All Forum Posts by: Lynn McGeein

@Summer Dechanukul If your agent really represented that the home was in good working condition and actually told you that you didn’t need an inspection to verify, you should report him to his broker and file a complaint with the state real estate board, maybe talk to an attorney about a civil suit for damages against the agent and broker if they misled you. If the agent/listing disclosed it needs work, selling as-is but that you likely wouldn’t win bid with an inspection contingency, then you decided not to have it inspected, that’s a different, hard lesson. Get contractor estimates for total repair and if numbers still work and you can afford it, keep going. If not, sell. Most of my investor clients are contractors or come to showing with their contractor to get estimate of repairs before writing an offer. For competitive investment property, not being prepared to evaluate costs at initial showing, before making offer is really a waste of everyone’s time. Real estate agents are usually not also licensed contractors who can provide that information, so unless yours is, he should not be stating everything is in good working condition unless he can provide you with a professional report supporting that.

Quote from @Sam Booth:

How would you improve curb appeal? Thinking cut trees down, paint eaves, trim and window frames white. What do you say?

 If removing the bars, get shutters length of rectangular portion of windows that match door, should cover any holes in the brick left from removal.  If leaving bars, maybe those fence-style window boxes with pretty blooming annuals on each one. A grey-toned white trim should pop with existing color door.  Don't remove trees unless they're trash trees like gum balls or diseased.  The extensive root systems will start caving once removed, which will cause issues for a while -- we had one down in a storm and we're still filling in where roots all over the yard continue decomposing, causing depressions in the yard even 5 years later.  Minor landscaping to area inside of walkway and in front of right window, a few low-grow flowering shrubs or just pretty flowering annuals and mulch.  Seed lawn.  Do not paint brick -- low maintenance becomes expensive high-maintenance, no thank you.  Our goal is to improve curb appeal without major expense.  

@Allan Wu take into consideration that tenants are not going to be as careful as you would be, so make sure your lease states no flushable wipes, paper towels, feminine products, etc., that easily clog and that they’re responsible for repair if used. If it’s old clay pipes (experienced that mess in MD) then I’d just replace.

@Yusuke Koike if damage was that extensive where the unit is not habitable, check your state/local landlord tenant laws as some just require you let them out of lease, return deposit and refund rent for any time they’ve paid that they can’t live there. Others may require you to furnish lodging during repairs unless it was their fault. Your insurance or their renters insurance may also cover costs of lodging during repairs. If contractor is saying this was slow long term extensive damage then it may not be covered by insurance. Hard to imagine a sudden leak that was discovered quickly causing a 2-month repair.

@Brianna Johnson you’ll need to find out from your mortgage company how much extra you can pay into an escrow account because many have overage triggers where they’ll send it back to you if it goes over their limits. You should be getting an annual escrow review showing new tax and insurance charges and how that affects your payments, usually you can either send the difference as one payment or they raise your monthly payments to cover it. It usually changes every year. Ours went up drastically this year due to rising assessments causing much higher real estate taxes, and insurance went up over 10%.

@Mordy Chaimovitz when I try to sell a client’s home with tenant in place, I speak with them directly to find out what works best for their schedule. Some want to be present for showings, some prefer only show while they’re at work. Some want specific day and time window. If my client wants to sell to an owner occupant, usually brings more competition and a higher price, then I ask them to give notice and we’ll list once they’re out as we cannot have tenant holding over and ruining the closing. The rental market is competitive and they will have difficulty finding something, can’t count on them leaving on schedule.

@Barbara Berta if it's clear in the contract that you're within the financing contingency and were denied, and it states your EMD is returned if that happens, then if agent/broker is not signing the release, I'd also file a complaint with the real estate board.

@Sophia Boro for your own home where you plan to stay a while, that’s your call for the safety of you, your family and guests, especially if you personally knew the quality level of the contractor. But for investment properties, I’d feel that would open us up to way too much liability that insurance likely wouldn’t have to cover if a tenant or guest was injured where a permit was required but not obtained.

@Amber Littlefield for us, it has to cash flow well using estimates for a 20% down 30-yr conventional mortgage to consider it, then we’d decide cash or mortgage. We found that didn’t work with new construction. Also remember that it should earn more than you could make with less-risky alternatives. With higher interest rates, it becomes more difficult. If you’ve done the research and it’s a good growth area that’s not being overbuilt then may be worth it, but we consider if it would cash flow with the mortgage either way.

@Michael Greer unless it’s a small studio or 1-bedroom condo that doesn’t pass local codes for a child’s room, my understanding is that it would be a fair housing violation to not allow the child or charge additional rent or deposit. You may want a lawyer to review the document she gave you to see if there’s anything wrong with it.