All Forum Posts by: Gretchen P.

I would ask for one months rent penalty (you have to do work to market and find a tenant) PLUS ask her to pay rent/utilities until it is rented. You may suggest to her that if she vacates in the middle of the month and leaves the unit rent-ready the likelihood of it getting rented for the next month will be much better as most people like to move in around the 1st.

Also keep the amount of repairs only from her deposit. If she did $500 worth of damage in 6 months be relieved she is leaving. 

Sounds like a great property! 

I have a three properties on 5 or 7 year ARMs that will adjust in 2022-2024. Interest rates are between 3.78-4.78%. I want to have the equity in them available when I find another property, which may not be for a year or so as the market seems to be adjusting in my investment area. Can I refinance these into fixed FHA loans then put a HELOC on them? I don't want to pull cash out, pay interest on it and not purchase for a year or more.

Ideas, and which banks are easiest to deal with?

There are isolated incidents everywhere - even Class A suburban high-income neighborhoods. If the incident was random it is one thing, if there are drive-by shootings frequently it is something different entirely. I wouldn't worry too much about it. 

Most Real Estate agents don't understand rental property, find one who does.

The water and gas meters will be expensive. In Colorado springs the water tap is 10K plus, and a line would need to be excavated to the street or alley so you are looking at as much as 40K, gas is also expensive to run, but I haven't had to do that. I would keep gas and water/sewer combined and charge back the utilities to the tenants. I have some properties that share a water/sewer tap.  I assume electric is split? 

It might be difficult to find comps, so like any other property it is worth exactly what it is worth to you. Does it make a good rental? Have you researched rentals in the area? You should be able to get more than an apartment but less than a standalone house.  Why is it important that it be an official duplex? Is the realtor able to offer any comps?

@Jay Hinrichs I agree it may lead to more buyers, but they will be buyers with low money down, and some, not all will be people who shouldn't buy a home due to the costs of improvements, repairs and the need to be mobile due to job changes. 

Interestingly, Colorado Springs, which is not in synch with Denver politically is considering making it easier to add an additional unit to SFH that aren't zoned R2. It is a smart move to increase supply for lower income renters.

Can you rent the house as is? If so, that's a first step. Then educate yourself and run numbers on lots of different types of investments. If you buy real estate in a decent area with healthy cash flow (after a realistic and conservative analysis, it is difficult to go too wrong. 

For your first deal I think you were smart to run. When you have many under your belt you will have a contractor network and better sense of what the costs/value added will be. 

Personally I would look in an out of town or out of state investment that has a little cash flow. Suppose rents drop, can you afford to pay monthly to maintain these properties? My philosophy is that buying only for appreciation or future cash flow is speculation, so if you are wealthy go for it. The market will drop at some point. Tomorrow, in a year ... five years. Can you weather that, or a vacant unit for 6 months? You mentioned buying a number of properties, why not buy less with 20% down?