All Forum Posts by: Joshua Maisel

I have acquired my 3rd Buy and Hold property which will require more work then needed in my previous two.  I'm going to leave this post just to the foundation.  A little about the home.  It was built in 1910 and is a semi detached (I guess you would call it, one side of the house shares a wall with neighbor) 3 bed room 2 bath city home in Little Italy Wilmington, DE.  I love the place as there's a ton of upside, I just have to get there.  Starting with the stone foundation I noticed the mortar is missing/crumbling in some areas.  I can see a tan/brown sand underneath where the mortar was.  When you touch it the sand material falls right out.  I know that you need to remove all the old mortar but how far into the joints do you go to remove that sandish material?  Do I put backer rod in there?  I have the ability to do this and just want to make sure I'm doing it right.  I have attached pictures of an example area and greatly appreciate any info what so ever.  Also interested in hearing opinions on what mortar type to use.  I've read anything from type S, custom lime mortar mixes, to getting your mortar tested.  

-Josh

General view of my foundation/brick wall.  There is a sidewalk that meets the stone foundation.

The brownish area in the center of the photo is a small problem area. 

Hi All- 

I'd like to start with a brief intro/background.  My name is Josh and I am just getting started with investing in real estate.  Needless to say I love it.  I have acquired three investment properties over the last 13 months.  I am trying to accurately replicate the financing terms in the BP Rental Calculator for an investment property I purchased, lived in for a year (to qualify as primary residence to get these financing terms) and have now rented out.  I was thorough/lucky enough to come across a pretty good deal from a local bank that was offering to pay up to 18k towards your down payment, closing costs, and PMI for a 30 yr fixed mortgage. I thought to myself, as I'm sure some of you are now, "Why in the hell would a bank give away damn near 20K".  Turns out the Fed had felt there was reason to "punish" them with a multi million dollar fine w/option of setting it aside for this program instead of paying the Fed.  Benefit being the bank could write this off and not record as income I'm assuming.  

The purchase price was 92k and appraised for 100K. Terms of mortgage were 30 years fixed @3.875% and 3% down. I was shocked when I saw the final closing disclosure showing cash to close amount as....25 bucks. The bank ended up paying all my closing costs, all my down payment, and PMI. I was left with a 695/month mortgage.

My issue is I cannot figure out how to properly replicate this in the Rental Property Calculator.  There isn't a "Lender Credit" field and anytime I adjust the purchase price/dp/closing costs/etc. my results don't make my Principal/Int payments nor cash out of pocket (cash to close).  Question being, has anyone had similar financing terms and been successful with this report or know how I could properly adjust my input values?  BTW I think the BP tools are amazing.

Regards,

-Joshua            

Yes that's correct, you cannot use a gift payment for a down payment on investment properties.  I just went through a similar situation.

Hi @Nathan Gesner @Teri Feeney Styers, 

My apologies for the delayed response as I changed my notifications incorrectly and I just now logged on to see if anybody viewed/replied to my post...

By that I mean people hanging outside yelling/cursing all hours of the night and during the day.  By this I mean yelling at each other or on the phone like a person in Wal-Mart...cursing and being aggressive.  One night i stepped out and asked them to keep it down since it was Midnight and the person tried to get physical and intimidate me however that didn't work.  A day later they came over and knocked on my door and apologized.  So again my side of the street are nice family owned row homes.  Across the street are the multifamily (2 units per building) places I'm speaking about.  Everyone I've spoke with on my side of the street expressed the same issues with the other side.  My goal is to add value to my block by somehow making changes across the street.  Whether this be reaching out to the property owners and asking them to do something that adds them value (easier said then done) such as raising their minimum requirements to rent or adding stipulations to the renters contracts (I'm open for any idea's to offer them).  All of the homeowners are on the same page on my side of the street. I found out who owns the properties in question and seems like they each (1 owner for each 2 unit building) have a couple properties in the city of Wilmington, all of about the same caliber.

