All Forum Posts by: Shelley W.

@Erwin Baquirin, @Henry Clark, @Stuart Udis, @Basit Siddiqi, thanks to all of you for your advice. I really appreciate it. It's so helpful to hear what other people have done and to get ideas I haven't thought of and info I didn't know about. I appreciate that all of you have taken the time to respond. 

Thanks @Jason Taken

I co-own a duplex that is held in an LLC. I want to use the equity in the duplex to buy out my partner. But since the property is held in an LLC, it's more complex. I've been researching how to do this, and it's much less straightforward than a personal HELOC or home equity loan. Does anyone with experience in this situation have any recommendations? (It's a friendly buyout between two partners with a high level of trust.)

Thanks, @Jaycee Greene. I really appreciate your thoughts on this. It’s very helpful.

Thanks, @Jaycee Greene! I’m thinking we’d get an appraisal, then subtract remaining mortgage loan and estimated cost of sale, and then use 50% of that as the buyout amount. Does that sound right?

I’m looking for best practices, DOs and DON’Ts, links to resources and general wisdom from experience on buying out a partner. I have a duplex and need to buy out my partner. We’re 50/50 partners/owners in the property because we live in a community property state. Our legal status has changed, and he wants to be bought out. Is a buyout pretty straightforward or are there things to avoid that I need to be aware of?

@Stephen Brown thank you!

I did some research into the nitty gritty on utility websites, and here's what I've come up with that I think I'll use as super-conservative estimates for water / sewer / trash in STL. 

This is based on newbie research and not on actual experience in this market. It is in line with the responses I've received, and of course I understand that there are a lot of property/tenant-specific variables. 

If anyone has improvements, please feel free to chime in.  Thanks again to all for your input.

@Zach Stillman, @Bennie Williams - Thank you for your help!

I'm analyzing multi-family properties in STL south city, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to estimate utilities. I know landlords often pay water/sewer/garbage in STL. And I know I can call the utility company about a specific property, but I'm wondering if people have numbers based on experience, or numbers they use as ballpark figures when they're analyzing properties. Right now I'm using $115/month water/sewer/garbage for 1br / 1ba, so I'd allow $230 for a 1+1 duplex, but I don't know how that translates 2+1 and 2+2 and 3+2 properties. If I use my 1br / 1ba numbers and just multiply that times the number of bedrooms a unit has, that adds up to a lot of $ fast and I'm worried that I'm overestimating utilities using that method. Does anyone have a better method for ballparking these numbers for initial analysis of properties?

Thanks to all of you for giving me the benefit of your experience. I really appreciate it. Before I found this community I didn't know I could be an investor. Now, I'm on the threshold of doing it, and having the collective wisdom of the community is amazing! Thank you for all the detail and the encouragement.