All Forum Posts by: Grace D.

Hi everyone, I'm a new landlord and have found that little repairs can and do add up. Wanted to see if anyone has a referral for a reliable, quality and relatively reasonably-priced handyman in the Torrance or South Bay area. 

I've found a lot of the ones I called can charge quite a bit, but I really have no solid benchmark, since I'm pretty new to this. It'd be great if you can also let me know what rates I should expect. Are most of them per hour or depending on the task? Thanks in advance! 

@Jon Rusnak The 60-day requirement is still applicable, I think the lender will have you sign a statement that you will occupy within 60 days. They may ask for a written statement from the tenant, but they didn't in my case. Cash for keys may be a good option - but I think you can only do that after you've bought the property. Perhaps you can ask the seller to do it for you and add it on to the purchase price. In my case, though, the market was competitive and sellers didn't want to have to bother with vacating the unit. Me taking care of vacating the unit was my primary advantage among the other offers.

@Andrew Meyer Great to hear your house hacking is going well! :) I, too, am rebuilding capital for the next investment. I'm interested in the numbers you're looking at, though. Please PM me if you have time. Cheers!

I'm not sure how it works in your state. But at least for my inherited section 8 tenant, section 8's payment has varied (I think it's dependent on household composition). I suggest putting in only the total monthly rent. Any shortfall in section 8's portion should be covered by the tenant.

Thanks @Andrew Meyer

Sorry for not responding sooner. I ultimately went with conventional financing and have agreed on an exit date for the tenant. 

How are things looking in Indiana? I'm considering out-of-state investing after I get my first deal fully under my belt. 

Thanks @Wayne Brooks and @Daria B.

My apologies for not responding sooner. This ultimately got resolved, I basically told them I won't be signing off on any contingencies unless we get the signed estoppels. For some reason though, the sellers gave the tenants half of their security deposits back, leaving only half to me. I will be vacating one unit so it doesn't matter much for that one. For the other one, I will be collecting additional $ to get back to one month's rent as the deposit. 

Hope all is well in Florida! How's the market doing there? Trying to look into out-of-state investing this time. I definitely caught the Real Estate Investing Bug! 

@Geo Tan

Hi, I'm a newbie from SoCal, too, and am by no means an expert but wanted to share my thoughts and recent (albeit little) experience in case it helps. 

I initially set out to do a 3.5% FHA house hack and found that at least in the area I looked at (SouthBay):

(1) it was harder to get FHA offers accepted with all the competition from conventional and cash offers.

(2) The upfront PMI of 1.75% essentially gets me to a 5.25% downpayment (although you could opt to loop this into the mortgage).

(3) Depending on your income, the Mortgage Insurance Premium may not be tax deductible. 

(4) The 75% to 85% occupancy rates that they use to qualify properties led me to areas that I really would not want to live in (by the way, I was told this formula is only used for 3-4 unit properties; duplexes don't need to pass this rule) 

I modeled out my options (I'm a financial analyst by day), and ended up doing 20% conventional financing on a duplex in a great area, and am working on getting a HELOC that'll get me to a 90% combined LTV.

Granted, I will pay variable interest rates on this HELOC once I draw on it (when I find good investment opportunities) - but some portion would be tax deductible. BTW, I had the option of using an 80/10/10 financing during escrow but was getting quoted much higher interest rates on the first mortgage, so I chose to just do the HELOC after closing. [If anyone knows good deals on 90% LTV HELOC, I'd appreciate a referral. :) ]

Am I going to cash flow on this property? Not really, but with net payments just a bit more than my current rent, I'll be getting a good property in a great location that I'd be happy to live in for a long time and has a good potential for appreciation. 

I guess a lot of it depends on what your goals and preferences are. Hope this helps and all the best to you! 

Hi BP'ers! I'm currently in escrow for my first property. Almost everything is set except the seller hasn't been able to provide signed estoppel letters. "They are working on it" was their response. We are way past the contingency periods but I haven't signed off on the contingencies yet because of the lack of the signed estoppels. I have the rental agreements to verify the rents but for some reason, the seller does not want to provide the tenants' security deposits (set to $0 in the unsigned estoppel letter). There's still about 2 weeks to close but I'm not sure how to proceed. Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated.

Please add me as well thank you :)

Hi everyone, I've been trying to find my first real estate investment and am planning to house hack a duplex and finance using FHA. Live in one unit, then rent out the other. However, the ones I'm seeing are fully occupied and the owner doesn't want to deliver one unit vacant. As a result, I've been losing out on opportunities for the past 8 months. I looked up the FHA requirements and it seems they only require that the borrower occupies the property within 60 days of closing. In this regard, can I buy a fully occupied duplex, evict one tenant on my own, and occupy before the 60 days is up? Or would one unit really need to be vacant upon closing? Your help is much appreciated!

Thanks everyone! :)