All Forum Posts by: Nancy L.

@Pat L. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences! It's reassuring that you've only had this come up twice in 40+ yrs.

(Not "our" as in mine personally, but as in Philly's old basements. Mine are all in decent shape thankfully!)

Lol, ok, I'll try not to add to my list of things to worry about!

Slabs are not so typical here, but old houses and plumbing issues are... However I'm sure (or am going to assume) that my carriage house was converted recently and will have no problems! And all our old basements have their own problems, like moisture and mold.

Brandon, sorry to hear this happened, but I'm glad it was better than it initially appeared and that you're getting the problems resolved! I just can't imagine how alarmed I'd be if I were in that situation.

Could people weigh in on procedures for addressing tenant needs in these situations? If I were to have a problem like this, or any sudden loss of habitability, would I need to put them up in a hotel? If so would I pick the hotel (I'm assuming I'd need to find them something reasonably close by) and book for them, or what? What about personal property? My tenants are SUPPOSED to have renter's insurance according to my leases, but this is not something I follow up on to check. I elect this requirement to make it clear where the responsibility is for their stuff, as I don't know that my insurance necessarily covers it (and anyway I have a 1K deductible).

Any other concerns for tenant issues I'm not thinking of? Hope I never have to deal with anything like this, but just in case I'd like to be prepared and able to provide clear direction right away.

@James Stevens and @Mike Flowers What if something breaks?? I guess the slab has to be jackhammered up to fix it? Well I sure hope I never have to worry about that. In my case the structure was actually a carriage house that was rehabbed as a 2 bedroom, so plumbing at some point must have been added to the existing structure.... 

Meaning it has a concrete slab, not a basement (or crawl space)? 

I have one of those and never really thought about the plumbing, sure hope nothing is under the slab!!! Maybe someone with more construction experience could weigh in as to whether it might be possible to find where the plumbing is most likely running based on what would be visible around the mechanicals?

One thing I realized is that the concrete slab is colder in the winter -- I think my HVAC guy indicated that this is not so great for heating bills.

If it were me, I'd probably review the NOI figures with my agent to resolve that discrepancy.

I'm also in Philly and would agree with @Ugochukwu Opara  that that prop management contract sounds high! Especially as they're charging you all those fees on top of the 12% rate! Perhaps this is standard in your area, but I'd definitely shop around if you haven't already. I self-manage, so am not experienced with property managers, however I would try my best to negotiate out the fee for finding a new tenant. I'd rather pay a slightly higher %. I would want my PM's goal to be the same as mine: find and keep good tenants. The finder's fee would seem to create a bit of a reverse incentive (or at least mitigate the PM's negative repercussions of losing a tenant). If anything I might skip this entirely and use an agent when needing a new tenant. 

Just a thought, your agent could perhaps put a contingency in your offer that would allow you to get out of the contract after seeing the operating expenses. Contingencies do weaken offers, but their purpose is to provide a safety net for what you might discover in due diligence.

Hi Elliot, I'm in Philly and could probably recommend Philly resources if you go that route, although I think that would prevent you from getting either a 203k or FHA loan unless you were to relocate here, as I believe they are owner-occupant loans?

Those are both considered promising areas, some spots within the areas are probably better than others, so I'd be really careful with comps and find ones as physically close to property as possible, and/or drive or (better yet) walk the areas and get to know what's what if you haven't already. I also think that most properties in that price range and area will likely require more than cosmetics -- even if they're lived in, they have not necessarily been well maintained.

@Al Williamson Thanks, I will definitely check that out!