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All Forum Posts by: Tim Swierczek

Tim Swierczek has started 13 posts and replied 1463 times.

Post: Real Estate Attorney

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623

@Brad Schaeppi is your guy. He's helped me and my clients countless times.

Post: General Contractor Wanted

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623
Quote from @Brett Riemensnider:

Hi everyone. I recently got a quote from a GC on work for one of my units. There’s a slight language barrier and I don’t quite think the person I spoke with understood the work I’m trying to get done. Looking to get the unit decent and livable not perfect. 

Does anyone have advice on how to open conversations with a GC, prices on services or recommendations for GC’s in the Minneapolis area? 

Hey Brett, 

The smaller the job the less appealing it is to your contractor.  The better the contractor gets the higher their minimum work becomes. Your description makes me believe you are looking for a job that is not worthy of a GC. I'd search for a very skilled handy man, this would be a good job for that person, or look for the individual trades and "GC" it yourself.  Anything else is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. You will get sick of beating your head against the wall.

Post: SFR devalued after new Apartment complex comes up?

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623

@Lynn Gupt I've worked in lending for 22 years. I've never seen an appraisal list an apartment building nearby as a reason for a lower value or as a negative price. Gas stations on the other hand do affect value.  I think many buyers will not want the extra traffic and noise they feel comes with an apartment and that will likely affect marketability. Could that keep you out of multiple offers or force you to accept a lower offer to sell? Yes, possibly but if the vacant land looks bad it could help you slightly. Most newly built apartments are nice and may give you a minor boost in appeal for your block. It's hard to say but I think it's fair to say your value is not tanking because of this apartment, any movement in value is likely to be small enough to be negligible.

Post: Loans on Spec Home Construction

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623
Quote from @Zach Kirchoff:

Hello,

Looking to speak with an expert in the spec home lending space. Smaller developments (2-10 homes at a time) and lower price point (under $500k). Please let me know who your favorite lender in this space is!

Do you have experience? If so, my wife has a few outlets. She brokers commercial lending and has both a small bank and a hedge fund investor. All want experience right now so you must be able to prove you've successfully done it before to get funding right now unless you put crazy money down.

Post: Investing in Minneapolis area- out of state

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623

You're going to want to build out a local network. I'd recommend talking to @Adam Tafel he has a built-in network of contractors and property managers to help you get going. Adam an I do a weekly live deal analysis on his Facebook page. You can visit it and see his expertise and the last house we looked at was an off-market duplex in Saint Paul, MN that was greater than a 1% rule which is hard to find nowadays.

Post: Real Estate Agent Looking to Start Investing

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623

Jodie, that's a cool career path. You can write a book about your journey starting into real estate investing. Reach out if you ever want to talk investing.

Post: Getting a Little Nervous...

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623
Quote from @Shannon L Fogarty:

Hello!  My fiance' and I are investing in our very first rental property.  Just last week we got our preapproval letter from The One Brokerage. We picked this bank because it was on Bigger Pockets.  We made our offer on a small home that needs to be rehabbed in a small rural community south of Rochester and it was accepted ($55,000). It's only 930 sq. feet.  It's on a nice big lot and includes a large metal garage/shed.  The house is rough, but we have experience remodeling and have a GC and an Amish crew ready to go.  We have $60,000 budgeted for the remodel.  This money will also come from The One Brokerage.  We uploaded ALL of our financials to the bank and are now waiting.  Communication with the loan officer is not the greatest.  I have searched for him on all the social media platforms and there just really isn't much.  I'm kind of freaking out because I expected a strong social media presence with this guy.  Like I said, communication now is less than I would like.  Yesterday morning he said we should have the final terms by end of day.  Did not hear anything.  I texted him twice with no answer.  This morning I texted again, emailed him and his assistant with no answer.  I called the brokerage and left a message.  They texted back and I left another message.  I then called the loan officer and left a voicemail with no return call.  Called the assistant and she answered.  She was very kind and apologetic and said she would message him through their portal.  She is in Texas, he is in Florida, brokerage is in California!  (YIKES!)  Within 5 minutes I got a message from him stating that underwriting has concerns about the location of the property being rural and not having enough sales comps.  He said he was working with them to get that cleared up and that he would keep us posted on the file status.  O.k. so is there a chance this won't go through??  I'm really feeling dumb and naive,  thinking I didn't investigate the lender more thoroughly. They have ALL of our information! Am I being paranoid?  


 I would make sure that One Brokerage has the correct loan product for what you are attempting. Any transaction where the rehab exceeds the purchase price is a red flag for the lender, when you add rural, extraordinarily small size, and combine it with a very small loan amount you create a tough situation. The risk is high but the loan size is not profitable. This is a very tough deal for the lender to justify.

Post: Remodeling My First Unit On First Investment Property!

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623
Quote from @Matt Vohnoutka:

Hey @Brett Riemensnider, sounds like you've got a fun project on your hands!  I fully renovated the upstairs unit (~850sf) of an up-down duplex in Northeast Minneapolis last year, and that project covered a lot of the same items which you mentioned doing for your reno plans.

