All Forum Posts by: Nicholas LaGatta

Correct, but I would not advise the latter.  I love my non-conforming duplexes.  

Is there a way to combine the attic and the unit below in such a way where there's kind of a conjoined suite situation, so it's convenient to rent it out as one unit which includes a suite, but technically the attic could be considered a 3rd unit?  

Tacobout a "supreme" response...

Do you recommend a guac addendum or how is that typically handled?  

@Cameron Philgreen. Definitely don't do it. I had an investor buddy make a Turo business work with 20 cars, a centrally located parking lot, a full time employee, and lots of oversight. People abuse the hell out of rented high-performance vehicles and usually end up getting at least their money's worth.

I bought a Camry myself and operated it on Turo for a year before I sold it. I ended up roughly breaking even on the car's price plus opex, which just means I managed an asset for a year and dealt with dozens of members of "the general public" with nothing to show for it.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. I recommend you go big or go home. There's better money to be made in appreciating asset classes.

Unfortunately, I don't see this working based on my understanding of common municode.  Non-conforming use can't typically be expanded or substantially improved, soI doubt it can be "contracted," as you're describing.  

You would need to seek a variance from the zoning review board and you would be subject to their whim or available precedent, if any is available. 

Allowing non-conforming structures and usage is intended to allow continuance for actions taken prior to the regulation.  However, the intent behind these regulations is that the non-conforming usage will eventually be phased out over time as properties reach the end of their useful life / burn down, neighborhoods change with development, etc.

I'm not an authority on this, but I've done quite a bit of research over the years based on multiple properties I've purchased, been under contract on, and modified for "non-standard" investment purposes.  

I totally agree with Tim here.  My realtor and PM are the same person.  He wouldn't even bring me a property he wouldn't want to manage.  He already knows which types of assets are going to profitable. 

However, the conflict of interest might come into play when buying and selling among clients, especially with a tenant in place.  At that point, the PM controls the asset fully, has a lease and a PM agreement in place, and has limited incentive to price the asset at market price.  This might come into play if a client is liquidating assets or phasing out the PM and decides to sell.  The PM would rationally favor the buyer, assuming they are continuing as a client.  

Trust, but verify.  

Hi, Paul.  I think you're going to be fine.  Asbestos is more of an occupational hazard from continuous exposure.  

Are you able to deck the attic to encapsulate the asbestos?  Alternatively, you might be able to add a lock to the attic access to make it accessible for maintenance but out of bounds for the tenants.  

Don't disturb the asbestos materials and make sure everyone wears OSHA approved gear, but fortunately it's just asbestos, not ebola.  

If you're looking to attract younger tenants with discounted rent, you might be able to make it work.  I pay a property manager 9% of gross rents plus some fees here and there and it's worth every penny.  In my experience, as soon as you run into a few issues (e.g., eviction, routine maintenance, repairs, turnover, suspicious tenant behavior), you're going to wish you had a local property manager to sort through things and save you from the guess work of managing your affairs from afar.  
Between the incremental cost of maintenance you'll experience plus a likely discounted rent you'll need to offer to attract a tenant willing to deal with unconventional property management, I assume you'll be better off going with conventional property management.  

I travel 4 days per week and I've run into tremendous challenges managing remotely.  

I use a property manager, which I think is really the best advice.  What location is the house and what is the quality of the property?  Depending on the location and the types of tenants you expect, doing remote property management might be more or less feasible.  

I've had a 12 pound Chihuahua do massive amounts of damage to wood work, a dog is a dog.