All Forum Posts by: Nicole Carey

Hi all,

We are under contract for a property and found a 'damprid' container in the closet of one of the bedrooms in the basement apartment. Is this something to be super concerned about? 

just got an alert for Vermont and wanted to say hi back! congrats on your purchase

@David Cox Did you use the regular or the ultra? (The one with glue pads or the ones that click together without sticky pads?) 

thanks David! 

Hey all. You all have convinced me that allure traffic master is the way to go for flooring. I was curious if any of you have experience with laying it on a cement floor in a basement apartment. I know we have to let it sit in the room for 5 days to adjust after buying it before installing but was wondering if it's safe to lay right against the cement floor or do you need to put in a subfloor? 

Also-- do you recommend ultra or regular? Thanks!  

@Josh Dillingham We are using Nick Parent at Vermont Mortgage Company. He helping us with a FHA on a 4plex. I'm not sure if he works in sourthern Vermont but it might be worth it to e-mail him. [email protected]

You should try to get preapproved for an FHA loan. With fha it is 3.5% down payment and as long as you owner occupy you can get a multifamily up to 4 units. We are doing the same thing right now in Vermont. Did you go to a bank to get preapproved? You may need to go to a mortgage broker for fha. Also, they should be able to account for 70-80% of the rental income toward your mortgage so you could afford more. Hope this helps.

The rental units would cover our mortgage payments and some of the utilities so we would be living for "free" right off the bat, unless of course capital expenditure disaster happens, then we would be paying. I was thinking we would save the 10% for cap ex, or 1K per month while living there. 

@Daniel Raposo Thanks for your input! The numbers above are with very conservative rental estimates on all 4 units (including the one we would be living in) I thought it would make the most sense to run the numbers as if we were renting out all units. All of the expenses that I had put into the calculator are correct as the seller sent us copies of his bills. There is a potential to cash flow more, as the tenants do not pay for heat, which is another reason the rents he is getting are under market value. This calculation above is also using 10% for cap ex and 10% for maintenance. The property doesn't NEED much that we can tell other than an egress window which i've calculated for under repairs, although something could come up if we get to inspection). We could also potentially cash flow more down the line if we replace the boiler and separate the heating so that becomes an expense of the tenants. Also there is currently free laundry that could be converted to coin op. 

All of this being said, I'd greatly appreciate any further input. 

@Upen Patel Thanks. We do have a realtor who uses a flat fee system. Her cut would be $3,500. He did agree to pay her that. 

I'll attach the screenshots from my calculations. I did low rental estimates. 

Is a negative number bad? 

Here is with 50% rule: 

Here is another screen shot.