All Forum Posts by: Ro Maga

Start looking, meet with a realtor and a mortgage broker, and don't stop saving. I'd suggest you also restructure your monthly expenses radically as to save every last penny. It all counts. You will need more than 10K to start in NJ. Even with FHA 3.5% down, you still need to show reserves, typically 3-6 months of expenses (and that alone can be an additional $10K), and you may need to cover your own closing costs just to make your offer stand out in a crowded field of offers. All of that said, start talking to people now because buying a house with financing is never an over-night kinda thing.

This is assuming you carry no consumer debt. If you do, though, pay that up! Getting rid of high interest, non-leveraged debt is potentially the best investment you can make. 

Well, after much back and forth between Formica 180fx and granite, we went with granite. We're doing 2 10x10 kitchens, about 65 sqft of granite total and it came to just under $2100, for both of them. We checked a few places around Hudson and Essex Counties, and the businesses on 1&9 in Jersey City had the best prices, ~$29/sqft all inclusive (some with sink, some as an add on). They're also in a special tax zone, so you pay only 3.5%. We had considered butcher block from ikea, but after reading a couple of forum threads on it, we quickly moved away from it due to the hassle factor. From the discussion, it sounded like it works ok if you plan on spending lots of time sanding and sealing or simply changing the countertops after each tenant. I love the look though.

Sound proofing is EXPENSIVE, but when you have a situation like the one you described, there's no way around. We bit the bullet and did the whole ceiling tear down, resilient clips, green-glue sheet root sandwich thing after listening to my upstairs neighbor snore every night for a year. And yes, I'd hear everything else from "good bye darling" to soccer cheering. I'm sure it happened both ways. It drove me crazy. Right before my now-husband moved in, we sound proofed our shared walls and did the ceiling just in our bedroom. It was no small project. We used a very good small general contractor who despite not having experience with sound proofing retrofits did a great job. Mostly because he went out of his way to read and research the materials. We were his first and last job of the kind. Did I say it wasn't fun for anybody? If you own both units, and the one above is empty, why don't you soundproof the floor instead. I hear is "cheaper" and less tricky than doing the ceilings, and there's no tear down. Some people will say just put carpet, but it's hard to give up hardwood floors in some markets. If you're close to redoing your floors, look into layering mass loaded vinyl (MLV) under new floors. Cork flooring has good sound absorption too. Let us know what you do in the end. Good luck. Good luck!

Would anybody care to share the language in their contracts for these periodic inspections?  

I know some people call them "safety and maintenance inspections," and that some people prefer the word "visit" to make them sound friendlier, I guess.  We are getting ready to rent a couple of units, and I need to include this in our contracts, so a couple of examples would really help.  Thanks in advance!

Since you asked for feedback... The name is fine. I like the hue of green and how it pops against the white background. I'm not a fan of the eagle on the other hand. Yes, it is a little weird looking, but that's not it. The way it's portrayed emphasizes it as a predator. I'm not sure who are the folks you want to do business with, but the "predatory" iconography might be a turn off. Either way it's distracting. Stick to the name only.

There are sqft standards for occupancy (besides having a window and closet space). I believe the smallest a bedroom can be in NJ is 70 sqft for single occupancy, the minimum for 2 people is 120 sqft. I don't remember exactly where I read this, but NJ building code pretty much mirrors the international building code.

I think it depends on how hot your market is. It is not uncommon where I live -- Jersey City-- for some rentals to go over asking price depending mostly on location. Just a few weeks ago, some of our neighbors put her property simultaneously for sale and for rent. There was a bidding war among several highly qualified potential tenants, and they're now collecting almost $200 more than their original asking price, which was "market price" to begin with. I guess the market proved otherwise. All things being equal, why leave money on the table?

Brandi Hayes Brandi, before you give anybody $10k or $20k of your hard-earned money (which you can use to start investing instead), do yourself a favor and explore BiggerPockets fully. Without spending a penny, you have access to this amazing forum which connects you to over half a million investors all over the U.S. and beyond. There's a bunch of newbies, who will provide not only encouragement, but who will ask the questions you didn't think of asking. That's precious. Then you have the responses of seasoned investors--that's pure gold! It's like having not just a mentor, but a complete board of advisors. Then there's all you can read on your own. Many of us started by checking books from our local libraries completely free. Then there's is the Podcast and the weekly webinar, which is free to "attend" live. If you buy a membership, you'll have access to a tremendous amount of video content. (Sign up for a webinar and then use one of the promos Brandon Turner offers at the end of each one). Regular price for Pro membership is, what, $290? If after exhausting the benefits of BP Pro you still feel you need to give somebody $20k to teach you, well at least you can do that fully knowledgeable and not just because of a three-day sales pitch. Oh, and please don't let them convince you that you gotta pay for your education like people pay college tuition. Learning RE is not like learning engineering or brain science, millions of people do it all over the world who've never paid a cent to a guru or mentor. And if anybody insinuated you could put their fees on your credit card, RUN!

My initial post got cut off.. Oh, well.  I was going to say, that Freddie and Fannie have been doing these kind of vandalism/price reduction negotiations for a while, which is both good and bad.  Good to the degree that there is ample precedent for them to offer a price reduction; bad because well, this is not their first rodeo. It seems unlike they'll agree to a reduction that deviates much from what they've been doing for the last few years. 

In our case, we submitted two quotes with our request. The contractor who had a quote that was more favorable to us didn't get the paperwork to our agent on time... or ever.  The second quote itemized repairs in such a way, that Freddie only agreed to pay for costs of plumbing and wall repair.  All the tile work that was destroyed when they took the pipes was itemized under bathroom renovations by this contractor, and there wasn't any room to negotiate after that. (There were other factors we were dealing with).    

You may want to get a couple of quotes yourself. Not knowing the kind of damage the building suffered, 50K seems like a pretty hefty price tag. Ours is a MFH too. 

Good luck!

Been there, done that... We went through an almost identical situation with Freddie Mac on a house where five bathrooms, the laundry room, the AC compressors, and a handful of walls were decimated by copper thieves. The seller's agent simply did not care or moved a finger. Our agent had to contact the asset managers and seller's attorneys directly. In the end, they agreed to a $8,800 price reduction which basically covers the repair with PEX and drywall. Apparently this kind of vandalism is so common Freddie and Fannie