All Forum Posts by: Henry Lazerow

It cost a lot to build in USA. I do not see that changing. Even if rates fall, it will still be very hard for many working class Americans to afford homes. 70 years ago there was less permitting required, less litigation risk/builder insurance required and way less labor regulations resulting in cheaper builds. 

Just evict him and redirect any communication to your attorney. He had a right of first refusal which was given up when unit sold. He is just trying to extort you. In most states can evict even during a dispute so shouldn’t hold you back. 

That deal sounds very mediocre. Just leave it in stock index funds. 

HELOCS are awesome. I have done projects where I use my heloc for downpayment and rehab funds. Just be careful not to go overboard as heloc is not a locked rate and can get costly if get stuck with some balance long term, only take out what can afford. 

Similar to what Chris said. Buy a good building in a good area. Do not worry too much about year 1 cashflow and instead focus on what property you want own for the long term. The cashflow goes up every year as long as its a good area with growing rents and quality tenants who can handle annual rent increases. I am a big fan of 4 units as you get some scale and can still buy them 5-10% down if willing to live in a unit for just 12 months. 

I am an experienced realtor have sold a bit over $55 million and can first hand tell you the optimal price for sellers ALWAYS comes first week. Sounds like it was priced perfectly to get full ask first day, now saying that I would still keep it up 2 or 3 days to see if get higher offers if there was enough showing requests. The worst thing is to not get offers first week and then you only get low ball junkier offers with a listing that ends up selling at a net lower price to seller then if was priced correctly initially.  

With the commission rule change it is just a formality in buyer agency contracts. I have not seen a single house or 2-4 unit where the seller does not pay buyers agent commission at least in my market of Chicago. So nothing at all to worry about there.

Just RUN this buyer is obviously not a real buyer and just hoping to flip the contract, will weasel out at some point most likely.

Even a non refundable earnest can be bs if he just extends attorney review once it’s tied up FYI. Attorney within review period can cancel out non refundable earnest, seen it done.

Just keep it for a year or two even if slight negative cash flow or extra living expense. If it’s in San Diego it will appreciate and you should for sure be in the green in future. 

Chicago has low rise non-elevator building condos in class A areas at .8-1.2 ratios of rent to purchase, pretty solid for true 700+ credit type tenant areas. I always tell clients avoid anything with elevators as HOA gets too high.

That may depend on your location. In Chicago the worst building are the elevator high rises mostly owner occupants who pay huge HOA $600-1200 and still have barely any reserves for their size, they tend to be politically far left with anti landlord rules in their HOA docs and a very poorly run HOA. The low rise non elevator buildings are often mostly investor owned have lower HOA usually $200-300 and tend to be much better managed as intelligent investors own them. I have sold several of these to BP users and they can work great.