All Forum Posts by: Troy Gandee

@Jake Caster They're probably correct. As a rental, they're being assessed at the 6% rate x millage. The 6% rate usually breaks out to about 3x the cost of what an owner occupant pays at 4%. The 2% they have on the bill is probably about right. The best way to estimate taxes is to google the county's tax estimator tool and then just plug in the sales price and tax district. It estimates based of the previous years' rate, but it's about the closest you'll get. 

@Harrison Slaughter We have a large and active investing community. We host a monthly meetup the 1st Thursday of each month from 6-8pm at Palmetto Brewing Co downtown. Feel free to stop by. The group is called REI Central.

@Chanel Gargula North Charleston is currently in the process of regulating STRs. They've already passed some guidelines through the planning commission. It will be coming up to vote at City Council any time now. They're pretty reasonable rules. The main restrictions will be max 2 adults per bedroom (maximum 6 adults per booking, I believe), only 1 STR per property, no temporary structures like campers and some kind of permit will be required. There are quite a few more rules, but those are the main ones that will affect a lot of people.

@Chad Hunt I wouldn't replace the copper unless it's actively failing. You can re-plumb the areas your gut like kitchen and bath, but copper is an acceptable material as long as it's not leaking or showing signs of severe degradation. It usually costs me about 3k or so to re-plumb just the water supply lines in an average house on crawl. If you replace drain and sewer lines, it will be much more.

@Andrew Reitz $1,800 is probably about right for a gated community in the area. That's high on average for North Charleston, but you could get it. It mostly depends on the condition and the neighborhood.

@Johnathan Kwon Sounds like a good deal to me. Usually, I would say to sell it and use your proceeds for more doors, but you're cash flowing really well, so I would say to keep it. My only suggestion would be to double check your payment. I assume you bought it as a primary residence, but your taxes will jump 2.5-3x the current bill when the County realizes you don't occupy it. That will take a big bit out of your net. You can do a cost segregation to lower your tax liability, but just be aware that it will make your capital gains worse when you go to resell. If you're in Charleston County, you could Airbnb it, but you'll likely have a lot of regulation to navigate. It probably wouldn't be worth it as an STR. If you got an offer for 700k+, I would suggest selling, but you will likely have capital gains and need to do a 1031 exchange.

@Dan Rivers has gone before. Not sure if he's going again this year.

@Hilary Harrison You're in good shape then. A separate meter is generally considered a separate unit distinct from the primary home, so it can usually be rented long term with no issues. The ADU is kind of in the name, "accessory" usually means used an accessory to the dwelling occupied by the homeowner.

@Hilary Harrison You may want to be careful trying to get that 4% on the ADU still. You're not technically supposed to have a long term tenant in an ADU in most cases. An ADU is generally supposed to be for personal or family use. A long term tenant usually means it's a different "family" and should have a separate meter in order to be a legal unit that can be leased to a separate individual. They could give you a hard time. It will depend on your zoning, but they normally require a separate power meter for the ADU to be capable to renting long term to a traditional tenant.

Apparently the zoning board's proposal passed last night. I couldn't make it because we're just getting out of Covid quarantine. That same set of regulations goes to city council next. 

@Hilary Harrison The previous owner was probably using the ADU as an STR. In most cases, you'll get 4% on the entire property if it's a longterm tenant. This is normally the care with single family with ADU and multifamily up to 4 units. We have an STR in an ADU in our house in PC. I put ours under another rental LLC business license a few years ago. When I did that, the county came out and measured the ADU and then taxed that % of my gross property area at the 6% rate because it was an Airbnb. If you don't intend to Airbnb it, you can call the assessor's office and they'll likely change it back to 4%. They may want to see a copy of the lease. If you plan to Airbnb, you'll probably be stuck at the 6% ratio for that portion of the property. Also be aware that the City of N Charleston is finally in the process of coming out with some regulations. They have a public hearing about in a week or so. Most of the regulations are pretty reasonable, but will need to be tweaked to be fair and agreeable with hosts.