All Forum Posts by: Stephen Bayard

@Elizabeth Wilson

I'd never thought of that. 

While I'm not sure the location really lends itself to that, what kind of channels would one use to market in that way?

@Thelonious Jones

I checked on the water lines. The duplex and house do actually have separate lines going to them, but they share a meter. It would cost around $1500 to have the town put in a separate meter.

I emailed the banker I work with, and I'm waiting for a response from him as far as the bank's care-abouts. 

@Joshua D.

I say they share a lot, but they actually have 2 different tax cards. It's a weird situation. They kind of count as one lot, but the duplex lot is a "special interest" on the primary lot. I have no idea what that means, or if that affects how hard they are to split up.

I don't mind sharing numbers. I bought the place for $92k. The principle balance has gone down, but I've racked up a balance on a HELOC to do fix-ups over the last 5 years. I'd need to sell for about $100k just to get out from under it (which I'd honestly take, at this point).

Rents total $1600/month if everything is occupied ($800 for the SFH, $400 each for the duplex units).

As far as keeping the duplex occupied, it hasn't been a problem finding tenants, but they just tend to have more...financial difficulties as time goes on. Even with what I consider a solid screening process, at those kind of rent prices the tenants it attracts are a lot less consistent (job changes, "things" that come up, etc). It's just always something with that unit.

Thelonious, that's a good question.

There may be a couple of issues with that:

1. They share a water line. I'd have to get that split up. That's not a non-starter. I'll just have to look and see how much that would cost.

2. They are both covered under a single mortgage. It seems like the bank may have some objections to splitting it up in that case.

Good question, though. I'll contact a plumber and the bank and see if I can find the answers to those issues.

Several years ago, I bought a "unique" property that is a single family house and a duplex on the same lot (in a rural area).

Because of the low cost of the duplex rent, I've struggled to find reliable tenants to live there (although the tenants in the house have always been consistent). Plus, it has taken more money to fix up than I originally thought.

I tried to sell it last year, but I found it very difficult to sell. Part of the reason is that the SFD needed some fixing up (which has subsequently been done). But part of it was that the market for people who want a duplex on their property in that area is very small.

Feel free to offer any options I'm not thinking of, but my main question is this: Is there a relatively easy way to modify the duplex apartments so that they count as storage (or just not count as income-producing apartments) so that financing would be easier for a prospective buyer?

Like, could I wall off the showers to make it not rentable as apartments? 

I know that's probably a stretch, but I'm just trying to explore different options here.