All Forum Posts by: Mike Olson

I'm having trouble with a small bank in Georgia approving an FHA loan for a duplex that's currently under contract. I'm active duty in the military and I don't think that the underwriter has dealt with many military situations. The duplex is near my home of record and if there's anyone that knows a good competent fha lender please let me know! PM me with any specific questions about the deal or if you'd like to share any good contacts, thanks!

I ripped engineered wood up with a roofing scraper and hit the glue with the razor. Lots of blades but it wasn't to bad. Not sure how the parquet is.

Not sure what you've tried already, but a 4" razor blade with a handle worked really well for me. I scraped probably 200 sq ft in less than 2 hours. $8 at HD.

I'm actually not sure if the tenants received this notice. I will have to find out.

@Mindy Jensen we're still under contract and set to close on the 17th of March. It turns out that the long term tenants' lease expired last month and she's currently on a month to month. She's also paying about $50-$75 under market rents for a place like this since she's been there for 8 years. So we will probably end up letting her next months lease expire and getting that side clear so we can occupy.  Thanks for checking in.

@Thomas S. I've done my homework and I don't believe that the right of ownership means that I can just kick paying tenants to the curb. At least not in Georgia where the property is located.

And what fun would it be if I were to take the time to learn everything before jumping in? This is exactly what makes biggerpockets such a great tool and gives me additional confidence in making the first investment geared purchase. Even if there were no issues at all I would have still posted here to see some others reaction to the deal.

Now to give a shred of life to this dead thread I'm going to ask some opinions on the numbers. The accepted offer was for $92,500, seller pays 100% of closing costs as well as a $410 dollar allowance for some very minor repairs. Rents prorated from closing on the 17th (tip I learned from BP), carpets and units professionally cleaned by seller and a/c units serviced before closing. The older tenant is paying $550 per month in rent and the new tenant $600. Financing will be the FHA loan with 3.5% down and the PITI will be roughly $635 including the PMI which is about $70. We haven't had the appraisal done yet but we expect right around the $100,000 mark. I'll update when we have it done and maybe throw some pictures in. But pretty much for the first year that we live here our mortgage payment will be $35 plus expenses which we will get a sense of after awhile. I'm hoping after we move out later on that the property will cash flow a bit. I know I will be able to get $600 for the second side, possibly $630 with paint and floors or possibly even rent rooms separately being as each bed has it's own bath for $350 per room to boost cash just a little. Anyway let me know what you guys think. Thanks for the responses!

I contacted my lender on Monday and it turns out that as long as I intend to occupy the property within 60 days of closing they are ok with it. Meaning I will have to get rid of one of the tenants but other than that we should be good to go. Thanks for the responses.

Russel, I am using an agent! The sellers agent told us that she assumed we'd never actually occupy the property and basically inferred that we were planning illegal things here. Obviously, we arent, and I had a hard time figuring out where their incentive was to fill a unit two minutests before going under contract. With an FHA buyer at that! I think it's an issue with the sellers agent honestly. We had a run in with her a few weeks ago as a listing agent, she was using inaccurate comps and advising us that a property was worth 14k over very similar comps. I checked her info on the county tax assessor site and found several discrepancies.

There was no vacant unit contingency but you're right, there definitely should've been! Being that there was an FHA financing contingency I just assumed that everyone would understand that it had to remain vacant. My fault for losing control of that I suppose. And I'm trying to contact the new tenant now to find out if theyre willing to work with us. Hopefully we can get them a few dollars to keep from moving in! Thanks for the response.

Alrighty, I'm in a bit of a pickle folks. I went under contract for my first Duplex yesterday, with the intentions to house hack. We can get into the numbers further into the post if anyone's interested, but the reason for this thread isn't necessarily the numbers. 
The Situation: After consistent, persistent persuasion tactics I've convinced my wife that house hacking is the bees knees. So we've found a duplex that we feel meets the criteria for our first house hack. We played the offer... wait... counter... wait... game and finally went under contract on Friday, Feb 3. It's a 2 bed 2 bath per side brick duplex. Good neighborhood, nice curb appeal, all that good stuff. One side is occupied and the other is vacant. Perfect for an FHA loan, being that we have 60 days to occupy the building from closing. We decided to go with the FHA. The current tenant has been there for over 5 years. She pays on time and keeps the place very nice. Now here is the problem. When the sellers agent (who is also marketing the vacant unit for rent) met with the current owner to review and sign our offer, she also brought a lease agreement as well as a new tenant she'd found earlier this week. The new tenant signs a 12 month lease with the owner, then the owner signs and accepts our offer two minutes later. Now, two important things have just happened. 1. The sellers agent has made a few dollars for finding a tenant while acting in her own best interest. 2. My 60 day window to occupy the property is now in jeopardy (I think) and from what I've been told I will have to honor both current leases which will basically disqualify me from using the FHA for this property. The numbers are good, not great, so I wasn't really wanting to put 20% down- but I can if I have to. The 3.5% down is a fantastic way to get into this deal and keep my cash for the next deal. And finally the question: Are there any options for me to keep the new tenant from moving in next week? Or any other creative options? Hope my story makes sense. Im not really a writer. Anyway thanks!

Great information guys I really appreciate it. Tripp Howell I was actually also considering parts of Colorado, do you come across many fixer upper type homes in your area? Duplex triplex or multiple units on one property? And Daniel I am not familiar with Acworth but I will surely be looking into it now. Anyone else have good or bad experiences in any particular markets???