All Forum Posts by: Jason Unrath

Thanks everyone!  This is all really great advice.

When considering submitting an offer on a property which is at least partially rented (in other words, you would be inheriting tenants), what information/documentation is reasonable for me to request from the seller?  Should I be able to ask for a copy of the tenants' current rental agreement, property expense history, etc.?  What information would ask for to fully vet the property?

When considering a rental property (I'm looking at duplex) that has oil heating, do you account for the price of tank refills separately, or just consider it as part of normal maintenance/CapEx? If I move forward with this property, I won't really be able to individually bill my tenants for heat, can I? I don't suppose I can separate costs of oil heat the same way other utilities may be separately metered per unit. Thanks in advance.

Having another room mate in my unit is a great idea.  However, I already have 2 room mates in the form a wife and child.  Haha.  So, we're much more interested in just living without a mortgage payment through this deal.  Additionally, I found out this morning that this property is eligible for USDA financing so we could save a few thousand dollars by buying it with 0% down.

I put in 5% each for vacancy, repairs, and cap ex.  I did look up the county records for tax, but did not get am insurance quote yet.

I just finished running the numbers on a duplex I'm looking at. My idea is that I want to purchase the property with an FHA loan (3.5% down), fix it up, and then live in one unit while renting the second unit. Once the original loan is seasoned enough, I want to refinance the property with a large enough loan that I can retrieve all (or at least most) of the money I invested. My results using the BiggerPockets BRRRR Calculator are below.

Normally, I would pay close attention to the top section which suggests a $708 monthly cashflow among other great info.  However, if I'm going to live in one of the units, should I be more interested in whether or not the rent of the remaining unit can cover my monthly expenses?  The local market suggests I can charge $1200/mo for that unit.  This will cover my monthly expenses as shown above, allowing me to live there for free, AND give me $72.75/mo in profit (really $332.75/mo profit since I'll be managing the property).  Am I looking at this correctly?  Or is there a bigger picture I'm missing?

One of my biggest worries as a brand new aspiring investor is that I don't want to develop a reputation for being the annoying guy who asks his agent for comps every day.  Does anyone have any good tips, methods, or resources you can recommend to help me gather my own market research data?  I'd like to (hopefully) be able to find sales data in an effort to find comps for properties, see local market trends, etc.  Thanks.

@Tom S. I was thinking more in terms of utilizing the BRRR strategy. I don't have enough cash on hand to fund a purchase AND a rehab, so a HML is probably a better starting point. Then, I could refinance with a bank for a 30 yr loan. Thanks for the bank tip, though

I don't have a deal "in the works" just yet. I have a potential investment property in mind that I'm investigating. I've never done a deal before. Does anyone have any advice on how I may go about building relationships with prospective lenders (HML, private, partners) at this super early stage of my REI career? How do I start a conversation with a lender? What questions should I ask?