All Forum Posts by: Brian Jurvelin

@Austin Carlisle You may have moved on from the question already but wanted to weigh in to make sure it was clear why the scenario you mentioned doesn't work. Since you did conventional financing up front (20% down on a $100K house) you've now got a mortgage on that house for $80K. If you refinance, you won't get $75K in cash, that money would go towards paying down the first mortgage. So in this scenario, you'd end up with $0 in cash, $5K on your first loan and $75K on your second loan. So you're no better off than before, but have all the downsides Mike mentioned in his post.

Update: The landlord reduced the deductible to $100, which I don't have to pay for any repairs found when I go through my move-in checklist.  The landlord has been very easy to deal with minus this one detail and we loved the place so we signed the lease.  Thanks again for all the helpful responses.

Thanks everyone for all the help.  You guys are awesome.

Great responses, thank you everyone.  I requested it to be removed and so far he is refusing.  Do you guys have any suggestions for how I may be able to modify the wording to make it more fair?

Zach - I just got married so we are still saving up a down payment.  Will most likely buy after this lease ends.

Thanks for the response Phillip.  I like the point about how the lease term could backfire, showing the downside could help me get it removed.  Anybody else have any thoughts?

Hi BP community,

I am a tenant and had a question about the following statement in my lease agreement:

"Regardless of assignment of responsibility, tenant agrees to be responsible for the first $250.00 of any repair or maintenance required on the systems of the property for the term of the lease. This deductible applies per occurrence."

Is this a common lease term?  To me, it sounds like I can get charged $250 to fix anything the landlord wants in the house.  Need a new roof, I pay $250.  Water heater fails, I pay $250.  I don't think these are common expenses a tenant is normally responsible to help cover.   I'm I right in questioning this term?  Thanks!

@Travis Sperr Thanks for the input.  It sounds like investing in RE inside a SDIRA is probably not a strategy to pursue at the beginning stages of your investment career but can be beneficial down the road.  

@brian c Good suggestion to build up the funds in the SDIRA to have enough to buy a property.  I don't have any experience with wholesaling at this point it is nice to know the strategy is there if I need it.

I came across this BP forum post from a few years back discussing the merits of cashing out a 401k to invest in real estate. 

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/49/topics/7460...

There was some good discussion but the post was really geared towards people that already had 401k accounts and whether or not they should roll them into a self-directed IRA. I can see a SDIRA as a good alternative when you already have a pile of cash in a 401k and want to invest in RE instead of stocks/bonds, but does it make sense when starting from scratch? Would you start a SDIRA specifically to hold investment properties?

It seems to me like you can invest in real estate using a Roth and cash out tax free during retirement. Assuming you eventually run out of 1031 exchanges that is a better deal than holding RE in an LLC and eventually paying taxes. But I have read investing in RE using an SDIRA is restrictive and involves some red tape. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Is the play to put some REI properties into a SDIRA for retirement and keep most outside for income before retirement? Looking forward to hearing your take on this issue!

@Tracie Meux

 Welcome Tracie!