All Forum Posts by: Bogdan Cirlig

As with any foreclosure you need to understand the process. They do aggregate the things that happen in the foreclosure market, and you get your hands on the info, but then, it's you who needs to act on that info. The info is good and first hand, but highly volatile. Everyone hunts down NODs then "flood" the poor owner with offers to "bail them out".

I'd say propertyradar's approach is better (though just west Coast states only for now), you need to go to those who might sell before they receive an NOD :). There are ways to identify those likely to default and create a nice list.

As Brie said, you want to make sure you can hold that property at a comfortable financial cushion. Someone else is paying for your asset, and especially in the low interest rate market today, lock it in 30 year fixed, if you can buy some points upfront and off you go with your "401k" so to speak :).

As with anything, rent + vacancy is a function of supply/demand of mostly jobs. When job market races, people make more, want better homes to live in, etc. While there are many other factors for making an area "highly desirable" or "undesirable" generally you should know the trends of things that matter to the tenants such as: schools, crime, local economic developments, companies relocating in or out of your area.

According to latest stats, it appears home ownership is at lowest levels in way long, hence you can assume (pending the fannie mae 3% downpayment upcoming thing) that lots will rent. From where I stand, if Fannie Mae's stuff is successful, it will be all over again, house affordability will increase due to 3% downpayment and that will fuel the pricey homes to be bought again which will fuel price rises again until all blows up.

If you need an SQFT + SHF/TH + baths based rent estimate this is what one looks like.

As long as you stay up North, all great. Don't step in the South burbs.

Quick and dirty, see on zillow the recently sold homes (enable those in search filter). If you have enough of them, you're good. If not, realtor is the way.

You should be able to factor in if it's a SFH ot TH or Apartment and also baths and also SQFT. The wild estimate variations is due to that.

Zilpy Rent Estimate uses not only the number of bedrooms, but also Property type, Baths and SQFT plus crime rate, school ratings and demographics to identify similar neighborhood comparable properties. (what's that?)

The Rent for a 3 BDR SFH is not the same as 3 BDR Apartment and similarly, a 2000 sqft SFH 3BDR is not the same as a 1500 sqft one, even on the same block. Radius only method to pick-up comps cannot differentiate between a highway dividing an upscale area vs a low income one. That's why human appraisers know what comps to exclude from the same radius.

See how the target property rent compares with the neighborhood, zip code and the city. Is it the steal you were looking for? How safe is the area? Does it have great schools? Is it a walkable neighborhood? See real report here zilpy.com/ri4pwmp71

See up to the minute comparable properties as soon as they appear on the market, from all syndicated sources covering 98.5% of the US population.

Save hours of scouring on Craigslist, Zillow and other listing sites, we already do all that for you. We're crunching an average of 15 rental listings and updates each second, around the clock. That's over 1 million per day!

Find out why professional Appraisers and RE Agents use Zilpy.com to estimate the Cash-flow of an investment. Get your FREE Zilpy Rent & Neighborhood Crime Report now at Zilpy.com today!

zilpy.com/US you can drill down into metros, states, counties and cities. It has break down by Bedroom and it's updated live monthly using 1MM+ rentals each month.

Also for reports, if you care to get an accurate SQFT based rent estimate and also differentiate between Apartments and SFH, vs just saying "3 bedroom rent", you can take a look at this one: zilpy.com/ri44pe3zn also provides vacancy, renter density, crime, etc.

I second @Dawn Anastasi if you want to go that route. At least you will get to write-off the mortgage interest from your taxes :). Paying rent is lost money in your case, especially if you look to pay in mortgage + tax what you now pay in rent, then definitely lost money that's not even tax deductible. Duplex sounds good if you cashflow enough from your tenant. Again look at it *after tax* to compare apples to apples vs paying rent. Also you will save money by "depreciating" half of the duplex, that's indirect money, but it saves you in taxes paid every year.

Also, if you have the cash, try to leverage it and either flip smart alongside few buddies that know the game, though note flipping activity has slowed down across nation as inventory amount decreased and price increased.