All Forum Posts by: Anna Johnson

*thinking

We found a two-family that we want to move in to, we have been looking for a long time for a house in that neighborhood. The listing said that the tenants had month-to-month leases, but when we viewed the agent told us that the seller gave one of the tenants a 6-month lease. After accepted offer I get a call from the agent saying that the other tenant is strong-arming the seller saying that they also need a 6-month lease or they won't pay rent. I agreed, mistakenly thiking that we would be able to obtain a owner-occupied mortgage with the intention of moving in, meaning when the 6-month lease is up end of January. Now I understand that I only have 60 days after closing. Did anyone here successfully delay closing 3 months in order to comply with the 60 days? Or have other suggestions? Thank you! 

We live in a 3 family house and one of our tenants asked a couple of months back if she could get an electric car and pay us $50 a month to have it charged up. We generally like to keep our tenants happy and care about the environment so we didn't think twice about saying yes, even though all utilities are included in the rent. However, a contractor stopped by to do some other work in the apartment and told us that if he was us, he never would have allowed it, she is parked right by the garage where it charges overnight and he told me that if this Chevy Bolt catches fire our house will burn down and we are liable for car and everything.

We obviously won't withdraw the permission that we gave, but what can we do to protect ourselves? We also didn't have her get rental insurance when she moved in but what difference would that make if we had her get that? Would it protect the car. Or should we just get umbrella insurance on the house? Thanks for any advice. 

thank you Yonasan

bump

My father in law and husband bought it as an "investment" 20 years ago speculating that once Sullivan County gets a casino permit business would be booming.. here we go the casino is finally being built but I don't see the area turning around any time soon.. I would prefer to have the money to invest in a multifamily in the area we live in, closer to NYC. 

20 years ago my husband bought 23 acres in Glen Spey close to Port Jervis, Sullivan County. It's undeveloped and we just didn't end up doing anything with it , except paying the property taxes every year. However, the other day I realized that over the years we have paid 60K in taxes and counting for this land.. if I could make more money selling it subdivided maybe that's what we should be doing, but I don't have any experience with the procedure.

A realtor told me that she would list the land for 65K. We paid 40K for it ourselves 20 years ago, so in reality we have 100K in. What would you do? If someone has an idea on how to maximize value for these acres, would you be willing to partner with us to do the work and split the profits? Appreciate any ideas. 

I came across a mixed use property listed on Loopnet for $650K - it's a steal in our area but it's based on really deferred maintenance - somehow this property still yields close to $6700 per month based on very creative ways to produce income.. basically renting out every inch of the property for storage and $200 per parked car. $450 for storage in the garage etc. I love the location smack dab in a quaint upscale town and would love to reposition it. Trouble is that loans for mixed use properties require 30% down. We have managed to save up to be able to spend $130K including closing costs but that wouldn't be enough for a conventional commercial loan. I would have accepted it and moved on if it weren't for all the inspiring people on the BP podcasts.. should I contact the owner (I think it's his name on the income report the realtor sent me) and ask if he would consider seller financing, though it's already listed with someone?) 

Would also like to hear your thoughts on mixed use properties as we only have a couple of multis but don't own any retail stores. Thank you!