All Forum Posts by: Irfan Raza

Even though the statute says 9 months I have seen that title companies and their underwriters have been taking a conservative approach and will not insure until one year after deed recording which ends up meating 15 months. I have only heard of stories where people are getting title insurance quicker than 1 year and have not actually met anyone who has done it.

I use auction.Com and xome.com. there is no interior access so it is quite a bet every time. Sometimes I get lucky sometimes I don't. Haha

@Garrett m. I had this issue earlier this year. What I did was see who was pulling permits in the area I was rehabbing. I just called them about their experiences and did a mini phone interview. I then looked at their work if I liked what they had to say. I also reached out to a lot of people in my network. I ended up hiring 3 new gcs of which 2 are good and I would like to keep working with.  Now just trying to keep 5 gcs busy all the time!

A lot of smaller banks will do this for you on their commercial lending side. Most will do it as a 5 year term with a 15 to 25 year amortization. You will just have to analyze if the benefits outweigh the costs.

@Lana Lee in my experience the zoning archive did not allow me to be grandfathered into a multifamily. If buildings have been recently used as multifamily with proper paperwork they can be grandfathered in. If they have been vacant you will have to pull permits to get it up to speed only if the current zoning code allows. If the current zoning code does not allow you will have to go through the zoning processs. I would suggest you get a lawyer. It is required for anyone owning through a corporate entity like an llc, but even still it is good to have.

That's an option but I like turn around speed and prefer minor alteration permit most of the time. Drawing plans and going through the permit process becomes a big delay.

@Dave Francis I dig out a lot of basements for my flips and rentals.  It is just a matter of $$$ I am willing to spend and what comps are doing as well.  At at 5ft tall basement currently I would doubt that your foundation goes deep enough without the need for underpinning or bench footing.  Both those techniques are labor intensive and require an engineer to make plans and sign off on them after.  If there is a good slab in the house I tend to keep the basement as is.  If the slab needs to be repoured at that time I make the decision to dig out or not. 

@Tom Linnik I know a guy that is doing it in Detroit. I will be linking up with him soon and will communicate with you how things are going with that.  I also know that another general contractor is using a ICF building systems and getting it through L & I is proving harder than it is worth.  

If you are using a property manager for management of one property, it is probably more headache than it is worth for them to provide good customer service.  I am sure there are cheaper options in Philly, but in order to get the lowest fees from property managers, I would suggest creating more volume for them so you have more bargaining power.  That may be easier said than done, but a creative way would be to link with other friends and negotiate with the group. 

yes.