All Forum Posts by: Susan Maneck

Personally I would put down at least as much as needed to avoid PMI. That is really hard to get off your mortgage once it is on no matter how quickly your paying it off.

Is the land wooded? If so and if you are going to try and sell the land to a developer anyhow, you might consider leasing it to lumber company  first. I've seen people in Mississippi get half the value of the land by just letting it be clear-cut which you would have to do before development anyhow. 

Inventory is not low in Mississippi. We still have a 10% foreclosure rate. Right now there is a 4000 ft. VA property available in St. Louis Bay for 104K. There are two Fannie Mae homes available at 49 and 68K.

My advice? Find your first house on the HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or VA website. Since you are a construction worker you are in a better position to take houses that need more work. On the Gulf, VA houses are plentiful.

 Much better than for someone like me who has never handled a paint brush. 

This is a house not a condo. There is no HMO. And people with HUD vouchers rarely can't afford insurance. But I did find a clause in my HUD contract that states I can get 110% of fair market rent if I make the necessary modifications myself, so I'm looking into that.

I don't know that it has anything to do with thug mentality but it seems like every other person white or black has a pit bull in my neighborhood. Funny thing is, they are afraid of my black lab who never barks and greets everyone at the door with a wagging tail and a stuffed animal in her mouth.  I tell prospective tenants "no aggressive breeds" and of course, we have arguments about what constitutes an aggressive breed. Bottom line: It's whatever breed the insurance company says is an aggressive breed.  

In Mississippi Animal Control often will only keep  dog for a week before they put it down. Pit bulls will be put down regardless if they are not licensed. CARA is a no-kill facility but in my opinion they are animal hoarders with some living in cages for three years or more. MERL is the best place to take an adoptable animal. 

 I've got it in my pet lease that dogs cannot be chained. If the fencing on my property is not sufficient to keep the dog in, they need to fix it themselves. I balled out a tenant because I found a pit bull chained in the back yard and they hadn't asked if they could have a pet. She insisted her dog wasn't a pit bull and she hadn't chained it. Came to find out the pit bull belonged to boy friend who had just chained it there temporarily. But because of that I found out about another dog in the house the tenants had told me about. They gave me a pet deposit, but I subsequently found out when a possum came in the house that the dog wasn't vaccinated for rabies. So now I'm on them for that. 

The biggest problem with this bill IMO is cats. They tend to come back even if the tenants take them and then what? Ever try to catch someone else's cat? I can't catch my own when he knows I want to put him in the car!  

The tenants in my 2bdrm 1ba house are disabled. They have faithfully paid their rent on time despite their very modest income. They just qualified for a HUD Voucher which I agreed to accept. My problem? In the few months this couple has lived on their property I've seen their health deteriorate further to the point where the woman now uses a mobility chair. (The husband is blind.) I agreed to build her a ramp once the house is approved by HUD but I anticipate there could be other modifications necessary down the road. I want to keep this couple as tenants as long as they are able to live independently but it looks like extra expenses might be considerable and the tenants have no means to pay for them themselves. Does anyone know of any programs that might help in this situation? Also, are there programs where an occupational therapist might be able to determine what kinds of modifications would be useful?