All Forum Posts by: Rich Bultema

Ok, thank you. After speaking with the bank, I may be DTI limited instead of LTV limited anyway. Even if an appraisal were to fall short of ideal, its not likely to matter.

I am looking to refinance an existing HELOC to increase the line of credit. The home has a 27 year old but still working furnace.

Will I get dinged on the appraisal enough to make it worth changing the furnace ahead of time? In other words, will my line of credit be limited by the old furnace by more than what a new one might cost? 

Im not otherwise concerned about it breaking since I have other ways to heat the home. 

also A/C is only a few years old. Not concerned with it.

I bought this house built in the mid '50s about 16 or 17 years ago. For most of the house, I've done nothing but cosmetic updates and in doing so changed many/most of the outlets to a new color and in doing so, bought three prongs even though the house is 2 wire romex. (areas that genuinely got remodeled got new wiring and proper grounds and GFCI where applicable.)

I understand this to be a code violation but as the occupant, I was aware there was no equipment ground but am now looking to move.

To sell the house, what are my best options? All of my (few) investment properties were decades newer and never dealt with this yet.

I see options as,

1. Change outlets back to two prong. (does this suffice even in the kitchen?)

2. GFCI breakers ore outlets, or a mixture of the two

3. rewire the rest of the house.

Am I missing options? Do any of these options provide a better sale price than others?

I don't think that's quite fair. I negotiate the price of every house I purchase or attempt to purchase. In fact, since I've started real estate investment, I negotiate more and more things and in increasingly creative ways.

I've had people ask for sometimes large reductions in rent and I've just politely declined, but if I couldn't fill the property, I would reconsider.

@Wayne Brooks the lot in question is the same size as all the other lots that already have houses on them but maybe rules have changed in 100 years?

What would be the job title of the person I should talking to in the building department?

I'm looking at a house for sale in an old part of town. The county website states the legal description of the parcel as something like "subdivision blah blah blah lots 33, 34, and 36"

Three equal sized/shaped lots that forms an L shape where the house and garage are on two of the lots with frontage on "Oak" street and the third lot has no structures and its own frontage on "Maple" street.

What are my possibilities that I could purchase this property and separate out the third lot to either sell by itself or potentially build on? How does that work?

Thanks

Those felony convictions are so hard to remember. Was it a felony parking ticket or maybe a felony jaywalking? Who can really be bothered to keep all that straight?

I have painted cabs on a couple of flips that were otherwise going over budget on some other part of the house. It has not really seemed to affect resale ( or ability to find tenants) but came in at a big savings considering new cabs would also typically involve new counters, sink and related plumbing. Painting and getting rid of gold pulls that used to be popular goes a long way. Also amazed how many kitchens I see with no pulls at all. Just looks incomplete.

Unfortunately, the majority of my properties had cabinets that were beyond saving or originally arranged by a complete putz. I remember a small hand full of houses that had brand new kitchens and my wife and I agreed we would still have to tear it all out and remodel because the design so absolutely awful. Didnt buy any of them though because they wanted "new kitchen" money for the house.

I guess just because you know how to hang a cabinet, doesn't mean you know where to place all the appliances and fixtures.

Yes, when it translates into no deals made. If you raise the bar high enough, no property will ever pass muster.

 You are correct to include management costs even if you self manage. Some will count that as zero to make the deal look better but its a job you are hiring yourself to do on top of the whether the investment is good or not. You are simply paying yourself as opposed to some one else. Some people enjoy managing their properties and if you are good at it and take it seriously, you can. I'm going to give an anecdotal example of why at least some people shouldn't.

"A person I know" I will call him Bob, bought a house next door to his own because his neighbor expressed interest in selling so Bob was able to buy off market. It WAS a good purchase price. Everything else he did was questionable. He didnt want to "waste" money on management so he didnt hire one, didn't account for the cost of managing it himself nor did he account for vacancies OR maintenance AND was mowing the lawn for free to ensure it was done to his standard. He STILL was showing negative cash flow because his biggest fear was interest so he took out a quite short mortgage. If he accounted for everything else, he was negative cash flowing HARD! but this is about self management...

He would hear nothing of my recommendation that he used a manager and listed it for rent. He probably listed if slightly below market rents for the area especially considering he was mowing the lawn. Market rents alone would have paid for a portion of the cost of management, maybe up to half. The real fun started about 3.5 years in... on his third tenant...she just quit paying. He kept letting it slide. She would cough up a couple hundred bucks once I think but mostly offered empty promises of "soon" This went for about 3 months before Bob finally thought "I think she might be lying. I'll look into this eviction thing" He posted the 10 day notice to quit. She said she would pay up so Bob waited about 20-25 days to actually go to the next step when it was apparent she wasn't going to. Some of his reasoning was that he was too busy with work. When Bob finally went to court and gave her a date to vacate, she said she would move out, no problems. THAT day came and went and he never actually asked the Sheriff to help evict her. The tenant finally left only because the tenants sister convinced her it was the right thing to do. He never bothered to follow up with the court for the judgement amount so he'll never see any of that money. He saved himself a hundred bucks a month or so on management fees at the cost of SEVERAL months of non payment.

He sold the house once it was empty because "This renting thing doesn't work" making a small amount on the sale purely because of market appreciation. Thank goodness she didn't do any physical damage to the property.

Some people can self manage. Bob cannot. Those that do, should calculate the cost of their time just like any management company.