All Forum Posts by: Samantha Hiscock

@Jennifer Sithavady, wow, I am not sure how I have missed this for the last 11 days! The "Burlington" group actually meets in Waterbury, but we have tossed around the idea of having the meeting in Barre every other month. We usually meet on a Tuesday evening, let me know if you want me to tell you when/where the next one is.

I have my real estate license, the 40 hour course and it was a ton of good info if you didn't have much of a base to begin with. I have been a landlord for years, have an architecture degree, and geek out to real estate as much as I can, so I didnt glean a ton of new info from the class but it was required anyway. I have found the continuing ed classes to be much more informative. It is definitely worth taking the pre-licensing course, there were a few in my class that were taking it for the knowledge and had little intention of actually practicing real estate. It takes a while to make a salary that would replace IT pay. 

Yes, there is a residency requirement for most of the low down payment mortgages, and it is unwise to commit mortgage fraud!! However, if the down payment isnt a problem, I still recommend a 3 or 4 unit property to get your toes wet. Most banks will require 20-25% down. If you took out a personal loan for the down payment, you could pay back a good portion of it after closing. You should get security deposits and prorated rents back, which could be around 5 or 6 thousand dollars for most 4 unit properties, and even more if the landlord collected last months rent at move in. Feel free to PM me if you want me to take a look at some properties to figure out if thats the route you want to take. 

Hi Josh! And Mike! Its always nice to see more Vermonters around here! I dont think its tricky to invest here, its just so different than anywhere else. We have lot of funky real estate practices and laws, but once you figure them out its much easier. Little things, like land records being held at the town level vs county level and weird tax things such as landlord certificates/renters rebate and property tax adjustments. It means that some of the info on these amazing forums needs to be tweaked to work here, but the basics and the math are the same. The expenses are often higher, heat and maintenance  can be expensive here and property taxes are very high, although there is a huge range from town to town. 

Personally, I think the easiest way to get started is with a 2-4 unit primary residence using an FHA loan. The rental income can be used to help qualify for the mortgage and its just a matter of scraping up a few thousand dollars for the down payment. VHFA has a down payment assistance loan you should look into if that is a barrier.

I'd start much lower than 8%, the other offers are obviously not rolling in. After 400 days, the property is obviously over priced.

Why explain it at all? In my market, an offer 8% below asking on a property that has sat for 400 days is beyond reasonable. 

Stone & Browning in Barre.  Reuben and Mark are great, I'm not sure if they are in Burlington but it is certainly worth a call. 

http://stonebrowningpm.com/

I'm not sure why it would be a waste of time, as it takes about 20 seconds to find a spot on the board and tack them up. I frequently visit banks, restaurants, and stores.. don't you? The most you'd lose is a few dollars worth of business cards if you put 10 on every board you saw for a week. 

The cost of site work is going to vary greatly depending on the lot. Does power need to be brought in or is the house close enough to the road? Is the driveway 80' or 800'? The foundation could get pricey if you hit bedrock a few feet down. 

If you've already got a lot it would be more accurate to call a local contractor. If you haven't got a piece of land yet, that info would be easy to acquire during the purchase process. 

I call my plow guy and have him come down before the snowfalls to make sure he understands where snow needs to be put, remind him of the oil fill pipe placement, parking, blah blah blah. The last thing you want is a pile of snow blocking your oil fill pipe, I made that mistake the first year I owned a building not realizing that the NEIGHBORS fill pipe was only accessible through the big pile of snow my plow guy had in MY yard. It took hours to clear a path so they could get heating oil. 

I get a new snow shovel and bucket of ice melt for each porch. I let the tenants know that it's there for them to use, and all it takes is a text message and I will bring them more ice melt. 

I'm not far from the Valley. Let me know what you're looking for and I can help you out. :-)