All Forum Posts by: Donald S.

I'm using The CE shop, that's the website name. So far I've found it to be quite good. And they're always running deals so you should never pay more than 75% of the original cost. I bought mine during a flash 40% off sale. 

the format makes it easy to learn with plenty of mini questions throughout the lessons, and the lessons themselves are each short, but informative. Good luck!

Cheers!

Referrals. It's all they want.

You're literally already on the website you need to be on to learn most of what you need. Just use the search bar at the top and you'll find a hundred answers to almost any question you've had. As for books, look at the store section here on BP, they produce high quality books. Read, learn, read some more, learn, then look for the next step... 

That's an investor specific question, everyone has their own cost/benefit analysis to perform. Some investors don't care that they've held the property long enough that they've used the entire 27.5 years of depreciation, others want to sell after 5 to 10 years of appreciation. In reality your depreciation expense $ amount is the same every year except the 1st and last, so that's almost a non-factor when looking at properties owned for ~15 years. Most charts I've seen does have an "optimal" time to sell as 5-10 years in, although that's taking a lot of assumptions in the calculations. 

@Matt Kuhn, I understand why you're looking for a duplex now. I would still try for 3 or 4, but if that's what you have to work with then so be it. As for the realtor willing to "help" for a flat rate, screw that. As a buyer you wouldn't pay a realtor anything if buying from a marketed MLS property. And you should be able to easily get a 5% conventional or 3.5% FHA loan. Find a realtor that's worth it, and have him set you up a search on your city's MLS, I'm sure you'll find something where the numbers help your situation.

Hey Congrats @Max Householder! I love my garage rental unit. My tenant pays every month and I pretty much never hear from him. 

For leases, use your standard lease and just adjust the parts that apply so it works for a garage storage unit. I took the city's standard lease and edited out everything related to people living in the unit, added a clause stating it may not be used as a domicile etc...I can send you what I edited. 

As for evictions, it's a whole lot easier since they're just storage units. Check with a lawyer, you'll want to do it right, once you do it the first time you should know what to do should it come up again. I get $160/mo for my garage rental unit, so I definitely wouldn't dilly daddle with the timing, get this taken care of ASAP. Maybe send notices today that if they don't bring their accounts current by X date you'll begin eviction proceedings. 

I believe if you evict, you can auction their stuff off, keep what you're owed, and send the rest of the proceeds to them. Although unlike the reality shows, it usually isn't much. 

Good luck, and congrats on the 2nd purchase. 

Cheers!

@Matt Kuhn even if your market is overheated, the MLS can still be a good place for multifamily 2-4 unit buildings. The target market for them is smaller than single family, and thus usually they have a slightly lower value. Is there a reason you're looking for duplexes specifically? I'd look for a tri or quad if I were you. And if you'll be house hacking, as long as the rents you collect allow you to live for less than the amount it would cost you to live in a SFH by yourself then you're golden. Obviously if you can get the rents to make it to where you live for free or get paid to live it's better, but even saving you 400-800/mo is a huge benefit.

Good luck, and congrats on the marriage. 

Cheers! 

Thanks again everyone 

Jennifer, the front door we have to change to a single or move the staircase. Right now the place you come up and there's an inset covered area where both doors go, one leads into the living room downstairs, the other directly onto the stairs to go up. So unless we want to spend 20k moving stairs, or leave it as is so someone has to go outside to get to the upstairs, we have to change it. 

The carport/garage thing we've been reconsidering. It is popular right now, but might now be necessary. 

As for not doing central air, ill have to ask my agent. I've personally never heard of a SFH in this area without it. And my hvac guy said mini splits would be more expensive. I'm still getting more bids on that.

Jim, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by reconfigure things. The outside a.c. compressor has no where to fit in the backyard due to the basement steps and can't go on the side of the house because of the width of the property. Unless we cut off the side walkway. That's a possibility.

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I think I'll end up partnering with a more experienced guy and doing some of the work myself ultimately, but I'm determined to make this work. 

Hi @Jim Adrian, 

Yes it is a flat roof. And I've now had 2 HVAC guys say it can't go on the ground in the back due to the basement stairs (code says it can't block the stairs), so the only option is roof or fill in the basement stairwell, which would be quite a bit of concrete. As for maintenance, that'd be on the homeowner once we sell. I have read that roof mounted AC units have less maintenance requirements and are more efficient since they get to use gravity to feed the cold air (which likes to move down) through the ducts as opposed to basement/outside units that have to pump the cold air through the warm air. 

I agree with @Max Householder I would suspect a large portion of the population decline in St. Louis City is in North St. Louis (still part of the city, just generally considered worse than South St. Louis). But investing in our hometown is easy for us since we live here and can go drive the streets/neighborhoods we're investing in, for out of towners you'll need a good man on the ground to really know the lay of the land for you.