All Forum Posts by: Andrew S.

Quote from @Chad S.:

Any recommendations for a new insurance agency for my situation would be appreciated.

I have four rental property's, and my personal home listed on my umbrella policy, but I recently purchased another property and the insurance company I'm with (allstate) won't allow me to add it to the umbrella policy as they can only allow four investment properties, I'm told.

I have all my auto's and property insured through Allstate and they have been good to me, but I'm going to have to find another agency that will put my 5th investment property and future property's under an umbrella, or get a second umbrella. None of my property's are in LLC's at this time.

 That's not uncommon.  StateFarm also limits the number of rentals it will cover under your regular umbrella to 4 (other companies have different limits).  StateFarm (and many others, I suspect) offer a "Commercial Umbrella policy" that you can add for additional rentals in addition to the "personal umbrella" policy for your home/cars, atc..  It isn't crazy expensive, and this is what I ended up doing (I have about a dozen doors).

Not an expert on this, but these days, many, many properties go through bidding wars and end up selling far beyond appraisal.  So, either the buyer has to bring extra cash, or the seller has to take back a note.  Do these stats break out whether the notes are Firsts or Seconds?

Quote from @JD Martin:

If the mortgage was recorded prior to any HOA lien, it is virtually always going to be in first position. In other words, if the numbers you are describing are accurate, the HOA will wind up with nothing and the bank will end up with the house. If the HOA had a filed lien prior to there being a mortgage on the house, someone who wrote the mortgage screwed up as most banks won't give you a loan without anything that keeps them from first position being cleared precisely for this reason.

As such, I am with @Tom Gimer in that I don't understand how anyone but the bank ends up with this property. 

i agree, the bank will be in first position, so the HOA may end up with nothing. However, pushing the foreclosure/auction could still be advantageous for the HOA because it will force an ownership change and increase their chances of collecting future HOA fees.

Quote from @Jonathan Soto:

1031 into another home 

…. He lives in he property.  You cannot 1031 owner-occupieds 

OP, you are perfectly willing to accept  the other repair costs, closing cost, moving cost, 3% agent commission, but somehow you can’t live with any taxes on your profits?  Sounds like the tail is wagging the dog here!  Just sell the property and pay the taxes.  It means you made a profit on an overall bad transaction.  Take the win and move on!

I used Erwin Williams at TerraTech 919-876-9799 I was satisfied but that was 6 years ago, so I can't comment on more recent work or even whether they are still in business.

Is your personal property in the same HOA? If not, you could consider moving into the new property and then renting out your current digs?

I agree with others, ditch the pool.  Or make very sure your home insurance (and umbrella) company is ok with it.  My guess is that many won’t be ok.

I notice you are in MA - is that where the property is located?  If so, the pool makes even less sense as it is not useable yearround.  Not worth the maintenance and liability hassles.

Yours is really a financial advice question, rather than a real estate question.  I strongly urge you to visit www. Early-retirement.org. This is a very large and active online forum mostly of folks who either did or are planning on doing what you are thinking about (I.e. retire early).  If you post your question there and provide enough information, you will get plenty of useful input.  It all depends on your lifestyle, your needs and wants.  On early-retirement.org, you will find tons of people who live happily on 40k or less a year.  You’ll also find folks who need 400k a year.  So, you will get advice on how to figure things out and what questions to ask yourself.

Regarding real estate, you will find plenty of successful real estate folks on early-retirement.org, but you will also find folks who would never touch real estate and would much rather focus on other types of investments.  In the end, like I said, yours is a bigger picture question.  Real Estate is only one way to answer it.  While I lover RE and BiggerPockets, you will obviously tent to get RE focused advice here.  Nothing wrong with that, but my advice is to look for input beyond just RE for this particular issue.

I assume you are up to date on Raleigh provisions regarding shortterm rentals? Also, you may be in a Historic District overlay which makes everything (including STR and outside renovations) much more painful.

Quote from @Jonathan G.:

@Diem N.

It really depends on how many properties you have. If this is only one of a small amount of properties, invest in a dryer exhaust vent cleaning system off of Amazon. They are pretty simple to use and all you really need is a cordless drill. This will also afford you the opportunity to go over to the property and see how things are maintained overall with your renters. If you have a large amount of properties, probably best to have a contractor do it for you.

 I agree - its very easy to do it yourself.  But even if not, a handyman can easily knock this out in less than an hour.  Especially if you have never cleaned the ducts (and you would be surprised how many properties have not) you will be amazed by how much lint and dust can accumulate over time.  I do my 10-12 doors once every few years and don't see that much lint anymore, but the first time I cleaned some of the properties, they literally yielded a bucket full of material.  As others have pointed out, those are fires waiting to happen.

In addition to reducing fire hazards, cleaning the ducts allows you to inspect.  Last cleaning cycle, I had two of my properties with disconnected/damaged vent ducts that essentially vented the dryer into the basement (in one case) or the attic (in the other case).  That is REALLY bad news because dryers generate a huge amount of humidity and those damp spaces are an invitation for mold and wood-rot problems.  Reconnecting the ducts was quick and easy.

Finally, while I almost always agree with @Nathan Gesner on his advice, here I must differ.  Even if you do not supply washer and dryer, you are still 100% on the hook for cleaning the vents.  As long as you provide the hookups, then you are responsible for maintenance.  It is no different than maintaining the electrical outlet for the W/D or the plumbing for the washer.  If the water or the drain pipe burst, are you going to tell the tenant "not my washer - not my problem"?