Need to cough up 80k for apartment remodel before sale: Ideas ? HELP!

My parents are planning on selling an apartment they own, but before they want to refurbish and revamp the apartment.

Our agent told us it would cost ~ 80k

My parents have this money in their savings, but would rather cough up the money from a different source: Equity from the apartment or Debt (Mortgage is almost paid off 8000 remaining balance )

My sibling works in PERE, and my parents asked him if refinancing their mortgage and taking out another mortgage would be a good idea, but due to rising rates this is no longer feasible.

I recommended taking out a collaterized loan against the property for the 80k, as they have the money in their savings so default and repossession wouldn’t be an issue.

Info about the property:

Located in Key Biscayne Current Value: ~850k

I don’t really know much about real estate so I’m turning to WSO to find a solution.

What would be the most tax and cost efficient way of coughing up this 80k ?

Parents stated to me that the reason why mortgage has not been paid off is due to tax reasons and college financial aid.

Any and all help would be appreciated

12 Comments
 
Most Helpful

I'm far from an expert here, but seems like a HELOC would be the easiest path. I've seen some credit unions in my market offering crazy low rates for HELOCs, even today. The *cheapest* option would be for your parents to use their savings. The other option is to just not do any work. Don't know anything about your parents, but I've seen no shortage of homes where the owner was planning to sell and put in $XYZ amount of work, expecting to get that back in the sale price and doesn't. Depending on what this is, a buyer might prefer a "blank" slate. Now, Florida could be a little different and the market there may want turnkey. I'd solicit a few other opinions other than your real estate agent. 

 

The reason they want to remodel is the following:

They have been renting to the same tenant for more than 15 years now, below market.

They are renting at $3900 while neighbors and friends are renting for a minimum of $6000 - $8000 a month.

They have notified our tenant that they will no longer be renewing the lease, and they plan on working on the apt to rent it out again at a much higher price at market or above, and then eventually sell it.

 

How does an entire board of RE professionals not know the answer as to how he should finance this? I’m a soph in college now, but would hope working in RE would allow me to make more educated decisions on such manners than can the average person. I understand there’s a disconnect between large scale commercial investing / development / debt and what OP is asking, but is the knowledge really that untransferable?

 

The market's different than it was six months ago, but it's still Florida. I can't imagine it takes more than 1-2 months to sell. I think you guys need to really price out the changes you are planning to make and see if it will sell for significantly more than current unrenovated value + cost of renovation. I'm just really skeptical you're going to get paid back that much. Is this a place someone might like to own and live in themselves? Encumbering it with a lease will change your buyer pool. Sometimes that's a good thing, but sometimes it's not. 

Again, I've just toured too many rentals/houses where the owner recently put in $100K of work and can't fathom why someone isn't paying them for doing that work. I think you need to have a really good sense that the work you're doing is going to be valued by the market. Talking to 3-4 agents is not a bad idea. 

 

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