All Forum Posts by: Virginia Jones

I’ve been out of the real estate market for a few years due to the lack of inventory and crazy prices but something came for sale yesterday that intrigued me. It’s two brick quadplexes side by side with separate utilities. About half have been renovated and the rest are original from 1971. The current owner is way below market rent. Average of $575/unit. Market would be closer to $750-$800. Asking price is $625,000. Any thoughts on this deal? Good price or would you offer less? Each unit is 800sqft 2 bed/1bath. 

My husband and I have several rental properties. Some multi-family, and two single family homes. With the market how it is I am wondering if we should sell the single family homes? In the location they are in, homes are going above asking with multiple offers the same day.

Property 1:
Purchased in 2017 for $55,000 and put $5,000 of repairs into it. Currently rents for $860/mo. Recently the tax assessed value increased by 40%, from $87,000 to $125,000. I'm thinking it would sell for $130,000 or so. Loan is about $40,000 at 4.5% interest

Property 2:
Purchased in 2019 for $42,575 and put $5,000 of repairs into it. Currently rents for $825 but could probably get more. No loan on this property. Could probably sell for $110,000.

The first question asked might be "what will you do with the money?" My husband and I are looking for a farm to purchase and to move closer to my parents and build a house on said farm. In a perfect world, we would be able to do a 1031 exchange into the farm property but it seems almost impossible for the timing to work on this. I likely would not buy a different rental property with the profits because the market is so inflated currently. So I guess it's possible we could sit on the money until the real estate market crashed then buy something cheaply like we did with these.

Any thoughts? Or just keep going as is?

One of our rentals has hot water heat powered by a natural gas furnace. The furnace has an automatic pilot light so it doesn't have a flame that needs to be lit. Would you leave it on in the months when it's not being used or turn it off during the summer? If it doesn't hurt it at all I would rather leave it on so as not to have the tenant messing with it and I won't have to go there to turn it on and off. 

We recently finished renovating a rental property and after a heavy rain it looks like the chimney may be leaking. It is not an active chimney. There is actually not a fireplace but at the base of the chimney in the basement is a little door with ashes in it. There are black streaks running down from the door and after a heavy rain, a little pool of water on the basement floor. 

Should we have someone come out and inspect the chimney or is there an easy fix we could handle ourselves? The chimney does have a chimney cap on it. 

We recently finished renovating a rental property and after a heavy rain it looks like the chimney may be leaking. It is not an active chimney. There is actually not a fireplace but at the base of the chimney in the basement is a little door with ashes in it. There are black streaks running down from the door and after a heavy rain, a little pool of water on the basement floor. 

Should we have someone come out and inspect the chimney or is there an easy fix we could handle ourselves? The chimney does have a chimney cap on it. 

This is the same feeling I got from him. I think I have the ability to spot out scams and people who will rip you off. From the moment I first heard his show there was just something about his voice and message I didn't like. After reading about all of this, I watched some of his YouTube videos which makes it even more obvious.

@Daniel Kong and @Frank Wong thanks for the input. I was leaning toward the 6.5% return reasoning as well. I hear both sides of the argument (leverage all you can vs. pay off debt). I'm still not sure what side I'm on - maybe somewhere in the middle. I don't want to end up in a bad position if something were to go wrong so maybe it's better to play it safe than sorry. 

@Thomas S. I bought the property for $42,000 and am putting about $5,000 into it so personally I don't see it as a bad investment.

We are currently rehabbing and should be done within a few weeks. 

Well we took the existing shower out as it was so horribly installed. I wouldn’t call it a high end rental but I want it nice enough that a high quality tenant would want to live there.