All Forum Posts by: Alvin Sylvain

My question is, what are the sources for your information?

 Contact Jennifer Roblee at Movement Mortgae and tell her I sent you. I got her contact from an agent I liked, and altho I have not had a chance to utilize her services, I like how she appears to know what she's talking about. Her company, Movement Mortgage, is nationwide.

She'll take your info and do a pre-qual, and that'll be good almost anywhere in the US.

I don't get anything for this plug, but I do feel guilty putting her thru all that work and ended up not buying. Send me a PM if you want her contact info.

 Any particular reason the lender has to be national?

Clearly, SOMETIMES, the more expensive items are worth the money!

Me, I hope never to see the underside of a sink ever again. Too many plumbers out there in need of work!

Thanks for sharing!

You start by attending the webinars and reading the forums on BiggerPockets.

Educate, educate, educate.

OK, first off, I'm not a lawyer and I'm not an accountant. Take that into account.

My advice is to fix the problem NOW and when you do you taxes, put down that you put the unit into rental service on June 12, 2019. It doesn't matter that the tenant doen't move in until Christmas 2020, what matters is the unit was available for leasing.

Consider, for example, you put the house up for rent in January. You advertise it's available. That house is officially a rental unit in January. OK, you're living in it now, but you intend to rent it out, evidenced by the advertising. OK, the toilet explodes in February. The repairs are a deductible business expense. You finally find a renter who signs the lease in March. Great, now you have rental income to put on your tax form.

The rest of your questions (recapture? you have a profitable enterprise, why would you want to move back in and ruin that?) probably require a tax accountant (which, as I said, I am not)

The recommended strategy in SoCal (or my recommended strategy, for what it's worth) is to invest out of state.

$90K will buy an entire duplex, all cash, in some parts of the country.

Since the total number of units is 4 or less, you might be able to get away with this if there is some logical reason the two duplexes could be considered as part of the same one apartment. Particularly if they're side-by-side, look the same, look to have been constructed at the same time by the same company, share amenities and parking lot and gas meter, and maybe if the seller has put contingencies in place stating they must all sell together.

It is not uncommon for an "apartment complex" to be a series of buildings, sharing a parking lot, amenities, etc., even the electric bill sometimes, and nobody would ever dream of parceling it out and selling one building at a time to different buyers. It also appears to not be uncommon for a seller to own two or more apartments in the same area, and whether he'll split them up or not, he often will prefer to sell the whole shebang at once to a single buyer. Less paperwork for one thing.

Probably your best bet is to shop your loan around. Package the deal as if you know those two duplexes are really just one apartment. Show the details of the properties to several lenders and see whether one is amenable to treating all 4 units as a single apartment. Don't hide anything, be up front that the buildings could be considered separate, but both you and the seller consider it all one.

If you find a lender willing to go along, you're golden. If not, oh well.

Don't take this as gospel. Clearly there a million things that can sink this boat, such as for example, it may be illegal if the two duplexes are registered separately with the county or state. But if this is the case, I'm sure the lenders will tell you. They are very sensitive about following the letter of the law these days.

 I guess if the danged machines get to be so danged smart, we can just ask them!

 I wish I could share your optimism.

I think I said something like this about Obamacare ...