All Forum Posts by: Mark J.

@David Krulac @Steve Babiak

Can anyone recommend a 1031 exchange specialist in PA, ideally around the Lehigh Valley area?  THanks!

Rather than starting a new thread I will tag on to this....

I have a couple of rentals with a similar situation as original poster, but they are 2 units, under 1 heating system, controlled by 1 thermostat in the 1st unit.  

1 property is a gas furnace

1 property is an oil furnace (bills have been painful this winter)

Gas Furnace Property- I had an HVAC company check it out, specifically with converting 1 of the units to Mini Split system.  He advised that they''d both need to be converted and the total cost would be 15K, which wouldn't make sense for me at the moment.

Curious if others know of a more cost effective way to convert to split the heating system or if it's better to just build it into the rent rate.  Now that I'm thinking about it I would think there's a way to shut off the heat to the 2nd floor unit and install electric baseboard heaters in each room.  I'm guessing this would be more of an electrician job in that case.

Would be great to hear from anyone that's done this type of conversion especially in PA or Northeast.

I recently did a DMM campaign... gotten a few call backs from other investors and when I ask what they would consider a fair price I can't get an answer from them and they put the question back to me- basically saying I contacted them about buying so let them know for how much. Should I just consider these non-motivated sellers and throw out a price that I think would work for me?  I'm wondering if there's a better strategy?

I'm looking to buy and hold, so don't necessarily need it to be significantly undervalue, and can roughly figure out the numbers that would work for me, with the idea that if there were major issues with the property I would negotiate or walk.

@Ann Wing @Jillian Ez   Curious did you have to let Merril Lynch manage the account?  

The rep I spoke to followed up and said he forgot to mention that there's also a 1.5% management fee and they would actively manage my investments.  He made it seem like it's non-optional.

@Kamaal Khatumal thanks for sharing!  I'm going to give it a shot.  I'm curious what this looks like for Jersey City and also some areas in PA.  Best of Luck!

@Kamaal Khatumal any luck with this? 

@Justin R.

I think I'm missing something....

If you refinance out paying 5% interest and put that money into bonds paying 4.8% aren't you automatically losing .2%? And then you're still paying 4.5% on the LOC, so essentially 4.7% total?

I see you mention 3.75% also.

Can you let me know what I'm missing here- thanks!

Just an update for anyone looking for HELOCs on Investment Properties:

TD Bank is the only provider that I found that is offering them right now.  Huntingdon stopped doing them when Covid Hit. US Bank doesn't offer them. Penfed as mentioned has a 3 or 4 max.

@Sam Miller Did you find a lender that does HELOCs on investment properties in the area?

Yes, I've also been told and led to believe it's very rare for a lender to actually call a loan because it was transferred to an LLC. I can see how it gets more complicated if you try refinance, etc. later on.

My attorney also recommended an umbrella policy as an alternative to an LLC. When I spoke to an insurance agent about this they didn't seem to understand what kind of product I was speaking about. I need to look into this a little more.

I actually formed an LLC thinking I would buy property under it, but when I spoke to my lender they said they don't lend to them. When I did find a lender the rates were 1-2% higher and some of the other terms weren't as good. My plan is to transfer the properties to the LLC at some point. I'll incur a transfer tax, so I'm waiting until I build up more reserves.

I'm also going to look into transferring to a trust after seeing that's an option some investors are using.