All Forum Posts by: Nils Stewart

@Damon D. If you keep the property, don’t put all your money in it. You already lost all your profit in fixes. We had a special assessment of $7,000 the year I sold my condo. I had another friend had to pay an $18,000 special assessment in another condo.

The repairs done for the $7000 special assessment where so bad. They caught one of the subs doing drugs and not even working for the entire day in a camera. Another sub was caught stealing beer. The property management had almost 1 year from the time we knew of the problem and to when he provided three bids for the work. If I had not paid the special assessment the HOA would have put a lien on my condo and possibly even forced me into selling. And I was on the board. Lol.

Condos are risky in that you have absolutely no control over what gets done and at what cost. I don’t mind living in a condo, but after my experience I would want way more cash on hand to deal with special assessments then to risk not having it when I am told to cough up the cash.

@Jackson Andrews

As an agent you would see more Californians because they have the cash to buy a house. If someone average left Nebraska, what would the likelihood be that they would rent and not have the cash to buy.

The people leaving California probably are doing so because of the crazy tax stuff on the table. In August California was looking to tax people that left California for up to ten years after they took residence elsewhere.

A high income earner already is looking at federal and California combined of over54% of their earnings. Add another percentage for a state with additional income tax and it would be crazy.

Texas and the the other 7 no income tax states will look attractive to the high earners.

The other income tax free states, Texas is closer to a similar weather. Washington state weather is horrible. New Hampshire gets wicked snow. Florida is humid. Tennessee is very christian. Alaska is dark and cold and snow half the year.

New Mexico is, well, poor and high elevation. And Nevada is also seeing a lot of Californians.

@Lauren Hogan

I laugh when a BP podcast host says “I have never heard of that book” and I own it because of a podcast on BP.

The commandant of the Us marine corp has had the most fantastic reading list for decades and its format has been copied by all the other services.

I would love a BP book list that lists the episode it was mentioned, what type of book and following the USMC format of listing by rank, a separate section list by newbie to pro.

The USMC list is reviewed yearly. The book suggestions change. Except “starship troopers” was a Private First Class recommended reading when I found the list in 1995. The “rich dad, poor dad” of the Marine Corp.

@Shella Sanders

“So good they can’t ignore you” by cal Newport and “atomic habits” by James clear.

So good they can’t ignore you is a good look at what you have to offer the work place to increase your income to have more to invest. And it helps you see the value of you in this equation.

Atomic habits is a good way to realize how your habits behind investing help you in the long run. And that making small changes today helps you increase your ability to continue growing your habits, even if it’s a focus on finances.

The act of investing on a consistent basis can have as much to do with your future wealth as investing the money when ever you ‘have extra’.

By the way, if you read a lot of the books that seem repeated over and over in these lists, you will start to see where Dave R got his concepts.

@Liam Kooyman

You didn’t say how old the building was.

I had a condo and while it was okay, the thing that hit me was a special assessment of $6,700 that I had to pay over 8 months. The unit was a money pit for me and the SA just broke me.

Start with the reserve report for your HOA. What are the next big ticket items? Roof or siding? Has there been more and more repairs being made every year?

You will take a $30k hit, but what other risks do you have related to owning a common envelope that you have no control over when and how it is repaired.

Also, if you have a renter, you could sell it as an investment property, and that is a different type of buyer then putting it on the market. If you put it in the market, how are you going to deal with tenets. Are they going to show your place well? An investor is looking at square footage, the homeowner is looking at the pet stains or disrepair.

I did not have a good condo experience. So I do have bias towards selling now.

@Jesse Smith

I am not a lawyer. But by letting the tenet go 45 days without paying and you not filing, couldn’t that seem that your inaction on eviction was also showing your irreverence of the lease?

If you didn’t care about its terms for 45 days, then you broke the lease first, not the tenet.

Finalize your stuff, get a tenet in, get a bill that states what owed and send it to him.

And as a landlord, never be the first to break your own lease again. Lesson learned.

Total plug for family - Springfield Diner right off the main street just north of the town center is a possible meet up.  Its easy to access all times of the year and she has a small section to one side that could handle a dozen people or so and not be hanging out directly with the main diner space. It is open until 2pm, but she has hosted some after hours events there. 

I bought a condo that I was told that it had two spaces for parking.  In the ad said two spaces.  When I read the resale certificate I saw only one space listed.  I contacted my realtor and they assured me that there was two.  I bought the unit.  Fast forward a couple years, and no, I only technically had one parking space.  Lucky for me, I had the ads for both units, which stated the other unit that actually had the two spaces only listed one, I had the original listing as two.  Some adjustments where made and when I sold my condo a while back, the re-sale on that sale showed two parking spaces.  

Your re-sale certificate on a condo is your bible. If its not specifically on there, it is not yours.  I will never make that mistake again.  

The water heaters, that should have been disclosed, because they need to access a common area through your unit. Again, look at the re-sale certificate and HOA bylaws to look for access addendum for your unit.

If the re-sale says that you are the sole possessor of the shed, you can kick the person with the lockers out of the shed, citing the resale certificate. Talk to the board to make sure that they know you are exercising your ownership. Your HOA dues are based on this percentage of owned space. If they mis-understood that when they bought, that is their problem. Your seller must have known known the water heater part. And I think there is a line in the sellers statements about access and such. Glad you are talking about this and posting everywhere so others learn. Look at your disclosures closely, where the seller makes statement of facts about the unit parking, shed and water heater. It may have been there, but when you are reading 500 pages of documents, you and your realtor may have missed it. And if you are not able to have a parking space, your HOA dues might be less then those with a parking space. The extra parking spot cost an additional 1.5% over the base HOA cost for myself. I would argue that the HOA dues should be lower since you have to have the inconvenience of the water heaters and are not assigned a space to park like others.

Good luck and keep us posted on where this goes.  

the 158 for property taxes sounds way to low.  My dads place in Springfield area was $6000 a year and the place I co-own with my brother and cousin is up by the Rygate area is $4000 a year.  We couldn't sell the north property for more than $90,000, but the tax man likes to think its worth $145,000.  

Make sure the taxes are not based on some program.  When we took possession of the houses, each time our taxes tripled because we weren't over 65.  Our tenants were good about removing snow, but the house up north, that area got 228 inch of snow over the winter.  

We also paid more for home insurance while the wood stove was in use and we paid more in taxes and insurance because it was a rental.  If the numbers they are providing you are were the owner lived in one side, your numbers may look way different if you're a long distance investor.  

Hello Spokane, 

I lived in the north end of Spokane in early 1990's. (when the drive in was taken down near the Division Y, long time ago) Now that I completed my degree I am looking at places a little bit slower paced then Seattle to potentially live and work.  Do you meet monthly?  I most likely have a conflict the month of April, but I would like to come to a meet up in May and check out the area again.

Thanks, 

Nilsa