All Forum Posts by: Diana Tian

@Matthew Fleck Happy to see you invest in North Bergen. Considering the two/three family houses in that area are too hot right now, you made a great choice purchasing a one family house. from the picture, it looks spacious. Maybe you could convert it into two units in the future. 

@Orane Jacobs Welcome to BP. House hacking helps reducing the monthly housing expenses. If you are buying a two family house, there won't be any income coming from the unit you live in. It is very hard to have all expenses covered by one unit rent. 

If your housing expenses are lower than your current rent, I think it is still a good idea for house hacking.  Otherwise, you may want to give it second thought. 

@Sandy H. I could help you with this; will send you a private message. 

Good to hear your story! 

@Marcus Maloney I also think your offer will be more competitive for a house that needs renovation. 

For FHA loans, the appraisal process is more strict than traditional loans. Even though you could waive the inspection, the appraiser may still want a few things on the inspection report to be fixed before closing. At that point, sellers would have to do the repairs if they want the deal to go through.

But if you go with 203k loan, the appraiser would factor in the work you wanted to get done and provide you an after repairing value. Any required repairing could be taken care of by you (rather than the seller) after closing.  

@Reynald Benoit I don't know Harlem market. If I were you, I would start talking to some mortgage bankers to figure out the financing part. They will be able to advise if you need to save more downpayment, or increase your income or get families / friends to purchase it together. If you put down 5%, it seems like you may need $1.5mm of mortgage. After that, you could start to talk to agents/other investors in the area, to understand the market and inventory. 

@Viet Hoang did you check the designer’s portfolios? That says a lot of the work. I don’t know about 35%. A lot of supply places offers designer discounts . Interior Designers take a cut of the savings. 

@Ryan Alexander the return looks great in this market. But the expenses look very low and the income look a little high...I think the monthly cash flow may be way lower than your estimates. 

A few questions on the expenses on side? 

1.What is property tax? 

2.Did you include water & sewer? 

3. Are utilities separated? 

4. Is property insurance included? 

5. Did you factor in maintenance cost? 

Hope this help. 

`@Mark F. new sale won't change the house' assessed value. The assessed value will change only in situations like you have house improvements, the city does a revaluation, you appeal taxes, and etc. 

I was reading an article written in earlier 2000s. It was talking about that Union City was upcoming and it was good place to purchase properties for a few of reasons that we still talk about today. Union city properties prices went very high before 2008. The crisis hurt that market very badly. It is interesting and also hard to bid on the future.