All Forum Posts by: Robert Fisher

My wife may have an opportunity to take a promotion to one either Charlotte or the Raleigh-Durham area and we're trying to do as much research and consider all factors into what may be the best decision.  Does anybody have any information on the real estate investing, cost of living, life in general, etc?  Anything would be appreciated.

Thanks.

@Nathan Gesner Ha.  Luckily he has a selling agent we can check behind him on.  At least on things she actually knows about.

@Duane Hundley Yeah it'll be a 25-30% down payment with a commercial loan unfortunately.  I'm wondering if that's why he abandoned the 5th unit on the main property to make it storage?  I'm working with the same bank the company I used to work for did that built the house with the septic 3-4 lots away, so hoping that isn't an issue.  Granted that was in a nice neighborhood (Terrace View).

@Doug Shapiro I'm hoping it's just a tired landlord ready to retire.  From the documents I have seen, it looks like he bought the place nearly 30 years ago.  But yeah, asking why is a good question.  I asked that to FSBOs when we were looking for our personal home.

I'm going to check out what would be my first rental property today.  The seller himself will be present.  Having never done this, that is both intimidating and intriguing as I may have a window of opportunity to get passed the agent and get information straight from the horses mouth.  Given that opportunity, are there any questions that you'd ask to help you better understand what you're getting into and make sure you know what you're getting yourself into?  

The Good:

1. As it sits now, without making any improvements, its clearing the 1% rule at 1.35% (5 units at $380, asking $140,000).

2. It has potential for a 6th unit if I add back the shower that was previously removed to make that unit a storage space.

3. Current owner has made a number of improvements this year including a new roof and parking lot repair.

4. HVAC updated within the last few years.

The Bad:

1.The well and septic are strange - both either infringe on another property or are whole on another property.  I've seen this before, so I know it happens.  I designed a house that's septic was 3-4 lots away.  But still, not ideal.

2. It's a little further out of town than I'd like. I'm in Lynchburg, VA - a 3 college town - but this is far enough away that I couldn't rely on college kids to always keep it filled.

3. It was previously under contract and fell through after the inspection.  According to seller's agent, the buyer didn't give them any details other than they were backing out.

I've read all kinds of real estate books, listened to 100s of episodes of the podcast, plus other podcasts, but this is my first step out of analysis paralysis and something, despite all the research, I still feel wholly unprepared for.  So any advice on things to be aware of or questions to ask would be greatly appreciated.

Originally posted by @Victor S.:

Originally posted by @Matthew Olszak:

Lastly - the roof has probably experienced hail damage. If so, your insurance could likely replace it for you and you pay just the deductible.

This. Have you thought about going thru insurance if you don't want to shell out the full cost yourself?

One of the roofing companies we've had look at it said, in their experience, there wasn't enough damage to it for insurance to cover it.  

@Jason DiClemente They’ll know it’s patched because it’s on the front of the house, right in your view as you come down the driveway. The roof is at least 15-20 years old and has typical fading and coloring so even if I had a bundle of the orIgInal shingles, it wouldn’t match.

@Joe Splitrock Renting it was our original plan but the more I thought about it, and especially since we bought a house at the higher end of our budget, it made more sense to me just to sell. Perhaps if we refinanced and cashed out the equity, we could still pull everything off but then I would increase my interest rate from 3.25% to 4.75% probably. Selling allows us to pay off my student loans, pay down the new house enough to get the monthly mortgage payment closers to what we’re paying now while still upgrading to something with an in-law suite for Airbnb, and have some leftover for a down payment on a rental that, once rehabbed, might fall in the 1-2% Rule. If we sit on the market too long or other unforeseen problems show up in an inspection, we still may go the rental route rather than take less than what we think it’s worth.

@John Teachout It's just around the chimney somewhere in the flashing, but a roofer and I have caulked it in various spots, but it's either no enough for there's another spot.  We managed to get it to stop dripping into the house but the sheathing still gets damp to the touch when it rains.

@Steve B. We don’t know for sure. House was built it ‘72 and there’s two layers of shingles on it. The roofer that gave me the quote said the rest of the roof probably has 5-10 years left if the weather is nice to it.

Yeah, I've been leaning to just bite the bullet and put the new roof one.  It's just so painful to send $6000+ on the way out the door.  But if it improves the bottom line and sells faster (which would be great considering we close on our new home in 3 weeks), then it's probably the way to go.

To give an idea of our current market in Lynchburg, he's a few stories I've come across:

- My wife and I wanted to look at the house that had been on the market for 24 hours.  It had 6 offers already, one of them went under contract and one as a back up offer.  The "Under contract in less than 24 hours" has happened to us multiple times.

- A guy at my local REIA made offered $12k over asking price, about 8%, on a different place and lost.

- Some friends of mine, offered more than asking price on a place that was already overpriced because they were afraid of losing another one. (My attempts to talk them off the ledge obviously failed.)