All Forum Posts by: John Whittle

The only possible issue with the roof permit is if your insurance company finds out when/if you make a claim for the roof failing and destroying stuff in your house.  If your worried about it you can probably get a roofer to get a permit without too much trouble unless they did something wrong. 

I bought my house with a bad roof my homeowners insurance did an exterior inspection when I moved in.  They sent me a certified letter with a list of stuff that had to be repaired or they would drop me in 90 days.  Had a good GC do the roof, insurance was happy with it but I don't think he pulled a permit.  

If its a brick house look for a crack going up the house.  Framed or brick check for cracked or hard to open windows and cracked drywall in the area above the issue. If its just a hairline crack in the foundation you should be fine but get it checked out by a professional.  Make sure its not a bad drainage issue could be gutters, downspout but could be clogged up broken drain tile.  Can't hurt to go over and see whats going on if you get some rain.

 I worked for one, not only was his decision making all over the place costing him money, his habit had him robbing Peter to pay Paul.  He had a 100% private investor and had done atleast 6 flips that I worked on. Supposedly he netted 30k on one winter/spring 2015. He was broke by the end of last summer. He owed me 5k or so on on one flip and asked me to start the next so he could get his investor to give him a draw, then he could pay for both.  Uhh no thanks, he paid me on the one after awhile atleast. I stopped by the next place a month or so ago its half completed almost a year later...

You can do a quick cheap title search with easytitlesearch.com.  Its possible for stuff to slip through the cracks on a title seach and come back and bite you later though.  I was going to do a land contract deal on a really cheap property where I would get a quit claim deed at the end.  Turns out it had a 2k water lein and the chain of title was a little murky with what could have been a 2nd mortgage still on the property.  I doubt the owner/bank from 20 years ago would go after a 15k house at this point but you just never know.  I didn't want to find out after I made it a 30k house.

Is it possible the ones that have to be in a personal name are in an owner occupant period?

I don't believe there is anything wrong with selling as is or with a disclosure.  I'm guessing you'll lose way more money selling it half rehabbed with a stop work order. Might as well finish it.  Make sure your contractors are up to the task.  Around here inspectors are generally nice and easy to work with. At the same time no one in my area seems to care about permits.  Not even the inspectors, its only double the permit fee if they catch you and don't like you. 

If you've been assigned a main inspector.  I'd call him and setup a meeting with him, yourself and your contractor at the property.  Lay it all out tell him exactly what you want to do and ask him what he needs from you to move forward with the project.  Thats the one thing that worries me about your contractor.  If this was my project I'd be on it and working it out with the inspector.  If your contractor isn't and doesn't seem to want to deal with the inspector you should probably find a new one.

What was the offer? Appraisers are all over the place, you could get another one that puts it at 280k the bank would most likely accept the average of the two.

Are you positive the entire place needs to be gutted? If you could fix it up enough to get it mostly rented, you can do the other units slowly with new kitchens and baths after you get money coming.  

My plans to go for the cash the first round.  Seems like it would make life easier in the long run.  Since you could buy the same house cash next time you can get better terms and don't have to pay interest.

Have you talked to any lenders yet? Cash out refis can be kind of tough from what I hear, it being a VA loan might make it even more difficult.

When you say ARV do you mean current value or are you using it correctly in that the repairs aren't done yet? If the house needs work a cash out refi will not work. You have to go thru an appraisal and you will only be able to borrow what the appraiser says the house is worth.