All Forum Posts by: Austin Smith

@Karen S. I have used Metro Settlement Services as a title company in the past buying a fsbo property. They're located in Greensburg.  They were great to work with. 

I'm coming up with just over $100 per month cash flow at $700 per month rent, which is definitely conservative. That's on a 15 year mortgage. I'm not sure if I would drag it out to 30 years to increase cash flow or not yet. Increasing the budget to 7-10k would not be a big blow. 

I stumbled onto what I think could possibly be a good deal. I own a lawn care company and I maintain the lawn at this rental house. The owner just moved a few hours away and the house has been sitting vacant since spring. He knows that I bought a rental property earlier this year and asked if I'd be interested in purchasing it. Went and looked at it, and I thought it was a great buy, but my girlfriend wants to run from it. It definitely needs a good cleaning. Spider webs, grease on the kitchen walls, and a slight odor of cat urine make it not the most visibly or scentabily the most appealing house. But that could all be fixed with some elbow grease and new paint/ flooring. Here are some photos.

Kitchen: Paint, flooring, and a good cleaning here.

Bathroom: This is probably the most extensive work that would need done here. Remove linoleum off walls, frame in wall/ put in smaller window to install new tub/ shower combo. New toilet, sink, flooring.

Bedroom: Paint, flooring, and remove weird shelving.

Living Room: Paint and vinyl plank over the old wood is the plan.

The exterior of the house. Wouldn't do much besides a good power washing and re-painting the porch. Maybe some fresh mulch and trimming of shrubs.

Also there are 2 more bedrooms that would also need paint & flooring. I'm figuring 5-7k for a fairly light rehab. He is offering the house to me for 35k, but I think he would probably take 30k. Should easily rent for $700, possibly pushing closer to $800 due to the fact that it is on a nice sized piece of property.  Property taxes are $1300 per year. When I ran the numbers, even with a 15 yr mortage, it still cash flows nicely. Let me know your opinions!

I'm considering buying this duplex. https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/reo/6107512007.h...

It's almost completely gutted besides 1 kitchen and a bath. It's a 2/1 on each side. The back portion of the house is an addition, and the foundation is caving in. When I first saw this, I pretty much decided I was not interested. But after I talked to a foundation guy, he said it may not be as expensive as I think to fix. He came back with a $2700 price to remove the block and pour a new foundation with new supports so it shouldn't bow again. 

Here is a quick break-down of the costs I'm expecting:

Roof-6000

Electrical-7500

Foundation-4000(just going high here)

Drywall-4000

Flooring-3000

Plumbing-2000

Kitchen/Baths-10000

Misc-10000

So a total of around 50k in rehab costs. The only thing that scares me is the foundation. But if I could pick it up for 10k, I'd be all in at 60k. And I think the ARV would be around 100-110k. Rents would be around $1200 combined. Let me know your thoughts!

If you have a good plaster guy, he could probably just plaster a smooth or swirled texture right over it. Or the 1/4 in drywall overtop and then finish. I just had a staircase that was really rough re-plastered in a skip-trowel pattern and it looks great and was cost effective. 

Where is the property located if you don't mind me asking?