Good luck with your search!

@Sabrina Romano If the numbers make sense for a buy and hold property at that location, I don't see why not. You could end up having a house on a desirable block. Where exactly in Roxborough are you looking?

@Bryce Liggins - If you want to get an offer in by September 15th you'll need to get your financing squared away pretty quickly. I have a lender who works fast, I can give you his info if you send me a direct message, he can get you pre-approved quickly. If you want to put less than 5% down, you'll likely be going with an FHA loan. You can also build a rehab budget into your loan with a 203K along with the FHA loan if you want, with as low as 3.5% down. I can't really speak to the private lending scene as I don't have experience with that, but it's not a bad idea to keep researching that avenue.

One thing I would be careful about "riding the increase in home values in Philadelphia". I'm not sure if I would bank on appreciation too much in Philadelphia right now. Prices are as high as they have ever been in Philly right now, and it's risky to buy under the assumption that home values will continue to increase over the next 3 to 5 years