All Forum Posts by: Todd Michaels

We have received 1 quote so far, waiting on 2 more.  The quote was $18k for vinyl and $32k for Hardie.  @Blake F. do you mind sharing who you used for the siding?

We are going to hire a contractor to replace the wore vinyl siding and gutters on our 3 story 2 flat and detached garage.  We have gotten down to either vinyl siding or cement fiber.  First quote came back at $18k for vinyl and $32k for Hardie Board.  I know that Hardie board does look better and is very durable but it will require to be repainted eventually and this is quite a bit higher cost.

We currently live in one of the units and rent the other out and plan to live there for the next 5 years or so, then move to a different house and keep the 2-flat strictly as a rental; I expect us to keep the property for a good 20+ years. The price difference is pretty high but I figured I would see if any BP people would think hardie board is the way to go. 

We are looking to replace the vinyl siding on our 3-story 2 flat in Chicago and have gotten it down to between Hardiplank or vinyl, waiting on getting quotes back now.

Short term I don't see much change for REI. Longer term his tax plan does not help the middle class or lower incomes which will leave rent prices stagnant at best.

This is why we use move in fees instead of deposits as well. If he was a good / fair landlord I would just let him know about the law and drop it there. If he was a pain in the *** then maybe I would try to stick it to him. If he is going to be a landlord he should know the laws of the area; the interest bearing account law is very well known in the city. 

My suggestion is start small and local. My wife and I have only just started REI when last summer we bought a 2-flat with plans to rent out one unit and live in the other (commonly called house-hacking). The mortgage on the 2-flat we could easily pay with our 9-5 jobs so vacancy wasn't really an issue - we could absorb it if we had to and did for about 6-months while we had some major updates performed on the house (new HVAC, 2 bathrooms gutted, new plumbing in one unit, etc.). So now we have renters in the one unit of the 2-flat and they cover 95% of the mortgage so that frees up our work income to invest in other things and to pay down debt. In a few years we will buy another 2/3/4-flat in the area to add to your portfolio and once we move out of the 2-flat we bought last year that property will have very nice cash flow in an appreciating area. I think we will max out at 5-7 local units we will self manage.

Clearly we are buy + hold investors and living / owning in a large city we don't worry about property values crashing due a single industry closing which could be an issue in a more rural setting.  And don't over-extent yourself - I think having a years worth of bills saved up is a little crazy and I am no where near that conservative, but that said I can't see taking all the equity we have in our properties (we also have a condo the wife lived in for several years before we got to together we now rent and I own a house downstate which I rent out using a property management company) and buying up another property just yet either. 

As other have stated in the thread, I don't see REI, at least how we are doing it, any more risky than investing in stocks. We pick the neighborhood to buy in, we vet the tenants we rent to, we decide how much we want to invest to updating the property, we have the control and have a tangible asset. If the housing market crashes the equity we have in the property will down of course, but our mortgage is locked in and rental prices will not be affect in any great degree. At this point we don't plan to sell the house anytime in the next 20+ years

So buy an affordable SFH or smaller multi-unit in your area and get your feet wet. If you love it, buy some more properties a year or 2 later. If not, try to reclaim whatever money you put to into buying the property and move on to a different invest strategy.

We self manage 2 properties which are local and have a property management company for the 3rd which is ~350 miles away.  Our local renters all use Chase QuickPay directly into our account.  Free, easy, directly into our account. 

I have been looking into this type of system (Mitsubishi Hyper-Heat) for the ground level unit in a duplex (built in 1901) I just bought.  The ceiling is maybe 7.5 feet high with no basement.  Currently there is a furnace in the middle of the floor plan with no real way to run duct work, and takes up a fair amount of room.

What people are talking about is if the air temp reached -20 or colder, the units can no longer produce heat.  And the lower the outdoor temp, the less efficient they work.  With the duplex in Chicago, there are going to be a couple night every winter that get to -20, so we would need to run baseboard or some other heating source. m Would be nice to get rid of the furnace, just doesn't seem feasible.

Hello,

My fiancee and I received a GFE of ~$10k, just want to make sure these numbers seem ok to experienced folks here on BP.  Owner-occupied duplex.  Purchase price $317k.  20% down.  4.125% interest rate.  Loan amount $253,600.

The 3 biggest items are:

Title Services and Lender's Title Insurance = $4,148

Transfer Taxes = $2377.50

Initial deposit of Escrow = $850.00

The the taxes and escrow seem fine, but what about title services?  $4k seem reasonable?

Thanks.

Thanks for all the responses!  I will just proceed by returning the complete security deposit back assuming no new damage is present after close.

We did talk with the sellers about getting a credit for the issue but that didn't work out, and the house is a good enough deal that I am not going to let that stop me from moving forward.