All Forum Posts by: Bosko Mijatovic

Hello All! I noticed this is a older post but I definitely wanted to connected with fellow STL investors. We focus on flipping and wholesaling.

The taxes are pretty cheap, $200 a year and we are keeping the utilities off. 

Not 100% sure if it needs to be torn down. We put this one on the backburner since we have another active flip going on but, in the case that we have to get rid of it for whatever reason we rather resell in the current condition vs spend the money for demo. I guess we should figure out how valuable the land is. 

Recently purchased a duplex that's in really bad condition for hopes of appreciation and gentrification of the area. This was a 10-20 year play. They are putting in a $2 billion government agency building in the area and it should be completed by 2025. The property is also is about 5-10 mins away from Downtown St. Louis which we believe is bound to become more popular. We got the property for $7,000 so we figured it was a pretty small investment but my question is, if we let it sit for the next 3-5 years without doing any rehab. Besides paying the taxes, what do we have to look after or will there be any costs? For example, we obviously won't be needing utility's and aren't planning on getting an insurance policy on the property. I am also assuming we are responsible for making sure the grass is cut and there isn't any trash on the property. The home is currently boarded up.

Makes sense, luckily our mortgage would be cheaper than our current rent. So that wouldn't be an issue but what if we kept it as a SFR and just converted the garage into a unit. Is there a difference if we did it permitted or unpermitted if we plan on keeping it as a rental

 Can you elaborate on this a little bit. Why is getting building permits so difficult here? 

UPDATE: After doing some more research there is something called an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) that should allow us to do this 2 unit strategy. Now one of the requirements is that one of the units needs to be owner occupied. If this is true, I'm not sure what our exit strategy would be on it. Maybe sell it to someone who will FHA it as well.

Does anyone have any experience with converting SFR to a Multi?

My GC pointed out a unique strategy but will it work?

So I have been looking at 3 to 4 bedroom SFR because Multi's in the area are either scarce or wouldn't cash flow with an FHA.

My strategy would be to buy a SFR and put up a wall somewhere in the house to create two separate units. If the home is only 3 bedrooms I would most likely convert the garage into a 4th bedroom so that both units are 2/1s. Now if the garage is detached I would most likely just keep the house as is and create a 1/1 in the garage. That being said... what kind of zoning/permit issues would come up? If I plan to occupy one of the units anyway can I just rent out the other unit without permitting the other unit or how exactly does that work? Now on the back end (sell side) if the property is still classified a SFR could I try to just sell it to another investor at that point for all cash?

This would be done in Riverside, Ca just for the record. I will do some more research and see what zoning laws are.

Update: Everyone thank you for your inputs, it really help us see some different POV's. We spoke to a broker and Mel has been approved for up to 250k on a SFR or 375k for a multi. We have made 5 offers with deals that have been on market. Our next step is to start calling wholesalers/agents with any off market deals. My only question is has anyone done a FHA with a off market deal. I assume most off market deals are bought with cash because they are typically seller sensitive or special situations where the seller needs to move quick so I would sure if anyone has had a success story doing it. I will keep everyone posted and appreciate all the help!