With code violations, how can I prove those are occurring minus calling the police and hoping they arrive as these violations are being committed? Thanks for any and all advice!!  

GOAL:  Increase property/neighborhood value through improving visual appeal and quality of renters across the street.

Hi All,

Can anyone recommend an expense tracker for rehab costs? I recently purchased my first buy and hold rental property and am in the process of doing repairs. I want to track my expenses and was hoping someone could recommend a spreadsheet they have used. I was looking on BP and saw a ton of documents. I would also like to use this for when tax time comes around. This is a SFH that I will be living in for 1 year per my financing. I will have a person moving in next month so I am doing the repairs now. After 1 year I will move onto the next.

So my first house hack is underway!!! I received a phenomenal financing offer through a local bank which paid 17K of my closing costs/DP/Mortgage Insurance.  I closed the deal for $21 out of pocket.  Int is low and so are payments, I couldn't be more thrilled.  Now after staying there for 3 days I've had issues every night with the multi family dwellings across the street from my town house. This is the scenario of the location....Behind my row home (on public golf course) are single family homes that range from 500k-900k.  Everyone in my row are older retired folks who keep to themselves and show decent amount of pride in ownership.  Across the street are multi family low income units.  Each building has 2 units inside to give you an idea of what it looks like.  My neighbors (ppl living in my row) have expressed there disgust with across the street and I wanted to get everyones take on ideas to improve the area/get them out of there.  It's not as though the whole area is bad, I'm literally across the street from an undesirable couple of multi families meanwhile there are 500K homes around the corner, literally 60 yards away.  I know others all want this handled however nobody has stepped up.  Well I am that guy.  I've read allot about improving your area to increase property value and with the support of my whole street I know it can be done.  I just want to know the best ways to go about it.  I'm not trying to start a war however I am not shy and have no problem speaking face to face with people.  

Thanks for all the input.  Wanted to update everyone with how it played out.  I ended up going to closing and asking for a check to be made out to me for the repairs.  When I got to the closing table there was a check, however it was $50 lite.  The roofer sent me a text message a couple hours later saying the repairs were completed (again) and sent a picture.  It looked EXACTLY the same as the first time so I know nothing was done.  He didn't ask for payment either which was weird.  Atleast I got money to pay someone else to make the repairs.  Good lesson learned though.  Thanks again.  

Thanks Wayne. Much appreciated.

Hi All,

Coming down to the last day before my closing (4/27/2017) and just got off the phone with my realtor telling me the seller will not be able to complete the AGREED upon repairs by the closing date.  I should mention that the seller made the repairs originally himself even though the contract states repairs must be made by a Licensed Professional, he obviously is not.  I found out he did them himself when I sent in my contractor after the repairs were made.  The listing agent and seller then agreed to make the repairs again with a licensed contractor per the contract.  I now found out that they wont be made and they want to offer me a check for the cost of repairs at closing.  My question is can I ask for more money for repairs or walk away?  The seller is in a bad situation and needs to sell.  My reasoning for asking for more money for repairs is that I was incredibly nice in only asking for 3 out of 8 needed repairs per my inspection and then played around with.  Someone please let me know if I have a leg to stand on here and what actions you would take!  Thank you so much.  

@Sherman Ragland, I have my own IRA worth about 40k however I still hold my job and cannot move it to custodian until I quit, says my company's retirement provider. I will check with my immediate network (mom and dad) to see if they can move theirs. I have only spoken to two loan initiators and two banks in my area and was told by the banks the "manager" would need to call me back and by the loan initiators the "manager" wont allow such a small loan....

My follow up question to you is, normally speaking, banks (big or small) do or don't offer lower value mortgages for rental properties?

@Chris Schoonhoven, I was hoping to prove myself with this property for future investments from my network.  It is still doable but I know many people will want to see some "skin in the game" or some kind of track record.  However to your point, showing the numbers can go a long way.  If all else fails I'll go this route.  I will also create something similar to show the banks...like from the BP Rental Calc tool.