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All Forum Posts by: David Lou

David Lou has started 2 posts and replied 4 times.

Post: Confused about zoning restrictions provided by Redfin

David LouPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Orange, CA
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 0

@Russell Brazil if it's just one or two properties, I'd agree with that statement. But this is much more widespread. Meaning either EVERYONE is breaking the law, or more likely, the zoning displayed on Redfin is inaccurate or refers to something else semantically, like "No STR" means no hotel / motel buildings allowed to build on this land but a 4plex that can be used as an STR is permitted? Any agents in the area knowledgeable about this?

Post: Confused about zoning restrictions provided by Redfin

David LouPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Orange, CA
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 0

I'm searching for some multi family properties to invest in the Ft Lauderdale, FL area. My plan was initially to use the properties as an STR to be able to execute the STR loophole strategy. However, looking at all the multi family listings and the zoning information on Redfin shows that these explicitly do not allow Short term rentals. However, I'm confused because I've seen multiple examples (5?) where I found the exact unit listed on AirBnB. How can the zoning state that STR is not allowed, yet these small multi family units are all on AirBnB? Am I missing something or not understanding something here? I want to make sure that I don't buy a property that I cannot legally operate as an STR.

Post: Property loss, claims, and contractor questions (first post)

David LouPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Orange, CA
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 0

Thanks for reading and for the advice Ratho. I am definitely trying to be even-keeled about this (it's hard though, seeing your first home almost completely destroyed), and calling more contractors to get a quote. 

Post: Property loss, claims, and contractor questions (first post)

David LouPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Orange, CA
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 0

Hi all,

This is my first post on BP! I’m still new and only recently discovered and listen to the podcast and find the wealth of information on here very valuable. I realize my questions below are going to cover a wide swath of topics, and wasn’t quite sure where to post this. If the moderators want to move the thread, please feel free. This post doesn’t pertain to real estate investing per-se, but I realize a lot of people here might have experienced similar situations. Any advice you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Last week on 6/17, my wife and I closed on our first home (2 story townhome built in 1997, 3BR 2.5 BA in the Houston area). We did your standard inspections and all professionals that came by agreed that the home was in fantastic condition. We came by the next morning to let some contractors do some measurements for flooring and everything was still fine when we left. We hadn’t planned on moving in immediately since we still had an apartment lease that we couldn’t break until late July. We didn’t check up on the home Friday and Saturday since we both are incredibly busy and were working long hours. On Sunday morning, we got a call from the neighbors saying that there was a lot of water coming out of our garage! The service line from the master BR upstairs had broken and water had gotten everywhere. By the time we came into the home, the first floor was completely destroyed and all of the flooring upstairs was also destroyed. We were absolutely devastated.

Where we stand now: we immediately called Nationwide (our homeowners insurance) to file a claim, got a mitigation company to come out and they’ve basically ripped out the house down to studs on the first floor. They have also removed all of the areas that sustained water damage on the second floor as well. A large loss adjustor is going to come meet us on Monday with one of their preferred contractors to assess the damages and give us an estimate.

It seems like the next step, which is probably the most important part of this process is to find a good contractor that can give both us a fair estimate to make sure the insurance company isn’t going to try and lowball us and perform quality work to restore the house. When we met with the core adjustor this past week, she also brought the preferred vendor and it seemed like she was selling them hard to try to get us to use them. I’m not really sure how to proceed because it seems like there’s an inherent conflict of interest here for the contractor: they have an incentive to keep the estimate low to minimize the payout from the insurance carrier and win the bid from us. I do understand there are advantages for using preferred vendors as well, but given that it’s clear I know very little about real estate, insurance, and construction, I’m worried that we’re going to be taken advantage of. Any insight would be greatly appreciated here. Thanks!

-David