All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

It would be hard to know what the market will be up to in 3-5 years so you will not be able to make this decision now but if I were in your position I would own it like you might rent it-- that means no huge upgrades on things that are specific to your tastes-- and get to know what your real costs would be if you were to rent it, including using a property manager.  

If you do decide to sell then one bonus is that after you live in a property for 2 years you are not taxed on profits over $250K single person/ $500K married couple.*  So hold on to your receipts just in case you go that route. 

*just in my experience, I'm not offering tax or legal advice

When you go to sell the house if an "investor" wants to buy it, despite no history of them being an investor or guarantee of future sales- are you going to lower you sales price?  It would seem to be the same logic you are using on the contractors. 

If your outlets just look bad and don't actually need to be replaced you could try these:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/TayMa...

I think you can find them for quite a bit less expensive at home depot but I wanted to give you the idea. We've used them in many of our houses and it changes the whole look of the room without having to deal with actually replacing the outlet.

Thank you to everyone for adding your thoughts.  You all gave some great alternatives to replacing the front door and I really appreciate it!

I have a single family house in a class C neighborhood. My tenant texted me that she was thinking about it and she would really appreciate it if we could replace the front door on the house. She said that because the house is near a liquor store and some heioron addict recently coded in the alley behind the house she would feel safer with a steel reinforced front door instead of the older wood door it has.  

The thing is, she has lived there for 18 months and until last month we never heard from her. In December there was an issue with the heat and she herself called the heating and cooling people, paid them, then told us about it a week later. So I followed up with the heating and cooling people and paid her back, but told her repairs always go through me, always, and I will always be the one to order the repair and pay the bill. I wasn't a jerk about it but was firm. She didn't like this much but said ok. Since then she had an issue with the water heater, electric panel and a flooded basement-- all in the past 6 weeks. All seemed to be legit issues but holy moly I'm getting sick of hearing from her.

So my question for all of you on Bigger Pockets... is the door replacement a reasonable request? My emotions are feeling like she is giving me a hard time for telling her that she had to contact me about repairs so I want to tell her to kick rocks but at the same time I don't want to deny a valid request that is based on her perceived safety. 

As a side note-- I have lived in that neighborhood (twice) before and sure there are heorion addicts around sometimes but it's not like they wander the streets all over day and night. It's just kind of the neighborhood.  I didn't worry about... but that's me. 

So please let me know if this request seems valid? I really need an uninterested 3rd party opinion.
Thanks all!

The thing that fires me up about appraisals is how if you get one to purchase a property the appraisals will *always* come in at right around the purchase price BUT when you go to refinance chances of getting the appraiser to agree to what you think the value should be are slim to none.  

Example: we bought a Quad level house and did a LOT to fix it up and make it nice.  Wanted to pull cash out so we got an appraisal with the new mortgage and the appraiser would NOT budge on a value of $235K.  Got a new job and ended up selling it 4 months later for $270K.  

Not only that, but same house, when purchased- both when we bought and sold- 3 levels of the quad were counted as above ground sq footage. BUT, for that refi we did the appraiser would only count 2 levels as above ground. This obviously significantly affected the value and we fought back about it but after 3 rounds of back and forth there is nothing that could be done. 

We only have 3 rentals,  2 of which we don't have to worry about bc they are in jobs where they will get paid.  The 3rd though we're expecting to hear from them about issues paying. And we're fine with working with them. 

 Who else are we going to find to rent to anyways,  they are good renters and tons of people are losing their jobs right now.  

But i get our position is not the norm,  we only have 3 rentals and only expect issues with one.  So we're feeling fortunate right now.

Jc  guy you've never had a mouse in your house before? You manage properties, what do you do for them??? 

Anyway,  if your basics aren't working to get rid of then you can try rolling the mouse killer pellets in peanut butter to entice them to eat it.  

And we've used the poison more than a handful of times,  it dehydrates the mice and thry are small anyway so I've never noticed a stink.  And this includes a time in college we waited until it was a full on infestation before dealing with it.  

This is so inspiring, thank you for sharing!!

I would guess midwest states small to mid size working class towns. Houses are cheap/reasonanble still so low barrier to entry and tenants are pretty good so less risk than knowing what street to buy on in detroit (said as someone who lives just outside detroit)  while rent is pretty good.  There will not be the appreciation found in more metro/upper class areas though.