All Forum Posts by: Joseph Firmin

Welcome @Katja Jeschke! You'll find a lot of support on here and answers to questions. Happy to connect and if you have any questions along the way, don't hesitate to reach out. All the best!

I have not, looks similar to Rhino. We've tried to implement Rhino, but residents had a lot of technical challenges, had to put it on hold.

An extra BR and BA should absolutely cost you less than $70K. Unless you're adding a lot more, that should not be a massive addition. Even at $700 more/month and $70K - you're looking at a ~12% return on the surface, not to mention the equity and capex depreciation on your taxes. Make sure you talk to your CPA before you do the work so you can best take advantage of tax benefits.

Hi @Aubrey P., I am not familiar with DC market, but there is a great BP podcast episode with Joe Asamoah (sp?) where he walks through this topic, specifically how he screens tenants in DC. Worth a listen.

Honestly @Andres Guerra, the bank wants to ensure you pay your mortgage on time and you are stable. There's always risk of them calling the loan, but they aren't incentivized to do that if you are staying current. I assume this is an FHA loan with that requirement, but even if not, you want to minimize that risk, so if you plan to rent it out, I'd suggest having the reserves to pay the mortgage through the time you won't be occupying it. Zero-risk would be to stay in the house or sell it, but if you feel you can maintain the mortgage and at the very least sell it in the case the bank calls the loan, then you should be good.

@Jason Hines Be sure to check your local and state laws regarding notice or rent increases. Some states require long notices for long-term residents. NY state in particular has somes strict laws about this. If your local law permits you to give them 30-60 days notice of rent increase, then it is a personal call on how quickly you'd like to get the rent up vs. it going vacant. The winter is a tougher time to get a place rented generally, but your market may be different and demand may be excellent for a duplex unit at $1,250. If that rent is at market, then show the resident the data and why you need to rent it out for market rates or slightly below - Maybe $1,100, especially if they are a great resident and have taken care of the property.

It hasn't been a problem for me. We've done floating and in the up and downstairs in a number of units without issue. If you have a good installer, it shouldn't be a problem.

Nice plan @NA Freed, I like your goals by your 20th b-day. See how you can get creative to accelerate your cash flow to move more quickly on your plan. Take it as fast or slow as you need to in order to achieve your end goal. Good luck! You're in a great place!

It is about your timeline. Just make sure you account for it in your financing and underwriting that the rehab will take longer and that your GC (or you) understand that you should do certain things when it is raining and others when it is cold, etc. Contractors want jobs, it is just about when/how to do them. Obviously they aren't doing exterior painting when it is raining, so what are the jobs that they can do on the interior. Do you have a space they can work outside to prep for things inside? For example, does the property have a garage where they can do cutting and prep stuff while it is raining outside?

It all comes down to control. This is actually a good and a bad thing because it makes you work more on your business rather than in it. It is nice to have the control and daily presence to understand how things are going and address them immediately, but also nice to have someone else to hold accountable for those items.