This is a very common question.  Sometimes the investor buys the property with cash, does the rehab, and then wants to pull their money out.  Alternatively, the investor may be trying to access the equity they have in the property.

Rob Bonahoom, the expert in Investment Property financing, gives us the answer at Investment Mortgage Guy.

Every couple months or so it seems like the circus is coming through town.  No, I am not talking about Barnum & Baily’s, I am talking about the “Foreclosure Auctions”.  They spread signs on just about every foreclosure listing, have infomercials every 10 minutes, and eventually create a mess.  To date, I have yet to meet anyone that has said that they got a good deal at one of these auctions.

Jesse over at MN Short Sales wrote a great post about real estate auctions.  Go check it out at Minnesota Foreclosure and Short Sale Blog.

In Feburary 2008, the University of Minnesota bought the former Plymouth-Penn shopping center at 2100 Plymouth Ave N, in North Minneapolis.  The U of M plans to begin construction and rehab on the property soon, turning it into the UROC, the Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center; which is currently located on campus at 110 Morrill Hall.  The center is proposed to open in late 2009.

The center was started several years ago as Minneapolis Mayor, R.T. Rybak encouraged the university to help solve the complex problems in North Minneapolis.  The goal was to create partnership aimed at building a stronger and healthier neighborhood that would tie together community and university expertise and resources and leverage these with city and county services and resources.

Once open, the UROC building will provide space for outreach and research programs centering around early childhood education, health disparities in relationship to income, 4-H, family development, and youth leadership to name a few.  Multiple private and federal grants will help establish programs that will benefit the residents of North Minneapolis.

Now I never ask for much from my readers, but a our Minnesota Real Estate Team Client Concierge, Jaelynn Ruckdashel and her Fiance’, Kevin Maki are entered in a contest to win a Dream Wedding Package including a New Car!

The couple with the most votes wins and they NEED YOUR HELP!!!! Please stop by www.feldmannnissangiveaway.com and register to be a voter.  Once you receive your confirmation email, login and search for them by name.  Vote for them once a day until March 31st.

EVERY VOTE WILL COUNT- THEY COULD WIN OR LOSE BY 1 VOTE!!!!!!!! Right now they are in first place, but only by a small margin! Help them stay in first!

Thank you in advance for any support!!

Scott

This is a question that does not come up much, but I thought I should address it:  “Do I need to make any special accommodations for a handicapped tenant/applicant”.

First, who is considered handicapped under the law?  The federal Fair Housing Act and Fair Housing Amendments Act (42 U.S. Code §§ 3601-3619, 3631) prohibits discrimination against people who:

• Have a physical or mental disability that substantially limits one or more major life activities — including, but not limited to:
  • mobility impairments
  • hearing impairments
  • visual impairments
  • chronic alcoholism (if it is being addressed through a recovery program)
  • mental illness
  • HIV, AIDS, and AIDS-Related Complex, or
  • mental retardation
• have a history of such a disability, or
• are regarded by others as though they have such a disability.

Here are the general rules that you must follow as a landlord (if you have further questions, I recommend you contact an attorney or a special interest group):

• As a landlord, you may not ask an applicant about any handicaps.
• You must base your decisions to rent to (or continue to rent to) a person solely on the basis on credit, criminal, and rental history.  You may not deny them solely because of their handicap.
• Even if it is obvious that they are disabled — for example, they use a wheelchair or wear a hearing aid — it is nevertheless illegal to inquire how severely they are disabled. In practice, if there are units available on the ground floor and 2nd floor in the same complex, you must offer both units to a person in a wheelchair, even if you believe they would not be interested in the 2nd floor unit.
• Landlords must reasonably accommodate, at the landlord’s expense, the needs of a disabled tenant such as (but not limited to):  rules, procedures, services to give the disabled tenant an equal opportunity to enjoy the common elements and his/her unit.  Designating the front parking space would be an example of this.
• Alternatively, landlords must allow a disabled tenant to make reasonable modifications to their units or common areas at their expense in order to allow the tenant to live comfortably or safely in their unit.  These modifications may not interfere with current or future tenants ability to use the property.  Typical modifications that can be done (and paid for) by a disabled tenant can include:  installing a ramp to allow wheelchair access, installing special faucets or door handles to allow for tenants with limited hand mobility.  The landlord can require that they changes are removed once the tenant leaves the property and can only be done with prior approval.
• If the need for the modification to the property is not obvious (such as a wheelchair ramp), the landlord may request a doctor’s letter prior to approving the change.  This is especially common in mental illness disability and/or phobias.

While this is not an exhaustive list, you need to be aware that you must give a handicapped tenant or applicant every opportunity to rent your apartment.