Window AC. Much like your property, my unit didn't have any central air or heating. For the AC, I went with the GE Profile ClearView window AC unit, specifically the 8,300 BTU model which runs off of a standard 110v outlet, and is available on Amazon with Prime shipping. We only have this one window AC unit in the bedroom of my STR unit, but coupled with a ceiling fan in the living room one room over, it does a really good job at keeping the apartment cool on even the warmest of days. This AC unit was super easy to set up and install, and is also wifi-enabled so you can see exactly how much power you/your tenants are using via the GE app, as well as giving you alerts when the filters need to be cleaned (pull-out reusable filters are very convenient and easy to maintain). I also really like that this is a U-shaped window unit which wraps over the window sill, meaning that you get to keep nearly all of your window's view and natural light, as well as it being theoretically harder for someone to break into the apartment by kicking in/pulling out the AC unit (ours is on the second floor, but the safety concerns for first floor units is definitely a consideration you'll want to factor in).

Heating.  In case it comes up during your project, I also removed all of the old baseboard heaters during my reno and installed new Cadet in-wall electric heaters in their place in every room.  The heaters themselves (available at the big box stores) are great and keep the unit as toasty as you could ever want it to be during the winter, and they're much less bulky compared to traditional baseboard heaters.  If you do install any Cadet heaters though, for the love of god please pair them with the manual knob-style thermostats - the Cadet electronic programmable thermostats are maybe the single worst product I've purchased in my renovating life, and were replaced almost immediately after installing them.

Doors and Trim.  Any of the big box stores - Home Depot, Lowes, or Menards - are great for both items.  For my money, I think Home Depot has a slight advantage in availability of in-stock door sizes/styles (which you can check online to find your exact style/size/swing and see which locations have it in stock), while Menards has a wider range of trim options.

LVP Flooring.  I installed Home Depot's LifeProof LVP flooring into a 120-year old rental house in St. Paul - all DIY installed without much hassle over the course of a few days, and I liked the integrated underlayment that the LifeProof LVP flooring offered.  That property's floors are far from level, and as Kevin mentioned above, the flatter your subflooring is, the better your LVP will hold up.  4 years on, the moderately wavey floors in the 1st floor of my 120-year old rental look as good as the day I installed them; the LVP on the 2nd floor, however, needed to be fully torn out and replaced with carpet because there was too much variance in the subflooring and it was causing the seams on the LVP to crack and come apart.

Shower Window.  If you're going down to the studs in the bathroom already, tearing out the window trim/stool/apron is probably the best bet.  If it's a vinyl window, or if you could swap out the existing window for a vinyl window without much hassle (e.g. if it's on the first floor and you have easy access to the exterior), then waterproofing the inside shower area around the window would be much easier.  If it's an old wood window that can't be replaced or blocked super easily, you could always go down to the studs from the inside, put a piece of treated plywood (painted black) over the window itself, and screw that into place so that it's flush with the studs.  From the outside, it will look like a dark room, and from the inside, you'll have a fresh slate to install your shower surround (just make sure you don't screw through the plywood and shatter the glass behind it though!).

Shower Surround.  In case you're looking for input on shower surrounds, I can't say enough good things about the Mansfield NexTile 60x30x74 Alcove Panel Shower Surround - I ordered mine from Lowes and got it for under $600 with shipping.  Installation was a breeze, the panels are super robust and easy to clean, and having an alcove/niche in the shower makes it feel like a much higher end experience for the user than the product's price tag suggests.

My only other piece of advice would be to go keyless with at least one set of door locks at the property.  During the reno process, you can send any contractors or other helpers a keypad code to access the property without you needing to physically be there.  After the renovation is complete and you're renting the unit, not having to worry about tracking physical keys is a super convenient perk for residents/guests, and also has the added benefit of minimizing the amount of lockouts and other headaches you'll potentially have to deal with later on down the road.  Schlage Encode is my go-to for all of my properties.

Hopefully this all helps take some of the anxiety out of the reno process - take it one manageable step at a time, try to have fun along the way, and you'll be finished up in no time!


 Great detailed post.

Post: How to give a notice to vacate to existing tenant

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623
Quote from @Brett Riemensnider:

Hello everyone. I am purchasing a 4plex tomorrow and will be moving into one of the units. Every unit is currently occupied so I have chose the unit I want to move into and need to give a notice to vacate. 

They are currently on a month-to-month lease but would like to let them know asap to make the transition as easy as possible on them. I will be renewing July and will need to require them to be out before August 1st. 

Does anyone have a template I could use or advice on how to write up a letter to the current tenants more than just a notice to vacate? I think it would be nice to explain the situation a little bit and just apologize for the inconvenience etc. 

Any advice, or better a template to follow, would be extremely appreciated. Thanks! 


 Brett, it's always best to tag your location when posting a question. You will get a better response that way.  There's no magic bullet here. Right a nice letter, send it by email and registered mail, telling them you have purchased the building and will be terminating their lease on the last day of July so that you can move into the unit. Focus on the tone of the letter being sympathetic.

Set property expectations of move-out time and condition of the property, but do so after you have reviewed their lease as that is your guiding agreement with them at this time. Good luck, PM me if you have further questions.

Post: MN real estate attorney needed (unlicensed real estate agent, other issues, etc)

Tim Swierczek
Posted
  • Lender
  • Saint Paul, MN
  • Posts 1,526
  • Votes 1,623

Dan K it would be cheaper and likely quicker for you to first file an ethics complaint with the Realtor board naming both the agent and the broker. You can always hire an attorney after the board investigates as that is not a legal proceeding.