All Forum Posts by: Wilson Rith

Bought a duplex last fall. I share a 70 gallon tank water heater with the tenants that needs to be replaced. There was enough hot water to go around for the most part with the 70 gallon tank, but I’m leaning towards the idea of getting two separate 40 gallon tanks so we don’t have to worry about sharing hot water with the tenants.

I haven’t received a quotes back yet from the company that serviced the tank, but I’m thinking for the one tank it should cost 1500 to 2000 to do the job. And for two tanks I’m looking at 3000 to 4000. Does that sound right?

Thank you.

@Lien Vuong This is the most complete answer by far. Thank you so much!

@Cameron Tope Thanks for the reply.

The reason I put 20% down is that I wanted to be in control of my own destiny per se. The last time I tried to buy a property about 2 years ago the financing fell through bc the fha guidelines were too strict. And I didn't want to pay PMI.

Also my housing market is super competitive. There’s very little inventory in Massachusetts and a lot of buyers. I had to beat out 14 other bids, and decided a conventional loan was the way to go.

Will look into opening another account! Thanks.

I just put 20% down and closed on a duplex last week. The plan was to rebuild my savings and buy a single family home in 3 to 5 years, and have our main unit in the duplex cover the mortgage of the future SFH. Than buy a triple or quad after.

Which would make it a 5-7 year plan.

This is slower than I’d like. Since I already have 20% down, should I thunk about take a home equity loan and keep my out for the triple to quad now?

Also, I just have the one unit. Should I make a separate account or just deposit the monthly rent to my bank account but separate the finances in the book keeping portion?

Hi everyone, I ended up finding a better deal than those two situations, and have an inspection tomorrow on the property. Thanks for your input!

@Nathan G. Thanks again. Also great insight about hiring a property manager to start off with bc I was going to attempt landlording myself first than go with a property management company when I had too many properties. But I’m busy with a toddler, full time job, and soon grad school. I want to buy now bc I don’t want to pay rent and I know things are high now but who knows how long it will take to go down. Just trying to get in the market when I can bc like they say..you can’t time the market.

@Nathan G. Hi Nathan. Thank you for your input. There’s an open house today for the first situation. I’ll see what the cash flow is like than. I did buy the rental property investment by Brandon Turner. So I am educating myself, and listening to those podcasts as well. What deal would you look for? Everything is going for 100-200k over the assessment bc of the market.

Hoping this the right forum for this question.  So I am starting out, and these are the two scenarios that are playing out:

1) Three family with renters already but these properties are going for around 400k, almost 150k above there assessment value.  I'd have to live in one of the units.  Is it hard to get one of the renters to leave, so my family could live in an owners unit?  Is this negotiated during buying?

2) Three family units with no renters.  The rental demand in my market is strong but i've never screened for renters before.  These houses needed a little tlc.  There is one in my market that is 289k. Should I take a 203k, make it rent ready (vs my own house ready) and than find renters.  The mortgage at this place would be around 1600, and my wife and I already pay 1325 in our own apartment.  So we could cover rent if the place goes unrented for a while etc., Well if I rehab the place a little bit than the mortgage may be higher.  Mortgage for situation 1 would be around 2,500/mo.  Which would be harder to cover if something happens, but again they already have renters.

What are your thoughts?

@Dennis M. All things being equal, I do understand the advantages of having a 3 unit vs 2 unit, but things aren’t equal where I am. There are more duplexes available, and at this point I’m just wondering if it’s better to get my foot in the door.

@Upen Patel Hi, thank you for the response. That is actually my plan. To go from a three unit, two unit, and than finally owning a single family home for myself and my family.