Home Improvements

[Geowhizzer]

Anyone here own a rental property?

My g/f has a good chunk of money saved up and lives in the trendy part of Wilmington, which has a lot of old buildings that have since been turned into condos and apartments. One apartment has been on the market for 5 or 6 months at roughly $55K (too much, only a 1 bed, 1 bath place), and suddenly two days ago it got labeled a short sale and the price is down to $20K.

The HOA fees (which I believe are tax deductible if you rent the place out) are only $480 a month and, according to the listing, cover everything but cable/internet.

Obviously you wanna go check the place out in person, but based on the outside details, I'm trying to think of a good reason why this isn't a good investment opportunity for her...outside of the PITA parts of being a landlord, I suppose. That area of the city is largely young professionals in their mid-late 20's who live there before moving out to the suburbs, so I guess the likelyhood of finding a great tenant that lives there longer than a couple years is low.

"Only?"  No wonder I live in the swamp.

[Munson]

Anyone here own a rental property?

My g/f has a good chunk of money saved up and lives in the trendy part of Wilmington, which has a lot of old buildings that have since been turned into condos and apartments. One apartment has been on the market for 5 or 6 months at roughly $55K (too much, only a 1 bed, 1 bath place), and suddenly two days ago it got labeled a short sale and the price is down to $20K.

The HOA fees (which I believe are tax deductible if you rent the place out) are only $480 a month and, according to the listing, cover everything but cable/internet.

Obviously you wanna go check the place out in person, but based on the outside details, I'm trying to think of a good reason why this isn't a good investment opportunity for her...outside of the PITA parts of being a landlord, I suppose. That area of the city is largely young professionals in their mid-late 20's who live there before moving out to the suburbs, so I guess the likelyhood of finding a great tenant that lives there longer than a couple years is low.

"Only?"  No wonder I live in the swamp.

Haha not bad at all from what I've seen from most of the apartment buildings and old Victorian houses converted to separate condos around the city. And everything is included in it...heat, hot water, electricity, water, sewer, trash, plus all the other things that come with living in an apartment building like maintenance and what not. Property taxes on it are super low, so if you're in a position to buy it outright, which my g/f is, you could theoretically be living in a small apartment in the trendy part of the city (as trendy as Wilmignton can get, I suppose) for ~$520 a month plus a cable/internet bill.

But, she already lives real cheap there now thanks to a college roommate who bought a house there, so really it would be an investment property to rent out to someone else. Most 1 bedroom places in the area are in $800-$900 with the utilities included, so slap a $880 price tag on it, and you're talking about an extra $4800 a year in pre-tax income plus being able to deduct the HOA fees on taxes.

The downside are all the things about being a landlord that suck and that I know very little about...legal papers, fees, etc. I don't know who would be responsible for repairs and such since it's in an apartment building, I assume more superficial stuff would be on the unit owner while more serious problems with things like pipes and whatnot would be on the building maintenance to fix.

[Rome]

Siunds like there's a special assessment that's been tacked on, Munson.

$480/month for a $50K unit is ridiculous.

[Munson]

Yeah I really have no idea about much of that stuff TBH, I was just comparing the fees to some of the other apartments and condos in the same vicinity and they all seem to be in that range. For example, a couple of other 1 bedroom apartments for sale in the area in different buildings have HOA fees of $486, $408, $441 (that's for a studio), and almost double those numbers for some 2 bedroom places for sale in the same buildings.

[Seabiscuit36]

I honestly have no clue how shortsales work when you're dealing with a house converted to condos/apartments.  I know the shortsale process is a pita and if she's paying cash it makes it much easier to deal with the bank.  Then again at that price you're looking at a lot of other trolley real estate moguls trying to expand their empire of Mikes Apartment fantasies. 

[Munson]

I honestly have no clue how shortsales work when you're dealing with a house converted to condos/apartments.  I know the shortsale process is a pita and if she's paying cash it makes it much easier to deal with the bank.  Then again at that price you're looking at a lot of other trolley real estate moguls trying to expand their empire of Mikes Apartment fantasies.

Yeah that's the best selling point for her, is she straight up has 20K saved and could spend it if she wanted to.

It's not something that's been looked at seriously yet, just something we were throwing around when I saw the price dropped that low. She knows even less than me about any of this stuff, so it's the blind leading the blind in that respect.

But yeah I figure the place won't last long at all at that price and someone will swoop in and add it to their repertoire of rental properties in trolley.



It's in this building, so I'm not sure if it's always been apartments or if it had previously been used as something else. It was built in 1933 so not nearly as old as some of the other buildings around it, but almost looks too industrial to be initially used as apartments.

[Seabiscuit36]

She's better off throwing that 20k at oil stocks I'd say. 

[Tomahawk]

She should spend it on speedballs and hookers

[Munson]

 

[Geowhizzer]

She should spend it on speedballs and hookers

How do you think she got the money?

[Munson]

Exactly...I'm the one who wastes it on that stuff.

[Diomedes]

Diverter spout in our only full bath not working so well...very stiff, not sending enough water to shower head.

Buy cheapo replacement.

Replace.

Cheapo replacement is cheapo crap.  Only improvement:  stopper pulls smoothly, doesn't get stuck.  Still doesn't send all the water to the shower head.  Perhaps it sends a smidge more than the old one.

Good enough for now I guess.  Wish I had nice fixtures, but not into putting them in a zesty bath.  Wait until I redo the bathroom, or farg it, leave zesty hardware for whoever I sell to eventually.

Ah well.

[shorebird]

You have checked the valves? Do you have a single knob shower faucet? You might already know that you can take the knob off and adjust the pressure. There are hot and cold adjustment set screws behind your knob on most rigs. Left for more right for less. If that doesn't do it then you have overall water pressure problems. They can get clogged up also if you have old plumbing.

[Diomedes]

Yeah, single knob mixing valve.  Pressure in the house is not great.  Old galvanized pipes from main.   The tub diverter just wasn't stopping well, and I'm sure if I bought a nicer one than this shtein, $17 one, it would stop and I'd get better flow through the shower head.

I did not know that you can adjust pressure.  I did know that you can adjust hot water. 

I'm done and cleaned up for now.  There was some improvement, and so that's it for now.

[SD]

Make settlement on a townhouse March 31st. Got the place for a great deal, about $40-50k less than comps in the area. Most of the important stuff is fairly new, heater, ac unit, roof...less than 5 years old. Water heater is 3 years past shelf life so I'm going to need to replace that soon. The work I have to do is cosmetic, townhouse is 35 years old and the kitchen and bathrooms are still original. Downstairs carpets and stairs were just redone. Living room was painted. It's a 3 bedroom...they need new carpets and to be painted.

I have about $10-15k to do cosmetic work to the house. Fridge is fairly new, but the oven and dishwasher are original. Cabinets and counters are original too. I'm replacing the oven and dishwasher which will run about $1300 for the models I want.

I have some estimates but I wanted some other opinions:

The place is over 1700 square feet. The kitchen is somewhat small but there's a large open area right next to it. There aren't many cabinets. I want to replace all the cabinets, put granite counter tops, and do a back splash on the wall. I'm estimating the entire kitchen will cost $3-4k.

Bathrooms I'd like to buy new sinks, tile the floors, paint, and maybe tile the bath tub. My buddy is doing most of the work for me and is cutting me a deal.

The siding is blue but it's seen better days, it's vinyl so I'm having it painted, the shutters replaced, and putting new a screen door on.