All Forum Posts by: TJ C.

I have my first property under contract which is a duplex. Top unit occupied and rents for 800, bottom unit occupied which rents for 1200. Purchase price is 160k, appraisal came in at 175k. PITI is 1253. All sounds great obviously. We just had the a resale certificate inspection today with the code enforcement officers and there were some concerns that "need to be addressed asap". The pent roof around two sides of the house (it's a brick row home on a corner) needs to be completely replaced due to the wood being rotten underneath. The garage/storage unit attached to the back, approx 30'x15', needs to be replaced (currently leaking into the storage area that nobody uses). This is a flat roof. There is some water damage and mold in the finished basement from a leaking shower above in the first floor that needs to be repaired/fixed. This has leaked and made a hole into the basement ceiling. There is moisture in the basement and a good bit of mildew and mold from the moisture far away from that hole. One of the HVAC units (on the top floor) is leaking water. Those are my main concerns. Mostly everything else is cosmetic or easy to fix like smoke detectors etc. Does this sound like a huge red flag to walk? I am a compete novice to any of this.

Thanks for any advice!

I am due to close on my first duplex in PA in about two weeks and the title search just came back with judgments (about $42k) and liens (about 8k) for the seller, who owns the property outright. What does this mean to me? I spoke with the seller and he states he is going to negotiate this down and pay it so he can sell the place but my question is this- what do I do? From my understanding all of the 50k would need to be paid (or the negotiated total) prior to me being allowed to settle, correct? Would he have the options to pay the 8k of liens and create some sort of negotiated plan for him to pay the rest of the 42k after he sells since he owns it outright? Lets say best case scenario it does get settled and a clean title search comes back, is there anything else I should watch out for? Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated as I am completely new to RE investing. Thanks!

@Jason Wray I don’t own it yet, but am in the process of figuring it out. I will be buying below market value but don’t have all the money for the down payment/closing. So thinking about using hard money for some of it (which I will be able to cover at 1% through cash flow, it’s already tenant occupied) and I will get that back after I refi. Just need to know how long that would take since obviously the sooner would be better to avoid that interest as much as possible. It is conventional.

@Curt Davis I’m researching and people are talking about seasoning periods being 3 months to a year or two. Would this still apply if it had instant equity?

If you purchase a property for under market value with instant equity (let’s say a 100,000 mortgage on a property that will appraise for 175,000), how long do you have to wait to refinance in PA? Would your “season” period shorten?

If you buy a duplex under market value with automatic equity (let’s say your loan is for 100,000 and it appraised for 175,000), how long until you can refinance?