All Forum Posts by: Derek Knorr

@Andrew Smith - I would jump all over this, pursuant to review with your lawyer as others have advised. I financed my first 4-plex with owner financing six years ago and it has worked great. Paperwork is simpler, interest rate is better, and upfront costs are lower. Any time I buy a property I always ask about owner financing. Best of luck!

There is certainly nothing wrong with borrowing from family - just be sure to be very transparent and put it in writing regardless. I have a 5% loan with a family member who was happy to do that because it was way better than sitting in a money market account like it had been.

Jessica - we work with Property Management, Inc. in Lincoln and have been very satisfied. I determined that managing a property myself was not where my strengths lie, and have had higher income since hiring this out.  Feel free to DM me with any questions!

Welcome Jessica! I am also in Lincoln, and have been investing for a few years now. It's a fun and challenging endeavor, for sure.

Welcome @Naima Haroon ! I live in Lincoln and have been on the site for a few months - it is truly invaluable.

Quick tip on tagging people in your posts: Enter the '@' followed by a '?', then a list will pop up at the bottom of your text box with the names of those who have commented on the post.

I know this is an old thread, but I came across it on a search for 'paypal' and then later found the following resource here on BiggerPockets:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/pay-rent-online-payment-tools/

Definitely worth checking out.

We have coin-op in our 4-plex and they bring in about $60/mo. Seeing the rates others are using listed in this post makes me realize I need to check out the local Laundromat to see what they charge. These came with the place when I bought it a year ago, and they are set at $0.50 and $0.75.

In general, I have found that they more than pay for all my building gas and electricity on a monthly basis.

Just wanted to give an update on this - I received quotes to install a gas fireplace, ranging from $2000 - $2500. One of the companies also offered to uninstall the wood fireplace for $125. It turns out that nothing was load-bearing, as the walls were just for decoration and to hide the metal piping.

It took them about 3 hours to remove it, and now I only need to sheet rock the corner! To me, this was the win-win solution: little cost and no more fire hazard.

Eventually, I will do the same in the other units. Thanks again for all the ideas!

@Roy N. - Gravity is my nemesis in this case. :) It would be nice to remove the fireplace entirely, but because of the tenant in the unit above it probably won't work for me at this time.

I think I will get estimates for each (removal or replacement with gas) anyway and go from there. Thanks everyone!

Thanks for the quick tips everybody! I had thought about a gas fireplace, but ruled it out because I just assumed it would be too expensive. I definitely like the way they look. That may be a better option than removing the fireplace altogether, although it wouldn't add any extra space to the room.

Do you know if I would need to replace both this one and the fireplace in the unit above at the same time?