All Forum Posts by: Matthew Olszak

Yes, and they will add this to your DTI #. One of the questions on your mortgage app is about any loans not otherwise disclosed on via your credit report. Which is why they'll ask you to explain any recent inquiries to your credit - to make sure you don't have any new obligations that have yet to report. It'll be like a family member lending you the money for a "down payment", in your case $50k.

However, if you take out a refi on your current house, the cash will be in your account prior to purchase of the new home, and the seller can finance 100% or 1% or whatever at that point as the mortgage is already done.

@Roger Princeau Also consider if the seller is financing part of the deal, that can affect your DTI, so a cash-out refi on your own house prior to the deal happening might be the only way to make it work.

I'm a public adjuster (not in NY though). Definitely hire one for a property damage claim, auto claims its not necessary. The insurance companies are absolutely brutal. The agents - they're great. Friendly, caring, etc. But the company adjusters and 3rd party adjusters are for the most part out to pay as little as you'll accept, or outright deny your claim. For example, wood rot is not covered in most policies. So you have a roof leak, the underlayment is rotted, they say they won't pay for it. BUT, the shingle manufacturer requires a nailable surface, which a rotted wood board is not, so they are required to pay for it under that. Same for a collapsed sewer pipe - they won't pay for the repair to the pipe, but they do need to pay for the damages caused to access that pipe like removing flooring, drywall, concrete, etc. However many times they won't tell you that, they'll just deny coverage and act like they fought so hard to get it approved but the coverage is just not there (when it certainly is).

A good public adjuster will more than pay for their fee with the extra $$ they'll get you. Don't trust the insurance company adjusters, they work for the insurance company only. In what other field would you trust the person who owes you money to tell you how much they owe you?

If you need a referral to a good PA in NY, shoot me a message and I'll send you a couple.

@Rob Pagarigan Request proof that somehow insurance is covering the repair. 99% sure the insurance company isn't - its insurance, not a warranty policy. Why not just negotiate a $ amount as a credit at closing and get your own person to make the repairs? Screw the who/what/when/how of them repairing it, get them to agree to an amount of compensation to you and get the deal closed.

@Allen B.

Since it sounds like you already have a maintenance team, consider hiring a virtual assistant. I've found those in Central and South America are solid in the $10-$12/hr range. Setup a Google Voice number so tenants can call or text the number with their requests. You can set your auto-approve vs. needs-reviews standards, as well as instructions on who to call for what. Some of the hiring systems will allow you to see screenshots of when the VA claims to be working so you know they aren't cooking their timesheet as well. You pay actual hours worked with no taxes/unemployment/insurance expenses, just straight time. And since you control the phone number, if you need to change people its easy to simply change the login without having to issue new instructions to the tenants. I've also used my VA for following up with past-due tenants, lease renewals, and to setup inspection times such as when the bank wants to walk through.

 It works around here in Chicago at least (I also used it in Mexico successfully). The roaches eat the gel within a day or 2, and then in the middle of the night whole sloths of them come out shaking violently to their death in the middle of the floor. The good thing is that those who die in hidden places and the walls, die with the gel in them, and I believe it also passes along in their crap. The baby roaches eat those carcasses and crap, become poisoned themselves from that, and subsequently die. Its the only thing that's worked for me. The key though is that there is NO Raid type residue as Raid makes a barrier vs. a poison, so if you put Advion in an area before/after spraying Raid or another gas-type product, they'll avoid eating the poison and it'll be useless.

Yup, Advion all day. Be ready for the roach-zombie apocalypse in about 24-36hrs after application. HUGE amounts of seizing bugs zittering across the floor. And depending on your level of infestation this can last for days.

For a vacant SFH where you don't have to worry about pushing the bugs to other units, gas-bomb it heavily, wait a couple days, and clean thoroughly to remove the residue. Then apply Advion gel. Any left will be dead within days and ready to sweep into the trash.

Bah. In Illinois most of our contracts have an "attorney review" contingency which most attorneys extend while inspections are conducted. So they can simply state, "The Buyers’ attorney does not approve of this contract in its entirety" and its cancelled without getting into discussion over the whys. Of course the agents usually exchange the rationale but nonetheless its cancelled. What does your attorney say? Did they extend atty review during inspection as they should have?

Pshh...all empty threats. Unless this is a HUGE multimillion $ deal, or the owner is a super-spiteful multimillionaire or an attorney himself, you aren't going to get sued. Worst they'll do is refuse to sign the release and neither of you get the EMD, and the escrow fees will just eat it up over the years (assuming its with the title company). Either ignore the letter or respond like this:

"Thank you for forwarding over this correspondence. Upon receipt of a filed complaint I will duly forward over and involve my own legal counsel."

They found another place. I let applicants know that I will continue to show until a lease is signed, and the first approved tenant with deposit and 1st months rent who does so gets the place.