All Forum Posts by: David Krulac

@Andrew Slezak HUD does studies of rent for the whole country and published the MEDIAN rent for every area/county/zipcode in the country. The MEDIAN rent is the middle rent where 50% of the rents are higher and 50% of the rents are lower. This MEDIAN rent is defined by HUD to be FAIR MARKET RENT, FMR. And is the maximum rent the HUD allows fore Section 8 tenants. This figure includes allowances for heat, electric and any other utility that the tenat is required to pay and this is deducted from the FMR. So on a 3br unit where all the utilitites are included in the rent aand paiid by the landlord, you can expect to get up to the FMR as the rent for your unit. HUD does not factor into the rent other amenities that might be included in the rent such as garage, basement, fieplace, central air, pool etc, that might command higher rent in the non-Section 8 market place. Another variable in the amount of rent that a Section 8 tenant can pay is HUD limits their rent payment based on the amount of their income. For many years I was contacted by the housing office to provide input of my rents, both Section 8 and market rented units and participated in their annual surveys. The data posted to the HUD website is update for the Federal fiscal year beginning October 1 of every year.

Just bought 3 houses last week from a builder.  The builder offerred $15,000 credit to be applied, however you wished EXCEPT can not be used for price reduction.  Some buyers might chose a fence, some upgrades, or maybe upgraded appliance package.  We were able to negotiate a buy down on the interest rates.  Two of the houses are financed at 4.25% interest for 10 years then variable for 20 years.  The third house is financed at 4.75% interest fixed for 30 years.  Plus we also able to negotiate a frigerator (not part of standard package) as well as blinds for all windows.  Those rates are not as nice as rates we got a few years ago for less than 3%, but in today's market I'll take those rates.  Also in the same week we bought two other houses, and ended the week with 5 houses in 5 days in 3 states.  Not too bad when the inventory is low, the number of sales is low (like a 30 year low), interest rates are high and prices are high.  Who says there are no deals to be had?  look harder and negotiate harder.  

I just bought 5 properties in 5 days in 3 states.  There is low inventory, lower sales volume, and high interest rates, and as a result many people are sitting on the sidelines, either intentionally or forced.

Compare wear thickness(the top layer) and overall thickness. Obviously the thicker the better.  also look at the tongues, some are very thin and break easily. 

don't know if this is still true, but at one time foreigners could not outright purchase property in Mexico within 100 miles of the coast.  The work around was a Mexican bank was the owner and lease it to the foreigner.

@Bryan Zayac  In PA, there is a state document called the Municipal Planning Code MPC.  I'd look at that as well as the Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Ordinance, which every Pa township, borough or city has, or if they don't have those docs, they are covered by the county codes. Since you're familar with commerical development, most enginering firms, and attorneys work on both residential and commerical.  You can get bids from several vendors in thsi space.  I would also look at the availability of public water and public sewer, if not at the site how far away are those services. We've had to so developments where neither service was available and we needed to do wells and septics.  Other areas of concern are wetlands, flood plains, endangered species, archtectural and historic significance.  We've had to deal with each of those aspects at one time or another.  If the property fronts on a state road, you will need an Highway Occupancy Permit from Pennsylvania department of Transportation, to gain accces to the road.  On one project we did we proposed 36 highway accesses and were denied as been excessive.  If not on a state road, a muncipal permit is also usually required.  We've had develpment plans with stream and wetlands crossings, which required both state and Federal permits.  You can expect that you will be required to build roads, sidewalks, storm water control, utility taps, street lights, street trees as well as recreation fees as part of the development process.  And hopefullt you won't need a traffic light, which costs in excess of $100,000, though you will be required to do a traffic study.  We've also had to do Hydro-geological studies.  While daunting, your experiences engineering firm and attorney will be able to guide you through the project.  

https://www.parealtors.org/blog/pennsylvania-population-chan...

Pennsylvania is the fifth largest state after California, New York, Texas and Florida.  Pennsylvania is alos one of eight states with declining population, New York, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Oregon and West Virginia.

@Jonathan Small I've done some sturies in my area. There are 9 x buyers for owner occupied houses than there are investor buyers. Additonally investor buyers use matrix like cash flow to determine value. Whereas owner occupant buyers are looking at comps, sold prices for similar nearby properties, and don't care about cash flow. We have made money buying properety based on cash flow (lower priced) rented out for a period, then selling to an owner occupant. Its arbitrage of sorts. In fact most of the rental SFH we have sold to owner occuoants. In one town where we had 12 rental houses, every one was sold to owner occupants, not landlords.

For me I would not buy a property with zero or negative numbers.  Look harder.  I spoke in Raleigh, last April and think its a great place to invest. BTW, I just bought 5 properties in 5 days in 3 states.  Even though there is low inventory, interest rates are high, and many properties don't cash flow, look harder there are always deals, you just need to find/make them.

you have to inspect BEFORE the sale.  The list comes out at least 30 days before the sale and the owners have opportunities to pay off the debt anytime in those 30 days.  At some sales they will even accept payment the day of the sale during the auction if that property has not been sold yet.  Why would you literally wait until the last minute, when a flat tire or difficulty finding a parking space be the difference between keeping and losing your home?