All Forum Posts by: Jason Smith

"Florida lawyers filed more than 76% of the homeowners’ suits against insurance companies in the entire U.S" It is due to roofing fraud claims. The roofing companies were teaming up with shady personal injury attorneys. They flyer and ring our doorbells 20 times a year and tell us we may have "hail" damage. You would think local news could uncover this story, but guess who their #1 and #2 advertisers are?

Dan,

You should check with Farmers Insurance and State Farm. Also check out an agency that shops 20 plus smaller insurance companies like Turner Florida Insurance.

Given an average 500k foreclosures per year, by September we will be at 750,000 homes foreclosed on that "should have happened" during normal times. 2.69 million in forbearance. Many of those people will not be able to keep up with increased payments on a loan modification. And 3% loans are still going on. When people are texting, calling and Facebook messaging you to sell and you see sales going through that make no sense, or people buying pre-construction houses and selling them for 40k more by the time they are done, a correction is coming. 

The ESA only covers houses that fall under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The FHA covers most housing. In very limited circumstances, the Act exempts owner-occupied buildings with no more than four units, single-family houses sold or rented by the owner without the use of an agent, and housing operated by religious organizations and private clubs that limit occupancy to members.

Is it a SFH you rented without the use of an agent? If so, the ESA requirements don't even apply to you. If it does fall under FSA, check with insurance, get told no, then ţell them no.

You tell them no, or you are happy to let them out of the lease. It will cause an undue financial or administrative burden on me as my insurance does not allow them. "If a housing provider's insurance carrier would cancel, substantially increase the costs of the insurance policy, or adversely change the policy terms because of the presence of a certain breed of dog or a certain animal, HUD will find that this imposes an undue financial and administrative burden on the housing provider."

Average dog bite claim is like 30k.

My advertisement and additional terms of my lease start with "no aggressive breed dogs"

Refinanced duplex 15 years a few months ago 3% Addition Financial Credit Union. Refinancing the other one 15 years 2.5% Provident Funding - but I get a 0.25% discount cause Provident was the original lender. In general expect to pay a 0.5% penalty over prime for 2 unit non-owner occupied. I suggest putting 25% down, your interest rate will drop dramatically. Use the calculator at provident.com. Provident is super strict about DTI, requires twice the paper work of any lender, you upload the docs yourself and your loan officer will not guide you through it, they do not talk on phone. You need to login every night and see if they uploaded a new document saying what you need to upload.

I am paying $2k in points for that 2.5% but you have to look at the overall cost from the lenders. They all stick it to one way or another whether they call it points, secondary market lending fee, origination fee.

Talk to local credit unions. First question is do you loan for non-owner occupied duplexes (2 units), second question is what is what rate can I expect with excellent credit and low DTI? That cuts down on the applying to find out their rates suck. Be prepared for 70% of credit unions to say no, and 100% of big banks.

Renee and John (post 3 & 4) mentioned most of mine except:

1) No satellite dishes on roof. Tenant may have dish installed in back yard on pole only.

2) Do not drill or tape anything to kitchen cabinet doors. Over cabinet door hooks are prohibited.

3) Upon move-out the house must be clear of all your possessions. No furniture, paint, chemicals, cleaning supplies, mops, etc. Large trash items most be picked up before move-out. Please arrange large item removal with City garbage collector in advance.

#1 reason is self explanatory. #2 my cabinets are new, I don't want them scratched and I swear they push me on this all the time (crappy 3M taped battery operated led strips, hooks for dish towels, luckily no screws) so I can point them to the lease when they violate. #3 I am sick of being left with random paint and chemicals (that sometimes I have to drive to the dump) and crappy mops. Also had some dump a mattress, couch and a bunch of crap in front of house on move-out which I had to pay to have hauled away - as a day after move out the cat 1 or 2 hurricane had changed paths and was on the way. Also avoids getting hit with overage charge (maximum 4 cubic yards of trash in my area) after they leave.

There are a million threads on LLC vs umbrella insurance vs both. And what level of protection LLC actually provides you.

If you do LLC first you will greatly reduce the number of places that write you a loan. The places that will give you a much worse rate. You are already going to be paying an approximately 0.50% penalty for it being an investment property. If you do LLC afterward some people say the loan could be called in, it is mortgage fraud, etc. Some people say those people are being paranoid, no one's loan is ever called in. My suggestion no LLC, refinance, buy an umbrella policy.

Are you paying cash? If you are financing, the mortgage company will want 3 months minimum cash reserve for your personal home (taxes, insurance, HOA, and mortgage if you have one) and the same for the place you just bought and place you want to buy.

All big banks will say no. Half of credit unions will say no. Just have to find the right credit union. Try provident.com also.