All Forum Posts by: Steve Abitbol

Hello everyone,

Here is the rundown, I could really, really use some legal advice on this urgent matter I am facing today, please!

I am house hacking and renting a bedroom out in my personal home.  Home is in AZ.  I work over seas 10 months out of the year and home for two months out of the year.  This tenant, I have never met before, and had a person back home (while I was out of the country)  interview them and show them the home.  She signed a 12month lease with me in my home.  We did say (verbally) that the lease can be broken if we aren't a good fit for one another (Unforutnently, this was not written down anywhere).

The lease she signed does say "Lease can be broken by either party with 90 day notice".  The guest rules were no more than 3x sleep overs per week, and not more than 1 guest at a time.

I chose this roommate to move in inside my home bc she is an older woman, whos a professional, and single, she told me she wouldn't have many guests she stays to her self and is very private and respectful.

First month was great.  Then things changed.

Last week, she had a male guest come over the house at 2 in the morning, then left at 6am.  Two-Three hours later another different male guest came over for few hours and left again (all while inside of her bedroom)   Now, I am questioning what kind of operation could she be possibly running?  Since then, there has been many visits of guests.  Technically, she hasn't broken any rules that's written on the lease agreement.

But then...

Corona virus came along.  The entire city and the world as we know it are on lock down and many people are suppose to be quarantined.  I am due to return home with my daughter in the next coming weeks.  So I wrote her an email 10 days ago stating, that I will be returning home with my daughter and would like her to cease all guest activities due to this virus.  There is a greater chance of someone bringing this bug inside of the home, and my daughter or myself contacting the disease simply from being inside of our own home.  She completely ignores the email, and still TODAY, as WE SPEAK, she has a guest over my home.

What exactly are my options here?

She is completely aware that i have a doorbell camera as well as a indoor camera inside the kitchen facing the living room.  she has also shown impropriate behaviors inside the kitchen and sharing spaces inside of my home.  ( I have it all on film, some of the things would make you vomit).

I have heard from multiple sources but cannot find it in writing to save my life.  The LAW in AZ is I can indeed break the lease of someone renting a room in my own personal home giving them a 30 day notice.  I understand that if this was a rental property, laws would favor on the tenants more, but since this is my personal home, I do not need a reason to break this lease on my behalf. 

can anyone please shed some light onto this matter? Can I legally break her lease with a 30 day notice?

My main concern now is not only the covid19 exposure by her bringing guests over the house AFTER the fact that I requested her to cease the guests.  I also have very expensive furniture, electronics and art that's valued well over 100k, I do not know these older men that are constantly coming inside of my home.  

( I will make sure next tenant I choose will understand that there will be a no guest policy.  period. )

I really appreciate any feedback as I am desperate to find answers and what my options are within the law.

thank you!!!!

Thank you for your responses! My thoughts exactly.  Ill try to put this loan on hold and see if I can shop this rate and the customer service somewhere else, sure that wont be hard to accomplish!

Hello BiggerPocket world,

I am going to dig right in.

I am currently in the process of refinancing a home that I own in Phoenix/Arcadia area. I have owned the home for little over a year, and currently have a VA loan (5% interest on loan) on the property.

I started the refinance process back in December, my goal was to do a cash out refi and use the capital for of course more properties.

I initially valued my property myself at 540k. Before the appraisal came back from the VA, the underwriter approved my loan with a few minor conditions, some were to pay off some personal debt out of the escrow funds coming back to me. (loan was set for 540k @ 5.5% because apparently doing a 100%LTV you pay a "premium" interest rate as they called it) This was after weeks and weeks of sending in my personal docs, w2's, bank statements, pay stubs, tax information, the whole nine yards.

The appraisal came back short (477k. As you can tell I lack major skills at reading comps) Due to the loan being a lot smaller number, it isn't considered a jumbo loan by the VA so my refi rate dropped from 5.5% with the original loan of 540k to now 477k @ 4.875% with 0 points.

I have a POA in line because most of my work is over seas. The lender got the escrow company to contact my POA without my consent, and without me reviewing any sort of a closing document to make sure everything looked good on the loan. (red flag number 1)

Once I requested for a closing statement or doc to review, there was no interest rate printed on it, no estimate of mortgage payment, the closing cost were a bit higher then originally agreed, and they had the wrong pay off amount there. I also took the initiative and paid off all of the debt on my credit (roughly 9k) out of my own pocket prior of closing so I also asked them to remove the debt from the statements, which they also never did. I kindly wrote them an email explaining my POA is not going to waste her time if I am not presented with a clear and concise closing document with the exact same figures she will at signing. (logic right?)

Second thing is, I started doing little more research and really believe that my property was very much under valued by the VA's appraisal, so I looked at comps closer (became more realistic this time) and wrote up a ROV (Reconsideration of Value) explaining my property should at least be worth in the 485-499k range and why.

