All Forum Posts by: Stone Jin

@Luis Martinez give them an upgrade to use, new stove/dishwasher/microwave/fan.  It's still your property but they get a nicer house while renting.

@Erin C. If the septic is covered by a slab of concrete, how will they ever clean it out?  I only own 1 property with a septic and the seller provided me with a cleaned out septic and a septic certification.  My understanding is that is typically what the seller is to provide.  I'm not sure if they can sue you but if you knew that the septic is under a slab and didn't disclose it, then they may have a case against you when push comes to shove.  

@Rich Chen I think there is probably a whole lot options for you if you decide to rent/invest instead of buy.  You can take the equity out of the condo or you can sell and 1031 exchange into many unit etc etc.  I think there many different threads on this topic.  Explore and figure what is best for your situation.  

We currently invest in Ohio and can find 10% cash on cash returns on sfh in good school districts.  It works for us, but we are also exploring a few other markets as well.  

@Corey M.  I think you should do some research on how a sewer main can break.   Usually it's very slow that you don't even notice and roots can get in.  This usually occurs to older homes pre 1960, by 1980 PVC is used and decay is unlikely.  I personally think you are over thinking, however if it will make you feel better, get the camera to scope it out.  

@Rich Chen how are you throwing it out the window?  You are paying for a service, similar to your cell phone bill, are you throwing away $200 dollars as well a month on that?   You could buy your own tower etc etc and technically own the service, but is it worth it?  Same with the house.  

As long as your deploy your capital in a way that is more effective than just paying a 3% loan, you will come out ahead at the end of the game.  Look at it this way, you only need an additional $2000 cashflow to live for free.  I don't know how much cash you have, but if you were to invest the down payment money into cashflow producing assets, could you generate $2000 a month?  If so that's likely a better use of capital.

There's a excerpt from Rich Dad Poor Dad where Kiyosaki wants to buy a sports car, instead he buys an apartment, the cashflow from the apartment pays for his car and when his car payment is over he owns the car and the cashflow.  The concept is similar for you I think, you can buy cashflow producing assets and it'll subsidize your lifestyle until one day you decide to move to a cheaper area to retire, then you will have the cashflow to supplement your retirement.

Hope this helps.  Renting may seem like just throwing money away, but you are actually getting a service that comes along with the house.  When the roof or ac breaks, it's not your problem.

@Rich Chen So you can rent a house for $5000 that would meet all your needs and your current rental would offset that amount by $3000 so you would be net $2000 out of pocket.  You also wouldn't have to come out of pocket any cash if you kept renting. That sounds like a no brainer deal to me.  Pay just $2000 a month to rent the house I want, all the problem/maintenance of a house is the landlords responsibility.  You can take whatever cash you were going to dump into the down payment and buy additional rentals to further offset your rent.

The flipside of it, was that you were going to have come up with 500K in cash to buy a 1.2M house and still have a mortgage payment around $4000-$5000 and all the problems of homeownership.  

@Rich Chen why buy?  Just rent if the income from 1 offsets the other you are living for free?  Am I missing something?  

@Corey M. The sewer is the cities responsibility but from the sewer to the house is the home owners.  What year was the house built?  I've never done a home inspection where I wanted the drains scoped.  Just have the seller buy a warranty that covers that and you should be all set for a year.  

@Corey M.  Generally scoping the pipes is out of scope for an inspector.  They'll run water down every drain and if it drains, they'll state the plumbing is working as intended.  You may hire a plumbing company to run the camera if you wish,  normally that costs around $200.  

@Corey M.

Is it on Septic?  You may need that checked out.  Termites if it's a big deal in the area.  The general home inspector will check electrical and plumbing for you.

In your case, you may want to have a priest to an inspection as well to make sure theres no ghosts.