All Forum Posts by: Tim Griffiths

In the city of Oswego or somewhere else?

Right. I think I just needed the pep talk from someone experienced. Thanks David and Doug. 

So, I’m just getting started and I’m not sure how to deal with the office politics of choosing an agent. The woman we bought our house from years ago was fine but not the type of person who’s a go getter, & she specializes in single family homes not investment property. I live in a small city so there’s not a huge selection of realtors. Is it bad form to reach out to a listing agent (who’s in same office) personally; will my old realtor be offended & cause a stink? I don’t want to burn bridges. Sorry if this is a dumb question but I’m new to this.

@Jaysen Medhurst thanks for the information. Makes sense.

@Brook Rieman that’s amazing. In my town there are 4 or 5 churches that are probably going to be up for sale soon. They’re all large Catholic Churches so I don’t know how expensive it would be to repurpose them.

I’ve often wondered what to do with the old large churches. Yours looks great congrats.

Hello, newbie here. We are closing on a summer home that we will be renting out when we are not using it. I’m sure this has been covered a million places but I’m kind of overwhelmed on where to look. My question is, tax wise how does it work? We are planning on using it 4-5 weeks plus some weekends for now and then renting it out as much as we can the other days. I was told that if we rent it less than 10% of days it’s occupied we don’t have to claim it as income but that’s probably not going to happen. Just wondering how this differs from regular rentals tax wise and what we can claim for expenses if we use it personal as well.

Any guidance (books, archived webinars, forums etc) would be helpful.

Thanks!

Thanks for all the info everyone.  I looked at it and it's quite unusual, to put it mildly.  It's actually one commercial building, housing a rent a car with a 20 year lease and a hair salon run by the current owner of the building who wants to walk away.  There's also a very small house right next door with 2 one bedroom apartments.  The salon business she would basically give me and rent a chair from me, do I want to get into that?  So, it's just weird and while I think I could pull it off because the rent a car plus apartments would more than pay for it all while I got the salon up and running, I'm not loving it.  There's another small area in the back that could be another separate commercial space, so the potential to make some bucks is there, I just don't know.  Any thoughts BP?

One thing I realized though, why I've been so hesitant to pull the trigger on any deals.  I think I'd like to do commercial more than residential.  I feel so much more comfortable, and can talk the language and enjoy the possibilities much more.  So, how do I get into that is the next question.

Yeah, that's my concern.  It's kind of an odd setup, basement is a garage/office for a rent a car place and there's a hair salon too.  Neither are always long term places.  The price is right but I'm nervous about the headaches.  Thanks.

So, I'm a newbie, I've been looking but the numbers haven't made sense for a lot of the houses in my area, either slums or overpriced or both.

I will be looking at a a multi use building tomorrow and I wanted some feedback from the community.  It's a  2 commercial spaces and 2 1 bedroom apartments above the commercial.  It's for sale $75,000 below assessed value which makes me wonder.  My question is, what's the general feeling on buying mixed use property if you're just starting out.  I can afford it without any creative financing and the commercial tenants are well established, I just don't know.  Any thoughts from the experienced folks would be appreciated.

I have a good roofer but he's up in Oswego, don't know if he comes down to Syracuse.  If you need a name, send me a message.