All Forum Posts by: Aaron Z.

Hi Ben, I hear we work in the same vicinity. I remember reading your post detailing your planning for that multi mini home property and thinking wow that is outside the box and that you weren't being discouraged. I hope that is working out well for you. Maybe we can talk REI sometime. Cheers! Aaron

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Liquidity and lack of volatility are what you want. A savings account is perfect for this goal with less than a 12 month timeline before you want to use the money. Think of it this way: Even if you found a high interest MMA like account at 5% and had the full 20k now, you'd only get 1k of interest by the time you wanted to use it. It's not worth the hassle. Your goal right now is to save, not earn interest.

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Rentalutions is another site you should consider when looking at Cozy. I like that Rentalutions.com offers docusign and that you can craft your own leases.

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Somebody please chime in on why this won't work: Why not just purchase the properties in your personal name from your LLC? If the bank or Fannie Freddie are going to consider a transfer of ownership a sale and require 6+ months of seasoning, why not just go through the sale process rather than the refi process? I'm sure I'm missing something...

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Tiffany S. I second what Jason Hirko stated. I used to live in Japan and they use these units extensively there. They only cool the room you put them in but have a lot of the components that a central AC would have. The only benefit is that they save you utilities by only hearing/cooling the room you are using at the time but that only matters where your electric is super expensive like in Japan. Also they don't build energy efficient insulated houses so they don't heat or cool anything except what they are using....they do provide a clean look though compared to window units and you would have fewer problems with them too. Definitely go with central AC. Running and installing vent ducting isn't that difficult if you are comfortable tackling it yourself. Then you only have the HVAC guy install and hook up the blower and compressor. Even if you don't do anything yourself. The cost for central AC won't be much more than the non-ducted system especially once you install that in multiple rooms.

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Steve Babiak thanks for the feedback. I'm going to price that out. After considering my problem more I believe I won't have a water intrusion problem since the entrance and back part of the crawl is already accessible just not with a full 16 inches of clearance and it's always stayed dry. That is the part of the crawl closest to the back yard where the water pools a bit when it rains hard.

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Greg S. That sounds like a fun project...one I'd take on in the future for sure. Right now for this property I doesn't make sense for me to do it... it is occupied and it never has a vacancy. It's 3 hours away from where I live. I work a day job full-time. And I'd want to be on-site to oversee this if I didn't do it myself. It's in the city limits and I don't have any contracting licenses so I'll have to check but I'm not sure how keen they'd be on me doing the work myself. And there are termites now... I'm counting down until my time isn't more valuable at a desk so I can take on stuff like this myself. I love the hands on, problem solving aspect of RE investing and I enjoy working with my hands and seeing a project from start to finish done right.

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Originally posted by @Charlie Price:

Aaron Z. Wow, this takes me back 35 years ago when I was in High School. One of my dad's old rental houses in Northern CA - Eureka. did not even have enough space to crawl under. It was a small home maybe 1,000 sq ft or so. He and I dug the whole thing out using a 5 gallon bucket and pulling it out with a rope one bucket at a time! Took 6-7 large truckloads out. Jacked up the house, poured new piers and leveled the house out. Strung up some batt insulation and called it a day. Or I should say maybe a month or so! I'll never forget that one! Everything turned out great when we were finished. Never something I would do if it was up to me though.

Sounds like a good time! That'll make you appreciate being able to pay someone to do that next time!

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Originally posted by @Jeff Keller:

Not sure about Virginia but in California many foundations only go down about a foot. As @John Wanberg said don't dig right next to a foundation or post. Also, you might have sewer lines resting on the dirt which will need to be supported after you remove the dirt.

If your water table is only a foot beneath the grade level you would probably either have rotting wood or very good crawl space ventilation.

I can't imagine how removing a foot of dirt from beneath you house would have any affect on surface runoff. If your dirt is almost impervious to water, removing dirt from beneath your house won't change that. If the dirt is as porous as sand, the water sits at the water table height.

Jeff, thanks...that's a good point about any lines or things hidden in the dirt. I don't think I have to worry about the water table. Thanks for making me feel better about the water runoff...what you say makes a lot of sense to me, but I didn't want to just go with my gut...it's nice to hear that from a neutral party.

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All Forum Posts by: Aaron Z.

Aaron Z. has started 4 posts and replied 82 times.

Post: Engineering or business major or real estate school

Post: Hello from Fredericksburg, VA

Post: Where to save for a down payment?

Post: Anyone used "Cozy" and what's your experience?

Post: Should I transfer rentals from LLC to personal name for loan?

Post: BRRRR - To Install or NOT to install ductless AC?

Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?

Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?

Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?

Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?