All Forum Posts by: Megan Phillips

@Rex Harris  Asbestos is only harmful when it's messed with, broken, and being disturbed. Tons of buildings have asbestos flooring/siding, and other components. If it is in good condition, it can last a very long time. If the property you are looking at has areas where it is deteriorated, that may be an issue, but, overall - it's not a deal breaker in my opinion.

@Shannon Gauthier In VT, landlords cannot charge late fees, period. The way some people write leases states "If rent is paid on or before the 1st of the month it is $800" and "If rent is paid after the 1st it should be paid in full at $900" ... it's not a "late fee" but a timely payment "discount" -- may be useful if late fees aren't allowed in Illinois.

Why not ask for the attorney's info so you can talk to them, or talk to your own ... maybe tenant is bluffing. Either way, as others have stated, sounds like an eviction is coming.

If you have the money for 20% down and also wouldn't need to live there, I might go that way, and you'll have the option to pull some money out if you find another property you want - it would also let you use a lower down payment option in the future.  It seems to be priced right with multiple offers coming in within a few days of being on the market. What did you think when you visited the property?

@Eva Morel It depends what your plan is, if you're using FHA/owner occupy for the first (or repeat) properties, you need some money to refi out of the FHA program at some point after the one year mark (should be no problem with your stated cash reserves). You could also use the option of taking out a HELOC or cash out refi once you're loan is more than 22% paid off -- this is essentially instant if you pay a larger down payment (which also wouldn't require you to live in one side) but may require seasoning depending on your bank. So there are options with either route. You most likely won't be able to finance two properties with low down payments. Are you planning on using 20% down on your next property? Or refi-ing out of FHA and using again in 12 months?

It seems like you have a bit of a leg up on others being confident in repairs and capex help in the future, but like @Martha said, only offer what you're comfortable with. Are you using that leg up to justify a price on a property that won't necessarily cash flow for someone else that doesn't have that sort of help? Or is it a solid property, made even better by your background? 

@Eva Morel Hey Eva, what percentages did you include for capex, repairs, vacancy, etc --- I did the analysis using 5% for each of those and got under 100/mo in cash flow -- this also only considers using 5% down, so P+I would be higher than with 20 or 25% down. If you've got the down payment to make it work, it may be a decent property. It already has multiple offers (perhaps one is yours?) so you're right about it likely going for asking price.

Edit - I see you are planning on using 5% down now that I re-read your post... I didn't get the same cash flow when I ran those numbers using a lower down payment. Maybe I'm overly conservative - I'm way under 100/per unit monthly cash flow.

2-27-18 at 6pm

Hello fellow Vermonters,

Let's make a meet up happen!

The first can be at 14th Star Brewery in St. Albans - it may be cool to have it rotate to a few different restaurants/breweries along the way if we decide to do a monthly schedule or something.

Just meeting up and having some introductions. Plus, beer is awesome.

All levels of real estate experience welcome... realtors, investors, etc

Please invite anyone else on BP that I'm not connected with as well as anyone else with REI experience or interest!

@Samantha Hiscock

@Blair Knowles

@Ben Granja @Eva Morel @Steven Gruner  @Amy Paradis @Matt Vezina @Shane Brown

@Tom S.

@Ron S.  Congrats! I am considering turnkey at some point in the future, I hope it works out as well as intended!

@Kenneth Swartz  Depending on how your loans are set up (mine were sold off and split up -- so I would make one payment to XYZ Loan Company, but it was going towards 3 different loans). If that's the case, and one or more of the loans in a particular "group" of loans is at a higher interest rate, you can call up the loan service and tell them which loan to put extra money on (I always paid at least a little extra on payments) and they can pay off the higher interest rate loans faster, otherwise they tend to split the extra principle money evenly. 

In any case -- I would pay off the loans first, but that's just me. At least pay off as much as you can while it still allows you to save your minimum required monthly savings (whatever amount you decide on to dedicate towards investing) per month. I'm not a Dave Ramsey fan per say, but my student loans stressed me out! I paid off 80k in under 6 years by working multiple jobs on top of my full time gig. It really helps you go into investing with less fear about the unknown costs when you don't have extra bills to pay every month.

How long would it be to pay off your debt without especially dumping all of your extra money into it? If it's only 2-3 years, maybe just keep going, if it's much more, I would pay them off. If you've been paying extra principle, you should be several months ahead on loans potentially too as a safety net.

@Ben Granja Welcome to BP! Tons of excellent connections and information. As I've posted in other areas - my first duplex deal is actually (likely) falling through due to zoning issues, so I'm also continuing the hunt for a property. I work in Burlington, we should meet up and talk RE sometime.