All Forum Posts by: Megan Phillips

I'll be there

@Dave Carlson Interesting... I'll ask to have it looked up. Thanks for the info.

They were able to get a neighbor (the original neighbor eventually refused, they asked someone else) to sign an affidavit stating that property has been a duplex for 15+ years, now we're waiting on a CofC from the town -- everything should be good, fingers crossed. Although they just noticed last week that one of the tenants moved out without any coordination with the owner... I think they are making sure that the heat etc was not shut off after they left, hopefully everything is fine.

@Martin Gonzalez As others have mentioned - the only FHA stipulations that I'm aware of are that you can only have 1 at a time (unless life circumstances change for you, such as moving for a new job or something, then you can sometimes qualify for two at once - this is potentially what you realtor was mentioning with the 100 mile thing -- this isn't what you're doing, but good to know) and that you must owner occupy for a year. It may have been developed with first time home buyers in mind - but you don't have to be a first time home buyer to use the program, it has no affect on it at all. You can get an FHA loan, refi it, and then immediately get another one as long as you qualify for the mortgage, and then refi that one too. You can repeat as many times as your lender will approve you for, and your wife can get them in her name also, together you could have up to 4 each I think (mortgages I mean, not FHA loans -- the number of conventional mortgages allowed will be based on your lender)

I would consider asking around to other realtors more familiar with the FHA program and how it can help investors grow their portfolios - not all of them are knowledgeable (clearly) on pretty simple requirements for the program and will generally say you can only do one.

@Ryan E. I agree - the first podcasts were much more in depth with guest and just better overall, not a lot of fluff, and a lot less Josh and Brandon inside jokes and making fun of each other. 

It depends what you're looking at and how long things have been on the market. In a hot market, it won't matter, they'll just not take your offer, that's okay. 

I've offered low (not purposely, just based on numbers that worked) on a few properties, one laughed - it was in good condition and I expected this response to be honest, one was just a jerk - their property is still overpriced and for sale several months later now, one didn't respond with a counter the first time, but 60 or so days later, I offered again, the same (or maybe even lower...) price, and they at least countered it (and said they had several interested buyers... they didn't, it's still on the market 3 months later, but I'm under contract with another property). Just keep trying.

@Sean Rozenberg Lucky for me, my title search caught the issue. It might be hard to catch in your case, since technically - it is zoned correctly. Hopefully it can get sorted out - but it seems like it may only be a legal duplex. What do the Cert. of occupancy/compliance say?

@Nick Causa  Second to what @Wayne Brooks is saying -- The assessor's card shouldn't make a difference. It is pretty much solely up to the zoning. If they have it as a 2-unit, and there is not evidence to support that it's a legal 3-unit (permits, variances, etc) - it's a 2-unit. 

Same thing happened to me on a duplex that the zoning admin. had listed as a single family. The tax assessor, bank appraisal, state wastewater permit, etc all have it listed as a duplex, but it doesn't matter --- it's a single family. The town has no records of permits or anything that legally make it a duplex.

Don't move forward if you aren't comfortable purchasing the property knowing it's only a legal duplex, don't listen to the seller's attorney. You'll run into the exact same problem if you try to sell later on, and also, now it's on the town's radar, they likely won't allow it to be used as a triplex either.

Similar thing happened to a duplex I'm trying to purchase -- talk directly to the zoning office, look up the zoning map and verify zoning for yourself, the CofO or CofC that is on file should give you info too. Appraisal doesn't mean anything as far as I know -- mine was not legal according to the zoning administrator, even though the appraiser said it was in what would be considered legal zoning -- the appraiser was incorrect in my case (as was the town assessor, the state wastewater permit, etc -- it's up to zoning administration, period). Hopefully they can clear it up for you. 

If it is improperly zoned, see about potentially verifying the date it was made into a 4-plex (via previous owner or whomever did it) and you might be able to get them to sign an affidavit that could allow for it to be grandfathered into being legal (that's similar to what's happening with mine). 

@Ben Granja Still have not closed. They were never able to reach the owner that made it into a duplex, but they contacted a neighbor and the neighbor verified that the property has been a duplex for greater than 15yrs, therefore it could be grandfathered into being allowed according to zoning. The neighbor (if they choose to) can sign an affidavit stating that it is indeed that old, and it has to be notarized etc. Or, they could simply choose not to sign it (there apparently has been some not so good tenants there previously). If they don't sign it, no deal. That was the update as of last week. 

@Bryan Satter  @Account Closed I also read a new blog post this week about buying in your name, transferring to a land trust (I'm not sure exactly what that entails), and then transferring into an LLC from the land trust... it apparently creates greater distance between the property and the owner, and I think may prevent some of the unecessary costs.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/llc-lendi...