All Forum Posts by: Amy Turnbull

I live in Los Angeles. I travelled to Massachusetts to sell the house.

This still doesn't answer my question--maybe I should be more specific: do I have to pay sales tax on the sale of this property?

I appreciate responses about this. I don't want to get dinged next year or whenever if I need to pay sales tax. I mean, I have paid my income tax but pretty sure Massachusetts wants a piece of the action!

I have purchased two properties: the first one was empty but the second one is a duplex with two rental units, both occupied at time of sale. The property owner wanted to keep the tenants so I wrote a letter to assure her I would keep them both in place. There was another bid from a guy who openly disclosed he would give notice to the tenants. I got the property. Within one month, one of the tenants gave notice. The other tenant is still there. I only raised her rent $25. Having her there has been helpful since she knows the property. I drafted a lease (there wasn't one before) and she signed it. She pays on time every month. Don't assume the existing tenants are no-good-nicks.

Thank you! Yes, I think the ADU will be 400 square feet: the manufactured home is 816 square feet.

I found an inexpensive one acre property with an old manufactured home in Willamette County, Oregon. I want to buy the property with my daughter (co-sign) so I (she, as co-owner and future occupant of the primary/man unit) can put an ADU on the property. (Local laws require one of the units be owner-occupied.) The idea is to consider the single-wide as the "primary" unit (that's how it's being sold) and apply for a construction loan to finance both the primary unit (the man home) and the future ADU. The question is: can it be done?

Hello! I want to build an accessory dwelling unit on my property in Western Massachusetts. It will cost about $100 - $120 dollars. I want to take out a loan independent of the the existing property. The lender I'm considering wants to do a construction-to-permanent loan, blending the cost of construction with a refinance of my existing loan. That loan has a 4.25 interest rate so I would rather not touch it. Is it possible just to finance the construction? I have 25% for the down payment so I'm looking to borrow $75,000 to $95,000 dollars. Ultimately, the ADU will bring in about $1,000 per month. I have an 825 credit rating, a current lease and two years of experience. The DSCR is about 1.25 to 1.5. My income is not great but the current property and the potential ADU will both be income-producing. Thanks in advance for any responses!

Stephanie, thanks for checking on this. My research for a Homestyle Fannie Mae loan turns up a different ownership scenario: owner-occupied, 1-4 units and investor, 1 unit. I cannot for the life of me understand the reasoning behind this. I don't know many owners who live in and rent 1-4 units; what does that even look like? A quadraplex? Like I said in another comment, I think Fannie Mae got this backwards! It's really a shame because the code where I own my investment property does not have an owner-occupancy restriction to permit an ADU--as it should be if a town wants to increase the supply of housing! I can rent out both the primary dwelling and the ADU and remain here in California until I'm ready to retire. This will create two units of rental housing where now there is only one.

It looks like I'll have to go the investor route since I do need the rental income to qualify! Also, not sure changing jobs is a good idea just to save points on a loan. However, I won't be able to apply for lending for the ADU through Fannie Mae as an investor because of the unit issue listed above. I'll probably have to go with an investment refinance construction loan through a local bank and pay the higher interest rate.

While I'm still in the research phase, I'm going to try to reach out to Fannie Mae directly!

@Dylan Vargas I think I'll try the commercial lending route first over hard money--see what interest rate I get. 

Thanks, Stephanie

According to one of the local Homestyle lenders, an accessory dwelling unit aka ADU aka guest house does NOT qualify as a one unit dwelling if the home is an investment property. However, as an owner-occupied refi construction loan, I can have 1-4 units ( which I think is totally backwards!) ADUs are still fairly new on the east coast so there's no precedent for this kind of thing that I can find i.e. using a Homestyle loan as an investor to build a new, detached ADU.

The downside of the investor choice is I can't legally live on the property unless I disclose this to my lender.