All Forum Posts by: Fran Flanagan

The town where my single family rental has additional charges to allow 3+ unrelated persons in the residence. My house meets the requirements, which are basically:
- 1000+ sf
- 20+ "front feet" or lot width
- one off-street parking spot for each person over 2.

The township charges you a $200 application fee + $135 annual fee for 3+ people. This is in addition to the other $175 annual fees for rental properties in town, good times.

I'm asking $1750/month and getting significant interest as its a nice place in a popular area. If I select a group of applicants who have 3+ people, can I ask them for any more money towards this? I'm not sure if this would be construed as violating any of the protected classes in PA. My thought was to ask them for the $200 and pay the $135 myself. Is this legal? ethical? Any thoughts appreciated.

I did this last summer. Put 10% down, 30 years at 3.5%, paid PMI up front for something like 1.3% of loan amount.

Since I didn't sell old place, I wanted to keep as much cash as I could. I also didn't feel like trying to negotiate the PMI away later based upon appraisals, etc.

Many lenders aren't even aware that this is an option, you'll have to ask. There are multiple MI companies, so if they come back saying a high number tell them to shop around some more.

It sounds like you probably got a pretty good price here. I'd be inclined to throw the agent a few bucks, maybe 0.5-1%. If you offer nothing, he'll likely fight it, but with some money and little work, he may be happy.

What's the interest rate on your student loans?

My wife still has school loans at 2%. If youre considering borrowing more money (as in a mortgage) no reason to pay those off since no one will ever lend you money at that rate.

I wouldn't even think about paying off a loan < 5% or so now, if you want to buy real estate. It's better to have the cash.

I just can't imagine calling the police because my neighbor's baby or her guest's baby was crying.

Maybe I'm just too nice for this business.

Every person in this thread except for one pays his or her own taxes, rent / mortgage and utilities.

The one person with free rent and utilities is complaining about a neighbor helping out his or her friend... with a baby, in the winter, by temporarily providing them with a free place to stay for approximately 5 days. Whilst a collection of landlords tried to dissuade her from complaining.

If I ever hear anyone ever accuse landlords as being heartless, I'm sending them to this thread.

Eileen,

Will you please come back to this thread and let us know what happens with your neighbors? I'm very interested to learn who moves in next, if they move out. I've got my popcorn ready.

Wow, I'm pretty sure that your realtor isn't willing to work for his or her money here. I would either replace her or do it on your own.

It's common expectation that the level of service one receives is always best when someone is trying to win your business.

From the tenant's perspective, if you and your agents are not willing to show them the property without paperwork in place and fees paid... how likely are you to address any problems that occur once they move in?

I only have one rental property, still on my first tenants (they're great). I told everyone who replied to my craigslist add that I was doing an open house for a 2.5 hour window, casually mentioning that I'd a lot of interest.

At the open house, I had cold water, snapple, soda, beer, etc... and I also had a sign in sheet. I told people that my accountant required it or something. Only 1 of the first 4 groups put in an application, but as each group came and saw the growing list of names, their sense of competition took over. I think 4 of the last 5 groups put in applications and I had a nice group to choose from.

Basis is the value of the house that you can depreciate over 27.5 years.

Basically it's the purchase price plus improvements minus land value.

Value of land can be deduced by the percentage used on your real estate taxes. You'll only be able to take the same percentage of total depreciation as with utilities. Same idea, since you're living in part of house.

The IRS depreciation rules for residential property become less intimidating when you plug in your actual numbers. Good luck!

I've never used them except to kick the tires. I've found zillow's lender software much better in that it lets you compare brokers without them getting your info. You choose with whom to initiate contact.