All Forum Posts by: Deborah Burian

We have purchased properties off the MLS before during and after the bust. about 75% of our inventory came from there. Buy and hold. Just gotta keep looking and sometimes be prepared to move really quickly.

We do 3:1 but get nervous if it gets really close to that.

@Brook W., soil creep and other movement wasn't really our issue. I'm certain different regions of the country have different structural issues.

You gave your word.

@Carol D., we use Open Houses almost exclusively for our SFHs. We Craigslist and do a yard sign for a few days... it works very well. We used to buy newspaper ads for the Open Houses but with Craigslist, it became unnecessary. For those harder-to-rent places, ditto on the store placards.

We are buy-and-hold and see foundation issues like any other repair. They need to be accounted for in the price. I just bought a grouping with obvious foundation issues and included a structural engineer in the due diligence process. Relative to the value of the properties, he wasn't terribly expensive ($500 for 5 buildings) and I then knew what was serious and what was cosmetic, what would wait and what wouldn't. I strongly recommend that you not make any assumptions about what the repairs will be. It's worth a couple of bucks to have a pro look at it.

We were 42 and 45 when we started...

@Chris Haas - fair question. 20% of purchase + repair costs...

@Chris Haas - back before we heard all the 'rules' we just did the math. If a property cash-flowed $100/mo after expenses, including vacancy and maintenance, we were interested. As it turns out, a buy-and-hold at 70% of value minus fix-up almost always exceeded that... And don't discount the MLS. 80% of my sfh came of the MLS. Before, during, and after the bubble. It's a lot of looking but they are out there.

@Michaela G. - I have taken to asking them, not if they've been evicted but if their landlord has ever taken them to court to get the rent. *sigh*