All Forum Posts by: Martin G.

Hello ! 

So, I've come across a nice 4 level SFH in Cincinnati that I would like to owner occupy as a duplex. The actual splitting of it from an entry way and putting-up-of-walls standpoint seems pretty cut and dry. HVAC is already dual and it was in fact a duplex at one point in its earlier life.

How big of a deal would it be it to split the electric into 2 meters  ? 

I'd appreciate any thoughts and advice. 

Best regards, Marty

Thanks for the invite, Jered ! I'm out of town for a wedding this weekend, unfortunately, but hope that I can make a future meet-up. Great idea, and thanks for sticking up for us middle- to old-timers. I'm getting more and more treacherous with every passing day, @DL Martin ...

I'm with Cal on this one. I would look to substantiate any claims of the current owner(s) with actual documentation that passes the smell test, too. 

Also, I like to walk neighborhoods and strike up conversations with people that are most likely experienced in my niche in that particular neighborhood. Just today I went to look at a smaller building with 10 one-beds two blocks from a good university in Cincinnati. On paper, it looked really great, but I walked the neighborhood and saw a few more vacancy signs in lawns than I would hope for. I decided to walk into the nicest of the buildings and have a conversation with the leasing office. The daughter of a father/daughter outfit told me that had bought the building a year ago and had a solid year of NO renters. (Sounds like the previous landlord had been playing fast and loose with the pro-forma numbers and not been forthright in other ways.) Just hearing that they'd been through that made me feel like I'd been kicked in the stomach. And the overhead with radiator heat (i.e. no way to regulate zones in a 4,000 sq ft converted mansion of 12-14 units) would be enough to ruin most people after a winter like the one we just had. 

If you can walk the neighborhood and make friends/strike up a conversation, you'd get a lot more information than you'd expect. I've made some great friends with other landlords on my street that way. My experience is that most people are incredibly friendly and generous with information, especially if they've had to grapple with hard-learned lessons. 

Glad to hear that you're open to the idea of a multi. I wonder--if you were able to acquire this property, how much cash flow would it actually generate ? Does the house command a premium rent because of the location ? 

Hi Todd, 

Is there something significant about this property, other than the fact that your dad owns it and the price? It seems to me that there may be something else out there that may be a better fit for you at this point, though granted, I don't know your personal circumstances (wife, kids, etc.)

From my perspective, it seems that if you don't have the cash to put down on something, then you have few options other than moving and getting favorable down payment terms. While you don't want to rent out your current home and move to this particular property, maybe there is another property out there in which you could imagine living that you could purchase with FHA (assuming you don't already have one) that could give you instant cash flow, then you could come back in a few years once you've stashed some cash away and acquire this property. If you could find a triplex or quad in Houston that is nice enough for you to live in, your financials would be instantly be better and you'd get experience as an on-site landlord, too. (You may know this, but after 2 years as a landlord, the bank would allow you to declare a portion of the rents as income.)

Between collecting rent on your current house and the other units, you'd be in better shape instantly (I know, because this happened to me. It's hard to describe the feeling you get the first month, but it pretty much borders on 'awesome'.)

While this strategy won't get you the house immediately, it would at least put you on better financial footing towards achieving that goal.

Best of luck !
Marty

Hi Thomas,

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! You'll want to check out podcasts #2 and #65. They will introduce you to the concept of Subject To deals.

You can stream them through your internet browser or download them to you device. They are a lot of fun to listen to and contain loads of helpful info.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/podcast/

Happy listening !

Best,
Marty

Hi again, Hildah.

Out of curiosity, I posted a question to Karen Rittenhouse in the show notes for podcast #2 and she replied. This might be of interest to you.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/24/subject-to-direct-mail-woman-investing-podcast/#comment-165606

Either the realtor you spoke to was misinformed, or maybe the rules vary from state to state, like you said. I'm going to call a local attorney and try to find out.

Thanks, Hildah. That's really helpful.

I only just discovered Subject To transactions on one of the podcasts the other day and it seems like a great way to amass a few properties in my area to manage as rentals. There is a multi-fam that I've been watching that was in pre-foreclosure and has just entered foreclosure this week; it seems like a good prospect for this type of transaction.

It is headed to auction at the end of the month, and this may not be enough time to pull the deal together, but I wonder: if the seller and I agree to the deal and I get him caught up on his mortgage payments, is it easy to get the property unlisted from auction, or would this happen automatically?

Thanks in advance!