All Forum Posts by: Jassem A.

I have purchased a few times using seller financing. It will be mostly older properties that do not have a mortgage and are not bank owned. If you offer a large amount down and do a short term then some sellers will even finance with no interest. Most of the time it will be 5-10% interest however and 5-15 yr term but it can be whatever you want to offer.

Zillow doesn't really work like a message board like Craigslist does where your listing gets lost in the masses if you don't renew it every 48 hours. Emails do get sent out when a listing is added or when there is a price change which is why you may see more traffic at the beginning or if you change the price. There is an option to sort from newest to oldest but I think most people will choose to sort by price.  I usually wait until a property is mostly ready before I post because most people are wanting to view right away. I also don't post directly through Zillow. I use Hotpads because it cross posts to some other sites along with cozy.co and Zumper.  Posting to local Facebook groups every so often is an additional way to up the traffic to your listing.

I typically don't charge an application fee in order to avoid this kind of a problem and also find it results in more applicants to choose from. I check public sources for judgments and criminal history and ask if they can provide a print out of a credit report from credit karma.

it's 3200 sqft. I don't think it's considered a subpanel because it's tapped directly at the meter rather than the main panel. The main panel is actually 200 amp and then there's an old style fusebox going to the other end of the house.

Can I have two 150A circuit panels on one 200A meter base if the calculated load is well under 200A? Can the power company require me to upgrade to 400A even though it's totally unnecessary for a single-family residence? The house came like this and has been this way 10-20 years I believe. The tenant has been complaining about everything under the sun and he thinks there is something wrong with the electrical  so he has been bothering the power company. He pays over a month late and I made the mistake of reducing his rent by $500 a while back but it was only supposed to be temporary so that he could save for a down payment to buy the house. Should I take him to court and wait for the power company to force me to call an electrician?

I'll usually deduct material expenses like paint and mini blinds and whatever else from the rent with receipt just as a nicety. Anything else I look at case by case after the work is complete and may negotiate an additional credit if something was actually fixed or improved significantly.

I prefer to get at least 1.5x PITI in rent but prefer to get 2-4x the PITI going forward because there are other expenses to contend with which can add up even if you are doing the majority of the work yourself

@Austin Cole

I'd skip the extra work and red tape in making it a duplex. Rent it and use any extra money for the next project. The expense of making it a duplex and the added headache probably isn't worth it.

I would probably not split the utilities and put the money that would be used for the split into another purchase. If the plan is the live in one of the units then I would mark up the rent on the other unit to offset the cost of utilities.

Quitting school makes you a quitter and you don't want to be seen as a quitter