All Forum Posts by: Shuwei Wang

 Wow that's awesome of you to treat him to Hawaii!

Do you use general contractor? I noticed the quotes GC gave me has about 20-30% markup. I'm contemplating if that would be worth it for getting the advice/expertise they have. Or would you consider use a lower tier contractor or handyman for lower cost? (but they might not give as much of advice/input)

 Didn't know about the Nextdoor I will definitely check it out! 

 Thank you for the advice Carlos. Do you have any advice for finding good contractor/handyman and anything we can do to make them want to work with us and put us in priority? I've heard about people suggest have a small job for handyman to do to start with then you can see if they are reliable/on time. 

Thank you everyone for your input! It's super helpful. As a first time rental property buyer we are just learning the ropes. Based on everyone's suggestions we might just try to fit the repairs into our budget. I appreciate you guys taking time to respond!

 Do you think it would affect closing the property though if we do want to proceed? I can't imagine any lender would let us close on property with a roof problem still and there's a high chance seller may not want to repair this for us. 

 Thank you for the reply Vadim! 

We are definitely thinking asking for seller's credit, discount in price or walk away. But just wondering how to minimize our loss in this situation. 

Our inspection was information purpose only without contingency. We passed the date set for appraisal contingency. It seems to me we just have financial contingency left. In this case would I negotiate a seller's credit or otherwise I would disclose the information to lender and use the financial contingency? This is news to us so we haven't tell the lender yet. 

Hi BP, 

We are under contract for our first rental property but found more surprise during the escrow period. The property is sold as is and we already put down earnest money with only financial contingency left. We have our second appraisal coming soon. 

Now the inspector did not find this but when we were getting bids from contractor we found multiple other things: possible leak in bathroom and we noticed leak around the chimney flashing. When asking seller about the roof, they said it's a new tear off roof in 2018, no warranty left, and they are surprised that it's leaking.. Surprisingly no one noticed this (inspector or appraiser) until this 1 contractor noticed when we went in day after raining. 

Regarding to our situation with earnest money in we may not have as much negotiating power what would you do in our shoes? We are already taking on foundation/basement repair which will be $7-8k and do not want to add another big ticket item. 

We are under contract for a duplex 3/2 with illegal attic (that was previously being illegally rented out). For pricing wise we are waiting for appraisal to see if we can use our financial contingency to do some final negotiation. 

Now regarding the illegal attic unit (1 bed) what would you do if you were to purchase this property? 

Would you get permit to legalize this unit in this case? Here's my thought legalize attic unit

Pros: 

easier to rent out 1 bed room unit. Attic already built out. Higher rent.

Cons:

Need to add egress window, possibly stairs and sprinkler system to legalize. More $$$. Permit from city and can potentially take long time. 

Alternatively we are thinking open everything back up and connect upper unit with attic. That will make it a 4 bedroom 2 bath unit. (It will have 2 kitchen as well. we are thinking keeping the second kitchen in attic, not sure if that's weird). 

Pros: 

easier to do, no permit required, lower cost, and faster. 

Cons: 

rent will be lower, we are estimating $2200-2400 for 4 bed 2 baths vs $2600-2800 for separate out attic unit.

potentially harder to rent out? Although this is near college and popular area of the town, we may not have trouble renting out. 

We are redoing the appraisal as duplex and see what number it would be, but I think our decision of what to do with the attic unit will affect the calculation as well. We are not thinking owner occupy attic unit. It's just not big enough for both me and my husband. 

Also does anyone have experience negotiating using appraisal? My thoughts are lowering the price or walk away if seller refuse to. (If appraisal is lower). Any input is appreciated!

 Wow this is super helpful Doug!! Thank you so much! Honestly there were so many surprises that happened during this journey and we probably had multiple "panic attacks".  I will try to do some digging, really appreciate your help!!

It's my husband and my first time buying rental property. We are under contract for a duplex right now and our income can easily qualify a conventional mortgage. I did not know that when I was young my mom bought property with cash and my name is on this property X. Only until the lender started questioning me about it.

Fast forward now my lender/loan processor is asking me to provide proof for tax bill receipt and home insurance info for the property. Now here's the catch, my mom does not believe in insurance so there is no insurance info for this property. Would this affect mortgage get approved? I can try to find the property tax receipt but not sure about the insurance part they want proof for. We are both high income earners and this is something we can easily afford.