All Forum Posts by: Roger Wagoner

I will check Thumback, but does anyone have good referrals for South Everett, near Lynnwood?
Looking for:

-general handyman

- bathroom specialist

-kitchen specialist

thanks,

Roger

I bought a duplex from Rachel Adler and her team, and really liked working with her. Happy to provide her info if you like. She has rentals herself, and knows the market.

I just bought my first duplex, and am moving in this week. That said, I'm looking forward to the next 12 months when I want to start looking and buy a 2nd property, so this is something I'm looking at myself. My challenge is my area in Seattle is to look outside of the metro area and go further out to find anything that cash flows, so I might make my 2nd purchase a BRRR as opposed to a multi family. I'll feel comfortable in buying again when I have 6 months x my full payment of (mortgage, PMI, taxes), after everything is rehabilitated. I guess it could be said I didn't buy "right", but this is my first property bought off the MLS, so I'll be looking for my 2nd deal to be a great buy, and will be looking way beyond MLS to find the perfect deal.

 Thanks Ray, appreciate the reply. It's looking like I will be getting the place. I ended up extending the loan by 30 days which cost a fee, $1700, of which the seller agreed to pay $700. The tenant just moved out a couple of days ago, and I'm going to be doing the walk through soon. So, long story short, it's looking like I won't have to decide to evict or not. 

I was planning to just walk away from it, but the problem was there are not many <$500K duplexes in the Seattle area on the MLS, and I'm not well networked at this point, so I wanted to make this work. Your plan above would actually make sense, and would allow me to not walk away. My main concern was the profitability and financial aspect of buying a duplex but not being able to get cash flow from it, while the unit was lived in, and I'm having to rent out my own place, but I could factor thoses costs in and at least ask for some of those costs, in addition to lawyer fees.

 Thanks Jim! I appreciate your reply. It's looking like I'm going to be getting the place, so this is very relevant for me right now. Thanks for the tips, I was beginning to think along these same lines (month to month, put on own new rental agreement) and happy to have perspective from a couple of experienced investors.

Scott that is some really interesting data. Are you going to compile this and present it in an article somewhere? I mean, the piece about those buying off MLS is really interesting. I'd be interested in seeing # purchases organized by source? No doubt your thinking of some use for this :)

Hello all,

The duplex I've been trying to buy for the past 2-3 months has taken a turn for the worse and I'm hoping to get some advice. I was buying a duplex in Everett with the plan to do an owner occupied FHA loan (i.e., house hacking). Both of the two units were occupied. both were on month to month rental agreements. The seller offered to have one of the units move out. After inspecting both, I picked one to ask to vacate. They were supposed to have vacated on 12/5. The renter got sick and went into the hospital, according to the conversation the Seller's Agent had with the tentant's Mother. They asked to stay longer, until 1/5. They paid a check to the seller, which the seller CASHED. We were supposed to close 12/15 and I should have made the walk through after 12/5.

Which of the following is the best option?

1. Walk away (it's in my agreement to walk away if the seller is not able to have the one tenant move out) and find a new property. Disadvantage here is the rate I had was a good one from 2-3 months back, and now it's gone up by 1%+ . (This is my preferred path)

2. File an extension/rate lock with the loan officer and hope she moves out by 1/5. The seller has agreed to credit $700 to my fees. Daily fees for this rate lock extension will be about $60/day. I still need to talk to the loan agent on Monday to learn more, but that's the quick overview per my real estate agent. Disadvantage is I think it won't last more than 30 days from 12/19, so I'd have to close by 1/19. (This may also work as an option, and apparently doing a rate lock extension won't cost any money if she doesn't actually move out and I don't get the house.)

3. Go for it and buy the property with the tenant in there as is, and I file the Eviction. This leads to a lot of questions like, how much will it cost to evict someone? How long will it take? (This looks like the riskiest path).

For context: i've never owned a home, and this is my first offer and first purchase. I want to either house hack / owner occupy a multi unit or I want to buy a fixer upper to keep and rent out (is that BRRRR?).

Thanks all! I hope to be able to give back and help someone out some day, but I'm honestly stressed about this one. I've tried to include all relevant info, but let me know if I've missed something.

 I had not thought about that... this is my first property. If the sell does go through, I will like keep him month to month for now, or at least think carefully before I jump into a lease. The sell may not work out, I'm going to post a separate question to the forum (seller hasn't been able to get 1 of the 2 tenants in the duplex to move out).

 Thanks Suzanne, somehow I missed this comment the first time through. I appreciate it.. I'll check it out. 

 In other words, trying to have an all-inclusive agreement will lead to something being way too long, and not effective?