All Forum Posts by: James H.

Contracts must be in the King's language - English.

I lived in Granite Falls east of Everett as a kid. From my memory (about 20 years ago) there was a lot of diversity in housing between Seattle, Lake Stevens, Marysville, etc., etc. Are you sure you can't find a profitable rental in your region? I would not recommend a 30K rental out of state. I don't care where you are, a house priced as a car will be a crapper that will require you to be around unless you have a good management system in place. As an owner of one to two properties, you will not have much to incentivise any PM to go the extra mile for you. Better to have one rental close by that makes 3/4 profit of 2 in another state IMO.

The only thing the realtor can do that you can't do without one is show you the inside of the units. I would start searching realtor.com and then driving around the areas where you are interested. Try to get lunch in those areas as an excuse to familiarize yourself. Before you know it. If you do this, you could buy a FSBO without any realtor at all and negotiate a better price. But it you must contact a realtor, I would say that 3 months prior to purchase would be about the soonest I would contact the realtor. Anything before that is a waste of both or your time. I would not even ask the realtor to show me units until maybe 1 month prior to puchase time.

Thanks J. I had not seen this discussion in the past and have not been very active recently to see this newer thread,

I have been contemplating whether or not to claim all my expenses. If I claim, for example, $3,600 in expenses, I might pay around 6-800 less in taxes. However, come time to apply for a new loan, I will show $300/month less in rental income consideration toward my DTI ratio. Anybody here not claim expenses or not all expenses to better qualify for more mortgages?

Also, for those familiar with underwriting, does the bank count depreciation against rental income as it does expenses when analyzing the Schedule E?

I want to see everyone. I may not make it, though, as I just closed on a new house last week and am getting it ready for move in.

posted on wrong thread...

concrete blocks will crack under the jack. been there done that.

I'm an engineer (geotechnical) and can tell you this is not rocket science. It is, however, much harder work than one usually anticipates. It can be done though. You will hear very loud cracks and pops and it can be kind of scary. This is normal. I would recommend working with a helper and as Scott Williams said, have lots of supports for safety. Also, as J Scott said, there is a lot of pressure and wood shards could fly. Thnk about it - 60 tons of jack strength. An 18 wheeler weighs about 40 tons fully loaded.

As far as jack bases, I would prefer a larger "square" shaped footprint rather than what Scott desribed. The pros use steel plates, but you can double up some 3/4 plywood, too. Screw them together to increase shear strength.

One lesson I have learned is not to put the jack near an existing footing. I did this and ended up tilting the footing over from the pressure of the jack. Rather than jacking up the beam, the footing is now at an angle and the shims are there just to hold the beam where it was, rather than higher up as I had intended. You will also want something to spread out the jack footprint over the beam as well. If you don't, the jack will start pushing a hole into the relatively soft wood.

In the end, I found that it was not going to be a matter of just jacking up one spot. Several areas will need to be lifted to compensate for the new situation of the floor. That means more work. It is hard work dragging concrete blocks and wood members under a house - especially if you don't have a lot of space down there.

I ended up aborting the project. At my rent price, the tentants don't care that the floor is not level as water. If I ever decide to resell, I might at that point have it jacked up - by someone else. I was quoted about 1500 to level up a 750 SF pier and beam house. I would pay that just as readily as I would pay someone 2500 to replace the roof rather than DIY. Maybe I'm getting lazy...

I haven't used it yet, but think it would be a good idea. My experience is that every time I try to shave a penny here and a penny there, the results show up in the work. I have yet to find that elusive handyman who can handle all my needs, is availabe, does a good job and is affordable. That might be because I can't provide volume it work...