The lender then tells me "Sorry that isn't an option, loan is clear to close"

He is refusing to pull my loan out of underwriting and help me challenge the VA with an ROV. Is this even legal? I understand that he just wants to close the loan and move on to the next, but where is the customer service here? Everything I have said has been a NO. So finally he comes back and says "Well your DTI (Debt to Income) ratio will be off and you will not qualify or get approved for a higher amount. My DTI ratio is around 24% and va's guideline is generally 41% and have seen it up to 60% on some cases. (red flag number 2)

I also wrote him back with a snapshot of the email he has sent me few weeks back in writing stating "Congratulations your 540k loan is approved with these following conditions…" He then comes back and says wow you are right, I am sorry; but still we cannot challenge the NOV (notice of value) then repeated to me "loan is clear to close and ready for signature"

Is this even legal? Besides the lack of obvious customer service, I am not getting the proper representation at all from these people.

What do you guys recommend I do in my scenario? I also feel like a 4.8% rate is huge, 100LTV or not.

Sorry for the lengthy thread, hope to get some insight from some other professionals on here.

thank you!

Cheers.

Hello BiggerPocket world,

I am going to dig right in. 

I am currently in the process of refinancing a home that I own in Phoenix/Arcadia area. I have owned the home for little over a year, and currently have a VA loan (5% interest on loan) on the property.

I started the refinance process back in December, my goal was to do a cash out refi and use the capital for of course more properties.

I initially valued my property myself at 540k. Before the appraisal came back from the VA, the underwriter approved my loan with a few minor conditions, some were to pay off some personal debt out of the escrow funds coming back to me. (loan was set for 540k @ 5.5% because apparently doing a 100%LTV you pay a "premium" interest rate as they called it) This was after weeks and weeks of sending in my personal docs, w2's, bank statements, pay stubs, tax information, the whole nine yards.

The appraisal came back short (477k. As you can tell I lack major skills at reading comps) Due to the loan being a lot smaller number, it isn't considered a jumbo loan by the VA so my refi rate dropped from 5.5% with the original loan of 540k to now 477k @ 4.875% with 0 points.

I have a POA in line because most of my work is over seas. The lender got the escrow company to contact my POA without my consent, and without me reviewing any sort of a closing document to make sure everything looked good on the loan. (red flag number 1)

Once I requested for a closing statement or doc to review, there was no interest rate printed on it, no estimate of mortgage payment, the closing cost were a bit higher then originally agreed, and they had the wrong pay off amount there. I also took the initiative and paid off all of the debt on my credit (roughly 9k) out of my own pocket prior of closing so I also asked them to remove the debt from the statements, which they also never did. I kindly wrote them an email explaining my POA is not going to waste her time if I am not presented with a clear and concise closing document with the exact same figures she will at signing. (logic right?)

Second thing is, I started doing little more research and really believe that my property was very much under valued by the VA's appraisal, so I looked at comps closer (became more realistic this time) and wrote up a ROV (Reconsideration of Value) explaining my property should at least be worth in the 485-499k range and why.

The lender then tells me "Sorry that isn't an option, loan is clear to close"

He is refusing to pull my loan out of underwriting and help me challenge the VA with an ROV. Is this even legal? I understand that he just wants to close the loan and move on to the next, but where is the customer service here? Everything I have said has been a NO. So finally he comes back and says "Well your DTI (Debt to Income) ratio will be off and you will not qualify or get approved for a higher amount. My DTI ratio is around 24% and va's guideline is generally 41% and have seen it up to 60% on some cases. (red flag number 2)

I also wrote him back with a snapshot of the email he has sent me few weeks back in writing stating "Congratulations your 540k loan is approved with these following conditions…"  He then comes back and says wow you are right, I am sorry; but still we cannot challenge the NOV (notice of value) then repeated to me "loan is clear to close and ready for signature"

Is this even legal?  Besides the lack of obvious customer service, I am not getting the proper representation at all from these people.  

What do you guys recommend I do in my scenario?  I also feel like a 4.8% rate is huge, 100LTV or not.

Sorry for the lengthy thread,  hope to get some insight from some other professionals on here.

thank you!

Cheers.

Investor new to Phoenix/Arcadia/Scottsdale here.  Would love to meet up with likeminded investors, contractors, anyone in the industry!

@Kameron Holloway

I just moved out of the Bay Area for that reason. There are a tons of foreigners who own monopoly in the real estate in the Bay Area, they are paying cash and over asking. This leaves us little people out of luck and out of options. I’d invest remotely, do your homework and try to invest somewhere that makes sense to YOU. Good luck!

 Im originally from the east coast as well!  Ive purchased my house in east valley/Arcadia area.   Would love to chat more with you!

Bay area transplant, flipped few homes in bay area, recently moved to AZ and wanting to meet people and network.  Planning on buying rental properties for the first time.  Highly interested in meeting investors, general contractors and property management companies.  Please let me know if anyone on here is local to me, would love to connect!