All Forum Posts by: Cassi Justiz

@Matthew Terry, 

I wouldn't say it's necessarily common, but I do know several landlords that do this. Basically they will say rent is this amount with no appliances. If you want a fridge that's an extra $50 (or whatever amount) per month and fridge/washer/dryer will be an extra $x/month.  Part of this comes with the responsibility of appliance maintenance, so that's something to keep in mind.

Some tenants may not be able to come up with the up-front cost to get all of their own appliances but they are able to pay a small amount extra each month.

If you put a mobile home in the backyard, would that make the actual house less desirable? I don't have personal experience with this, but if I were looking to rent a home I would be less inclined to rent it if I was sharing my yard/space with another tenant. 

Could you do any value add options to the home to bring the rent up? (Updates, including or leasing out a washer/dryer/fridge to the tenant, etc).

You've already gotten fantastic feedback on this post. It's unfortunate that your tenant has mental health/disability issues, but you need to do what is best for you. There are disabled people and people with mental health or other issues that have to move all the time for one reason or another. If he realizes that you are going to stick to the notice and not make exceptions, he will figure out a way to make it work. You gave them the legally required notice, now just stick to it or you'll have a problem tenant forever. At the end of the day, having to move at the end of your lease is one of the risks that comes with renting vs owning. 

It really depends how strongly you feel about these items. I would say daycare is probably a need unless you have another option (parent staying home, family childcare, in home daycare, etc). 

Education just depends on your priorities. If you feel very strongly that you need to provide your kid(s) with a certain level/type of education to ensure their success, then make it a need and make it happen. If you'd like to send your kid(s) to the really expensive private school but you are still comfortable with the public schools or less expensive options, then I'd call it a want. 

I would talk to at least 2-3 local lenders including a mortgage broker in the area you plan to buy in. Typically these will be your local banks or independent mortgage companies. If you have an agent, they can usually recommend some people. If you haven't found an agent yet, you can probably find one through the forums. Check and see if there is a local forum in the area you are looking to buy in. You should be able to get some good local recommendations on both agents and lenders. 

I consider reserves if they are in a fully liquid account. Brokerage accounts, HELOC, 401k, etc can be great options for reserves when times are good. But right now we are seeing banks pull back HELOCs and stock based accounts lost a ton of value in a very short period of time. If you had your reserves in one of those types of accounts, you could have issues if you needed to access that money immediately. I keep my reserves in a very boring savings account. It's not as exciting as a brokerage account, but I know exactly how much I have and I am not subject to any market fluctuations.

Congratulations on this one! This looks like an awesome deal and it's always nice to see some new life coming into these "problem" houses. 

I personally buy with the intention to never sell. If the house is cash flowing and going up in value, I would keep it. You can leverage the equity in other ways (HELOC, Refi). If it meets your goals, I would find another way to buy another property while keeping the property you have. You may not be able to grow as fast, but you'll have a carefully curated portfolio of solid cash flowing houses.

From a pure numbers mentality, if you sold the house would you be able to take the profits and turn it into another property that cashflows better without increasing your workload (bad tenants, rough area, etc)? If not, then keep the house. If you can take the cash and reinvest into equally profitable and "easy" property, then that's when it is worth considering. 

You may look into Plastiq and see if you can pay the HELOC balance with the CC. I know they do charge for this service, but I don't know all of the details. I also don't know that you'll be able to fully transfer the balance though.
Typically lenders and CC companies will not let you transfer secured debt (HELOC/Mortgages) to unsecured debt (Credit Cards). 

It's not uncommon for appraiser to be willing to complete an appraisal for a buyer or seller (instead of a bank), you will just need to find an appraiser. If you ask your title company, they may be able to give you some recommendations. 

You may also see if you can get someone to complete a BPO (Broker's Price Opinion) for you. This is basically a broker's opinion of what the current market value of the home is. These are used in foreclosure and refinance scenarios if a bank/owner does not want to do a full appraisal to determine fair value. They could also help you figure out what the maximum market value could be. They likely charge a fee for this service, but it is less expensive than an appraisal because it does not cover everything that an appraisal covers.