All Forum Posts by: Marioly Toles

@Troy Sheets I didn't know about that brand. Just looked it up and I'm really liking the look. Thank a lot for the tip.

 Thanks a lot for pointing these out. Sounds like I'll avoid quite the headache by hiring a pro. 

Wow, thank you everyone for all this great advice. This is really helping me steer clearer. Luckily, I do have a 7' ceiling, which was one of the things that made the space appealing for finishing. 

A quick update though, I've decided to instead  finish the basement as a laundry/family activity room. After running the numbers on what I would actually get back, compared to how much I would have to spend on doing this properly, this was clearly a better way to go. For AirBNB-ing, I will instead do that with my main unit as bonus income. 

@Igor L., I'm a big fan of luxury vinyl plank. I keep shying away from doing tiling but this might be the right place for a new diy flooring lesson for me. Do you have any suggestions on a good place to purchase luxury vinyl or tile from?

@Alex T., you're absolutely right, this isn't a DIY type of project if it needs to be a rental. And thank you for mentioning ground contact lumber. I knew something like this had to exist!

@Account Closed that was an excellent article. I especially like the sprinkler suggestion, even if this won't be a living space.

Thanks again, everyone. Once I'm done updating this kitchen, it'll be basement time!

@Michael GuzikHi and thanks Michael. It was a little tricky for me to make sure the number will make sense since this is owner occupied, but in the end, I was comfortable with them since I'm still paying less out of pocket than if I had rented or bought a same size living space for just myself. In fact the more I thought about it, the more this seemed to go from just a rental to a live-in flip with a side of BRRRR.

According to AirBnb.com, I could potentially earn about $1300 a month, but I'm doing some more research to confirm that. I'm doing my own management so I didn't factor in a PM fee which i recently learned I should have in case I do start using a PM. 

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Phila.

2 unit, 1 rented, 1 lived in.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Came with an empty lot that I plan on building another unit on to rent out. Also came with basement that I'm finishing to post on Air BnB, and the house itself is out I wanted to live in.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Realtor who also invests.

How did you finance this deal?

VA

How did you add value to the deal?

Updating kitchen, finishing basement

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Convincing the bank that I make enough to handle the mortgage.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I worked with Justin Reeves, realtor. He really listened and asked the right questions to figure out what fits my needs and was very cooperative with me be new to investing.

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone. @Brandon L., those links are going to be a great help. It's really easy to get overwhelmed with all the info here. I really appreciate the posts.

Hi BP community! I'm in the early phase of finishing a basement in my duplex. I househack and I'm used to some dyi, so I'll probably do a good amount of it myself to save some money and get some experience. Right now, it's just cement floors and walls, has a toilet and laundry installed. I'd like to turn it into an Air BNB studio. I'm not aiming for anything fancy, just a basic, safe and comfortable space.

Has anyone finished a basement in the Philly area before? I'd appreciate any advice on some things to watch out for in terms of codes, cost and must-haves.  I'm particularly concerned with things like what's acceptable for egress, and when is moving a breaker box worth it. Thanks in advance!

Hi Ross. I just got started in Philly also. As David said, meetup.com was a great start for me. I've been to a few meetups held by DIG (https://www.digonline.org/) . They've got quite a few subgroups and I've met some very helpful people there. 

Hi everyone. I'm a RE newbie and am a BP addict. I work full-time in IT, while serving in the PA Air Guard, and these days I'm learning as much as I can about finding and managing properties effectively. Like many others that I've heard of, I became an "accidental landlord" when I started renting out my first house that was no longer a good fit for me. I've recently become an "intentional landlord" after listening to pretty much all of the BP podcasts and reading a good number of the books from here, and other authors about how to run this as a business. 

With that new found knowledge, I found and just bought a duplex that I'm househacking and working on adding more value to. I joined BP a little while ago the moment I realized how huge a resource this will be while I work my way out of the W2 world. I'm really looking forward to receiving and sharing ideas here. Here's to getting out of the E quadrant!