All Forum Posts by: Zoe Mercier

We're rehabbing this kitchen in a rental we just acquired. It's a C property so trying to use what's there as much as possible but still want it to look nice for future tenants. I'm having a hard time locating a corner cabinet that works here. Can't match it exactly and the measurements of the space are far from standard (28 inch on left side and 34 inch on the right) Wondering about alternatives. Thought about shelving but not sure how to exactly do it in this deep corner. Just looking for suggestions. Thanks! 

We're rehabbing this kitchen in a rental we just acquired. It's a C property so trying to use what's there as much as possible but still want it to look nice for future tenants. I'm having a hard time locating a corner cabinet that works here. Wondering about alternatives. Thought about shelving but not sure how to exactly do it in this deep corner. Just looking for suggestions. Thanks! 

Has anyone else here dealt with the following?

I use the rental manager to advertise and collect credit/background checks and am trying to help get my Dad hooked up to use it, as well. However, his property (a quadruplex that's existed since 1974) doesn't show up. I contacted Zillow about it and at first, was told to just use the rental manager to see the listing. But they obviously didn't understand the issue. So I explained again and then was told this:

"When a listing is not available on Zillow, it is because we have not yet gotten the information from county records on that particular address.
You will not be able to claim this address on Zillow as it does not exist on our platform at the moment. However, I have gone into your Zillow Rental Manager account and created a listing card for your address that will then create a temporary listing for your property on our platforms for rentals." 

So we did create the listing but it doesn't show up in searches or on the map so why should be pay for that? And it's not showing "at the moment" but it's not new so we don't think it will be added. Of course, I asked them to help me resolve or at least just tell me HOW but they haven't responded. So, I decided to post the issue to their Facebook page. I'll include here what I posted because it kind of further explains our issue:

Hi Zillow. I am having an issue using your service and haven't gotten very satisfactory responses in trying to address it through emails with your customer service. Can someone help me? The problem is that when we went to use the rental listing service, we found that the property does not exist on Zillow despite the fact that we own the building and it has been there since 1974. We can't get the address to bring up the property and the address doesn't show on the map. We were given a "work around" by your staff as a link we could use to create the listing but how can be sure that the property will show up in searches? 

We were told that it not showing up because Zillow hasn't gotten the update from our local county records. Is there a way that we can try and prompt the county records to update you to include our property address? Since this building has been there for many years it seems like there is no reason that is should not appear other than some clerical or input error somewhere. It's hard to imagine that it "just hasn't been added yet" and will be added since it is not new. We feel like it might take some intervention on our part to ensure it is added so that we can claim it in the Zillow system and use your services. Can someone please advise us on how can we get this fixed? We use the service for our other properties and it would be very inconvenient to have to switch to another service just so that we can keep track of everything in one place. We WANT to use Zillow to manage our properties. Please help us to do so. Thanks!

Hi Andrew. 

Thank you for your response. That does make sense. And no, we won't have rental income from the home we currently occupy. We actually had a new primary home under contract but backed out after the home inspection so just went through this with a potential lender. Having that debt and no income from it does negatively impact our debt-to-income ratio and therefore the amount of loan we qualify for. But we came in just enough to get a house in the neighborhood we want to move to.

The other variable here that I didn't mention, is that we will put our primary house search on hold for the 6 month seasoning period because we are using the cash we have for the downpayment to secure the new investment property.

The only thing I still wonder is if the 5th mortgage is a primary mortgage and not an investment, do the 5-10 mortgage rules apply? Most of the rules aren't an issue for us. But 2 of them worry me and make me wonder if it'll get in the way of us getting another home to move to if we get this deal. 

1. There must be 2 years of tax returns which rental income from all rental properties (if we buy the deal house it'll be with cash and we will hold for 6 months and then finance to cash out. So it will not be rented for 2 years because we hope to find the house within the year once we refinance after the 6 month seasoning period.)
2. There must be 6 months of PITI reserves on each of the financed properties (will we have to show this to get the 5th mortgage even if it's primary? Might be a challenge when some of our cash-on-hand is going towards the down payment.)

Thanks again!

We have 2 investment properties financed as well as our primary residence for a total of 3 mortgages. We are also on the hunt for a new home (in a very specific neighborhood so it may take awhile) and plan to hold onto our current home as another investment property. If we found and financed another investment property before we found our next primary home, that would give us a total of 4 mortgages. How would that impact our financing options for our new home once we find it? What would the implication be for the 5th mortgage on the new home we plan to occupy if it were to become our primary mortgage, if we do NOT plan to sell our current primary home but rent it. Also, this is assuming all investment properties EXCEPT our current primary home are rented and income producing. And are the implications the same for either conventional OR renovation loans?

In my research on the 5-10 loans I've found nothing about primary versus investment property. Is it as simple as a mortgage is a mortgage when it comes to anything over 4 and it doesn't matter that the 5th will be a primary? Do the down payment and PITI reserve requirements still apply for primary if it's the 5th? We have a great deal opportunity that we want to BRRRR but we also want to move and don't want to ruin our chance at being able to finance our new home if we grab this deal.

Thanks!!

Thanks for the replies and ideas. I like the idea of letting them look around and stay outside and then chat outside. But using video is intriguing, too. What do I do about my current tenant though? I want to turn to property without losing a month's rent. That means new tenant moves in the day the old moves out. So she'll still be living there during showings. How do I protect her in this situation (she's pregnant and I don't want to inadvertently put her at risk.)

My tenant's lease is up and she is pregnant and buying a house so will not be renewing. We want to take care to follow social distancing guidelines and not even appear to be endangering our current tenant, any prospective ones, or ourselves (we have some risk factors in our family and are currently living very carefully). But we do need to try and find a new tenant so we are trying to come up with a plan for doing it right and safely. How are you showing properties right now during the shut down?

Thanks!!

Most work was sweat equity; nothing structural that needed a contractor. A lot of cleaning and removing much of the junk left behind by the original owner. Painting and other minor repairs. Replacing wood rot on the deck and stairs and replacing the fencing around the back yard. Some new bathroom fixtures were added and the stainless steel appliances in the kitchen are new. But ultimately we just got a really great FSBO deal.

This is our first time securing a mortgage on a property we own and we assumed that it would be appraised at current market value. And this assumption was based on many hours of research I have done from listening to podcasts to reading blogs to having discussions with people at my local investor meetup. Never did this come up as an issue even in all the BRRR strategy reading I have done or listened to. And I didn't ask because I guess it was a case of "we didn't know what we didn't know". Are we screwed then?

We bought a place for cash (got a great deal) and are trying to finance it to cash it out (we gave the approximate value that it should go for). It's our first time doing this. We do have a tenant. Process looks good with the lender, however they are asking us this:

o Did you make substantial improvements to the property and if so what were the improvements and do you have a builder contract or invoices to document cost? Reason why we are asking, is the appraiser will need to justify how value increased by $33.5k.

We did a few upgrade ourselves but nothing major that needed a contractor; mostly clean up, fixing fences, changing bathroom hardware, etc.  We just got a great deal. How we do justify this to the lender/appraiser? Anyone have a standard answer? 

Thanks!