All Forum Posts by: Andrew Litton

Thanks Jim for all your input! It was very helpful!

Update: Here's a picture of the shower doors installed. They were $700 at home depot and I think they look sooooo good!! Semi-frameless so tall people can get in without ducking. About $200 installation for someone to help. Feeling like a real soon to be land lord. :-)

Justing waiting on the shower bar for the 2nd bathroom with the tub now. Then I can put the place on the market. 

@Scott Mac Thanks for the input. I'll look into getting elongated toilets, if I have time. Aiming to get this rented starting beginning of January. 

@Jim K. The shower and tub i just paid $900 to get reglazed. They're both 20+ year old all fiberglass one piece installs. I was wondering to rip them out and do tile but decided to keep the project scope small as I didn't want to get in over my head, rather just get started with a rental rather than risk a delay. So i think the plumbing is outdated because it hasn't been touched in decades. Like you said, unfortunately the plumbing is not modern and luxurious. Anyway, it'll have to do for now!

For the DIY shower install, gonna give it a go. I read over the directions and it does seem complicated, but will give it the old college try. I'm pretty handy and if i get stuck, will have to call in backup. Figure if there a week for install, I can jet adjustments. What's gonna make it even harder is the shower is fiberglass which shower doors are typically not installed on. Hopefully it'll turn out okay. Will upload pics when done!

Thanks everyone for your opinions. 

You're right the rods at $250/each is way high of an estimate. They're $40 each on home depot. :-)

The glass doors I'd like would be cheaper too at: $700 each

https://www.homedepot.com/p/KO...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/KO...

I took out the old doors and showered with a curtain last night. The shower felt much larger with that. Anyway, I've decided to do a $700 glass door for the shower and a rod for the bath; to keep costs managable. This way, the renter could be sold with the nice shower, don't think they'll care much about the bathroom with the tub. The bathtub can always be upgraded to a glass door in the future. 

I don't want to go any cheaper on glass doors because I don't think they look nice and feel they'll make the place look dated. 

Hi everyone, 

This would be my 1st rental property, and am reaching out to the community for some hopefully veteran opinions. 

Should I pay approx. $2400 for glass shower doors or $500 for quality curved curtain rods?

Background: This is a 2 berm/ 2 bath in the valley of Los Angeles in a nice neighborhood. The condo vibe is upper middle class in the sense of clean, neat, new white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, etc. 

I'm concerned the bathrooms are too small for a curved curtains and they may make the user feel claustrophobic. 

On the other hand, $2400 is a lot of money and would eat a lot into the profits. 

In addition, these tubs are only fiberglass and not tile... unsure how nice glass would look on fiberglass

Expecting ~ $2300-2800/month rent

Any opinions are welcome! Thank you
Shower #1

Bath #2

Thanks Nicole!

I reached out to 3 lenders with the lowest rates on the bankrate website. Two of them got back to me. 

1. Better Mortgages - They don't do "future rental income" assessment. I'd have to show 1 year of tax returns with rental income. 

2. Blue Spot Home Loans - They said they'd consider, “future rental income” if you secure a lease agreement AND security deposit for rental of your existing condo prior to final loan approval for the condo you will be purchasing. 

So with Blue Spot, I'd have about a 2 week window to find a renter and have their deposit clear. Seems doable but I'd have to advertise a very competitive rate in order to fill the condo quick. 

Hi, I'm new to the forum and was hoping to get someone's opinion on this investing plan. 

Bought my 1st condo (2 bdrm/2 bath) in the SF valley about 2 years ago but want to move closer to work so planning of renting my current condo for the mortgage + HOA costs ($2500) & moving to Ventura county.

Option 1: Rent in ventura is around $1900 for a studio.  

Option 2: So as another option, I'm thinking of buying a 2/1 condo (~$350k // 5% down, funded by liquidating stocks) in Ventura. Mortgage + HOA = ~$2300. I would live there at least for a year and then I'd have the option of renting it out, believe in a year rent price would at least cover $2300.

Buying - Pros

- Higher leverage - take advantage of only putting 5% down to have another investment property in 1 year, rather than 20% required for typical investment properties. 

Buying - Cons

- Unsure if the bank would allow me to buy another property due to debt/income (DTI) ratio. I currently live in my condo and don't rent it out. I would need the condo to count as future rental income in order to get the DTI low enough to qualify. Any insight if it's possible to get a bank loan?

- Higher risk - I've never rented a property before so I might stumble a little with getting it rented out, etc which could lower rental income. 

Other info: income=$100k year, only debt is current mortgage, making DTI = 30%

Any thoughts or advice, specifically pitfalls that I may fall into?