All Forum Posts by: Amy Davidson

Hi Anthony,
I've been seeing lots of intros from FL in the last few days, so I'm sure you'll meet lots of local BP members. I'm also in the greater Tampa area, but more towards Clearwater/St. Pete.

Sorry to hear about your student loans. If I'm not mistaken, didn't the interest rate just double on those last week? Enough with the salt in the wounds, sounds like you're making a great first step to getting those paid off and starting something to give you real independence -- best of luck!

Hi Alex,
I'm also investing in your area, between St. Pete, Tampa and Orlando. I'd love to know what meeting you're going to in St. Pete. I actually live abroad, but I'll be in town next month and hope to meet up with others while I can.

I'm primarily a buy and holder, and look forward to seeing what direction you end up going.

I'm relatively new to BP, so I don't have that many success stories just yet, but here's a teeny tiny one.

I'm closing on two houses from the same seller in a few days and I noticed in the HUD that there was a charge of $84 for currier/postage/wire fees -- one charge for each house, so $168 all together. I wrote to the title company and pointed out that there was no currier and no postage and only one wire coming through for the two houses, and they immediately wrote back and changed the total to $25.

I'm pleased as punch that I saved $143 in 5 minutes. And I'll definitely be checking the nickels and dimes on my settlement statement from now on!

Michael, you really summed up what I was thinking, unfortunately. It's a D+ neighborhood and I imagine the tenants don't have so much legal experience or so many choices -- easy to take advantage of.

I was hoping that the answers would put my mind at ease, but it does indeed seem this is a sketchy practice, by someone better avoided.

Thanks everyone!

Believe it or not, it never even crossed my mind to speak to an attorney. Funny. I suppose that I ought to go find one.

There's no definition of it anywhere in the lease agreement. It's just listed at the top as Rent Lock: $400 with everyone's initials.

The seller said it's a guarantee that the rent won't go up in the 12 months of the contract, which is a given anyway. He defined it in an Email as a non-refundable FEE I've asked him for an addendum to the purchase contract stating that all the Rent Locks are non-refundable fees and that the tenants know this and will not be expecting this back.

Do you think that there's anything else I should do to protect myself if I do decide to go forward?

Hi all,
It's my first BP question, I hope that someone has some experience that can help.

I'm ready to buy a multi-family property that is currently rented, but most of the leases have something called Rent Lock instead of a deposit. The owner and wholesaler tell me that it's perfectly normal to charge this kind of initial FEE, and that it'll never have to be refunded by the potential new owner -- me. But when I Google the expression, and BP it as well, I can't find a single reference to it.

Has anyone used it or run across it? Any opinions that you'd like to share before I finally buy this place?

Thanks!

Hi Brian,
I'm living in Switzerland, but plotting a return to Clearwater....some day. I'm also a buy and holder between St. Pete and Orlando. I haven't been to the Tampa REI meetings, but I've talked with several people including real estate agents and wholesalers who say it's not only profitable, but enjoyable, too.

I plan on attending the Monday meeting when I'm in town next month and would be happy to PM you about it afterwards if you're interested. If you go in the meantime, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts as well.

I just stumbled across this post and thought I'd share my experience on MHD. I joined as a premium member about 3 weeks and closed on a house with an existing tenant on Tuesday. If the tenant pays her rent, it was a deal. I'll post again if I discover I was tricked on the "reliable tenant" front. I'll also post again if I don't get my premium membership refunded as promised in a timely manner, but I'm optimistic on both accounts.

I HAVE found that many of the houses I call on have already been sold, but it's still an opportunity to speak with a wholesaler working in my area and let him or her know what I'm looking for, and that has also turned out well for me.

I would agree that most of the properties in the Tampa area have hugely inflated ARVs, but what can you do.

On the other side of it, I also listed myself as a private lender and got, of course, a billion responses. Some of them were quite strange and clearly not form real investors. And, as life is sometimes funny, I had to turn around two weeks later and try to borrow money. Although I didn't end up using any hard money from MHD's hard money lenders, I got enough responses to feel that there were legitimate HMLs to be found there.

Hi Devan,
I can only speak about the last part of your post -- "What type of investors would want to buy a house with owner financing in place?"

The answer to that is -- investors like me. I'm an individual investing in buy and hold properties and traditional bank financing hasn't been an option for years, no W-2s, etc.

I'm always happy to find nice properties with owner financing, which allows me to buy more properties now, rent them out, and pay them off as slowly or as quickly as the seller would like.

Note to the BP group at large: I invest mainly in Florida, but please feel free to contact me with any owner-financed deals you may have.