All Forum Posts by: Stefan D.

@Scott Wolfe

If you don't have another immediate use for the equity you have in the house, I'd say do it.  It might be a headache at times, but it'll be worth it.  I'm bullish on property values there continuing to go up.  

I like that you ran your numbers conservatively and included all the small PM fees.  Talk to another PM or two.  And know that repairs will happen in a very lumpy way.  Maybe $500 one year, $6000 the next. 

Also, if you're going to include appreciation, you might as well include loan pay down.

Good luck!

@Jim K. Thanks Jim.  My title company guy gave me a good idea: we can put an offer in that is contingent on the seller changing the zoning.  Weakens my offer, but it would save me a potential headache.

@Jim K. Thanks Jim.  Bank doesn't like it.  On hold with PLI now, and I sent them an email, so we'll see if it's reasonable to get a variance, or to get the use-code changed.

@David Lee Hall, III, @Jonathan R McLaughlin

Thanks guys - I actually think the conversion to a duplex was recent, I could ask the seller but he already told me that it is zoned for multi (which is not what is showing on the county page).  This is making me think I should pass on the deal, which is a bummer since the cashflow would be great.  

@Joseph Cacciapaglia Thanks, I did talk to 1 lender that said it would be hard to do - just wondering if other people were able to get this done, there might be lenders out there that are more lax about things like this.

@Jonathan R McLaughlin The allegheny county website has it listed as Single-Family

Does anyone have experience refinancing an illegally zoned duplex? It's zoned single family, but set up as a duplex. It's within the City of Pittsburgh, which seems to be fairly lax about zoning (according to my PM). I haven't made the purchase yet, just want to make sure I'd be able to refinance for a BRRRR.

You should be able to get it refinanced with about 4.5% interest for a 30 year loan, I just did for a home in Pittsburgh that i own with an LLC, so that should help by about $100 a month.

I try to BRRRR single family homes with ARV's in the mid 100's. This deal to me looks like it would be a better flip.

 Hey Justin,

I used to go for 3 bids, but I've slipped from that. I've used my main contractor for a few jobs now, so I figured I'd hang on to him.  Plus, for some things I had trouble even getting a single contractor out there, maybe because the market is so hot right now.  For example, fixing two downspouts was a $250 job, that nobody wanted because it was too small.  

I'm glad you were able to scale after similar mistakes.  Thanks for sharing!  I'll do some more thinking about what I can do to keep everyone on the same page (like architectural drawings)

Thanks Mike. I hope others can learn from it as well. It is risky, and difficult, but I still think it's still a winning strategy. I had 2 long distance BRRRR's before this go well on SFR's (totally recouped my investment on both), so 2 out of 3 isn't awful - especially if I try to learn from my mistakes and get better over time.

@Forrest Hayashi, @Greg Houts

I do plan on keeping it, although Greg, you are right that I should at some point calculate if the money could be better used on a different investment.  I also like your suggestion to write down these lessons.  I made some checklists for myself for different stages of the deal, and I'll go through and update those to make sure I include any mistakes from this deal.