All Forum Posts by: Suzanne A.

@Russell Gronsky I've hung drywall but always outsourced the mudding, lol.  I do want it to actually look good ;)

Well guys, I was going to go back and look at it on Sunday afternoon and it went under contract Sunday morning.  Guess they found a buyer who loved the OSB look.  Thanks so much for all the great ideas. 

Thanks for the ideas everyone.  I'm going to go back to the house and take a closer took at the walls and see if anything could be done about it.  I'm pretty handy so I would love to be able to do something myself and not pay anyone. 

@Corby Goade, what did you end up doing with the house you bought that had OSB? Crazy that you've seen this too! My agent and I were so confused by it.

@Brian Pulaski good idea...my agent suggested putting another cheap type beadboard on top, but I worried about it sticking out too much (depth-wise)

@Angel Gutierrez haha no way I'd pay market value.  I was thinking at least 15K below asking to account for this issue and the 23-yo roof...still not sure if I want to mess with this though.  

Thanks for the opinions!

Hi all, I saw a house for buy and hold that is in really good condition. Wouldn't need much updating (except it needs a new roof).  The problem is that 50% of the walls in the house are covered with particle board (like the stuff in the pic, I found that on google; not from the house) and painted over with glossy paint.  At first glance, you might not notice it, but after 30 seconds in the house, I realized it was particle board and then saw it was everywhere.  It was used as wainscoting, an entire wall, the kitchen back splash.  The homeowners said the wood was up on the walls when they bought the house 30 years ago!! They tried to remove it and it ripped off the plaster so they had to leave it. 

If it weren't for this one thing, I'd probably have made an offer already.  But is a tenant going to say "What up with the walls?" and look elsewhere? What about selling someday? Any prospective buyers would have the same questions I'm having, and all I'd be able to do is shrug and say "I dunno, it's been there for 60 years!"  (Just fyi, this isn't an amazing neighborhood, probably B- so maybe tenants wouldn't care?)

Would you pass or perhaps negotiate the price to have someone actually remediate this?  Or would you leave the particle board up, since it is pretty durable against tenants? The house has been on the market for over 170 days and the last price cut was in January.  List price is about market value right now.

My primary residence was a smoker's house when I bought it. The sellers did the ozone treatment (industrial grade) and it was only temporary, as you say. The thing that worked for us was washing down the walls with TSP (cleaner) and priming with kilz. Then we painted as normal. It totally eliminated the smell.

Thank you @Nick H.!

 Where/when?  I definitely can't come tomorrow, but are there other times?

It's been difficult for me to find something suitable for buy and hold for Harford Co.  Look in Edgewood if you can find some good spots.  I do have a rental property in Abingdon (Bel Air schools) and it's cash flowing nicely- however it used to be my primary residence, paid a lot of it off, refinanced to get the payment lower.  That's the only reason why it's cash flowing. 

I agree with the above poster- don't quit that job yet, it will provide you capital to get started. 

Could you send me some details about the meet ups too @Laticia Braxton?  Thank you!

@Thomas S. thanks so much for this perspective about cash flow if 100% financed.  I think I was trying to make this property work since it's the only one in my immediate area that is even passable.  I'll need to expand my area.  Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm currently looking at a ~1100 sqft 2 bed 1 bath townhouse with a finished basement in a B-class neighborhood.  I've been to see the house twice and it does not need a lot of work. It's basically move-in ready.  The house is a short sale and the bank already approved the price of 113K.  It would rent for 1100/mo (the low end of the neighborhood comps) because it is only 1 bath.  

We are still waiting to hear back from the agent about the age of the roof and the HVAC.  But the house was built in 1990 so my feeling is the roof is original and will need to be replaced soon.   The asking price (which is approved by the bank) is probably about market value, but I'm not sure the deal is worth it at that price. If it had another half bath I could justify a higher rent.  I think they'd agree to 110K but I'd really love to get down around 100K (I doubt the bank would do this).  My loan officer just checked our credit scores and my husband and I are both around 815.  The numbers below assume a 5.5% interest rate, except for the third column which is 5% (my officer said if we put down more than 20% then the interest rate would come down).

Does anyone have any thoughts? This would be my first deal (I already have a cash flowing SFR but it used to be my primary residence). Thanks so much in advance!

Here are the numbers.