All Forum Posts by: Greg Fend

@Gary Hurst ,

Although I'm not physically there (active Army), I'm operating in the Central Texas area. Currently have a few MFH in the Fort Hood area and am working some flips down in San Antonio.

Feel free to shoot me a note!

Greg

I'm a self-professed techie, so I often read the daily tech posts on sites like Gizmodo. I was happy to see my tech and real estate worlds collide the other day when they posted an interesting article about a project started by the University of Wisconsin.

The website, http://www.netmigration.wisc.edu/, shows the positive and negative migration flows of Americans, county by county. It's a great correlation validating those "hot" markets right now. It also shows you the general age groups and the relative number moving.

Perhaps you'll find it useful as you strategize your next market!

Greg

If you read into the SCRA, it provides some protections for debts incurred *prior* to entering military service. If your tenant has in fact already signed his contract, any debts incurred after should not be covered by SCRA.

This is not legal advice, nor am I a lawyer...just my experience from over 15 years of active military service (and still going!)

Greg

Stephanie Dupuis- I've decided to give it a shot and have started to bid on a SFH in San Antonio. Even if I don't end up getting it, at least I'll gain some experience using the system. So far so good! I'll keep you posted.

I think it's worth a shot to see if you can put in a low-ball bid and see if they'll take it. I'm guessing that GSA will not put any effort into maintaining these properties they are trying to offload, so the government being what it is would rather take some money instead of no money.

I also am not a fan of how long the process could take. It essentially sounds like the GSA could keep the auction open indefinitely until they get some sort of bid that they feel is appropriate. If I clicked the bid button on one of these places, I'd want to know the results sooner rather than later. It could put other deals into limbo while waiting for the auction to close!

Stephanie Dupuis--Good luck! I may continue to look into this avenue as well. I'm in the military, and I think this GSA auction site (for residential properties) includes the houses that the government has bought from Soldiers that have been forced to move due to military orders or because of BRAC relocations (If I remember right, the program was part of the TARP and/or HAP programs set up a few years ago). So the residential properties are being auctioned not because of foreclosure, but because a military member was forced to locate, and this program was a way for them to get out of their property without having to do a short sale or possibly have their house sit on the market for months while they were deployed or moved to another location.

I look forward to hearing about your continued progress with this opportunity!

Interesting concept! Although I have no input or experience, I'll certainly bee looking forward to hear what others may have to say or what you find out!

As a new investor and new BP fan, this will be a great project to use!

Something else I think would be really handy would be something sort of between a dictionary and encyclopedia of all the common terminology. I've absorbed a lot reading through the forums, articles, and blogs...but having a quick little reference that gives a very general overview of "Term X" would be great to have!

Remember that for VA home loans, they require residency.

Here's some more information from a FAQ on the VA site:

4. Can a veteran get a VA loan to buy or construct a residential property containing more than one family unit?

Yes, but the total number of separate units cannot be more than four if one veteran is buying. If more than one veteran is buying, then one additional family unit may be added to the basic four
for each veteran participating; thus, one veteran could buy four units; two veterans, six units; three veterans, seven units, etc.
In addition, if the veteran must depend on rental income from the property to qualify for the loan, the veteran must (a) show that he or she has the background or qualifications to be successful as
a landlord, and (b) have enough cash reserves to make the loan payments for at least 6 months without help from the rental income.

Thanks, Jeremiah B.