All Forum Posts by: Rob Beland

@Cameron Price check with your local code enforcement office/buillding department. Laws vary state to state and even city to city. The hood above the stove is not typically required but without it you will have a mess on the ceiling above from the grease and oils. Look at Home Depot. They make units that don't require external venting. They have a filter  that collects the grease and just exhaust the clean air back into the apartment. They usually cost less than $100. As far as the bathroom, in my area if you have a window in the bathroom an exhaust fan is not required but I always try and install one if possible to cut down on mold and mildew. Do you have an attic above or is there a second floor. An attic above would make it easy to run the vent hose in the attic and cut a hole in the side of the house to exhaust the air. I've also used a drop ceiling to lower the ceiling and then run the vent hose out the side of the house above the drop ceiling. Good luck. 

Unfortunately @Corey Liepeltan impossible question to answer. You're in the ballpark. It could be $500 to have the mold cleaned up and determine the cause and fix it (leaky pipe possibly) or it could cost $30K for a major restoration. Good luck. 

Good luck @Alan Cyr be careful of how much money you spend on branding and systems. In all honesty, sellers and buyers are not going to care about your website or the name of your company. They care that you have the money to do a deal. Focus your energy on getting a couple deals done. What type of investing are you focusing on? 

@Michael Rothenberg check with local/regional banks in your area with a commercial lending department. Who do you bank with now? Start there. If you bank with BofA or some other big bank I would recommend moving your banking to a local bank and build a relationship with them. BofA and the like care nothing about you. You're a number. Local banks allow you to communicate directly with the underwriter in many cases. Good luck. 

The file will likely stay open in the building department. Depending on the type of work, it could affect a future sale of the property. As an example, I was selling an 8-unit building and the building burned down while it was being sold. The building department had no records of it being a legal 8-unit property since it was previously a 4 unit property and a former owner applied and received permits to convert it to 8 units but there was no final inspection. I ultimately sold the land to a developer who wanted to rebuild the 8 units. The city would only allow four units to be rebuilt due to the final inspection not being done. We ended up settling on 6 units as a matter of compromise between us and the city. Do you have more details to share @Manuel Sarabia?

You're better off doing your own. You can ask for the current rentroll and you can find the taxes and likely the water/sewer charges on your own from the assessors office and water dept. Estimate the maintenance/repairs and hopefully utilities are separated. You can estimate insurance by making a call to an agent in your area and giving them some basic info on the property. 

The seller will probably have something prepared that they will send you but they will underestimate expenses and overestimate rents. Generally speaking a week is a long time. Who are you asking? Do the properties have a listing agent or are you talking to sellers direct? Are the properties even for sale?

Schedule a showing. Make an offer subject to verification of rents. Good luck @Chaim Zigelman

@Mike Hurneyonce in a while I even surprise myself. Its almost like I've done this before.

Investors dont care about $/SF they care about how much money they can make when they sell. What makes you think the house is worth more than $450K +/-. How much work does it need to get the value to $800K+? You need to know the value today, the cost of required repairs/improvements, and the value of the property after the improvements are completed. It sounds like you have some research to do @Scott Gardner. Give us more details. 

With $67K cash to invest

@Vy Mai its unlikely you will find anything in Boston that you can afford. You might want to focus further west in Middlesex or Worcester County. Why Lowell? What are your investment objectives/goals? What is your investment criteria?

@Sheritta Sampson you should have been notified but more importantly the tenant was notified. The landlord is not required to be there for the inspection.