All Forum Posts by: Carlos Velasquez

@Andres Bernal, I’m from CT and have been through the the unfortunate eviction process. My suggestion is to start the eviction right away. The longer you wait the longer you are going to be without getting rent and then fix the damages in the apartment. If you don’t want to do it yourself hire an attorney. It costs between 600 and 900 for the complete process. Having the attorney communicate with the tenant and not you  scares some tenants and they leave. Also when the Marshall gives them the notices gives them a reality check. Stop talking to the tenant because you may say things the tenant can use against you. Here in CT a landlords word is as good as putting it on paper  so be careful. You can PM me if you have any questions.

@Colin GearityBased on personal experience, it is important to look at the entire background. Have they being working in the same job for a long time? Did you check with the 2 previous landlords? The last landlord may lie to get rid of them but talk to one before. Remember if people had great credit scores and jobs they would most likely be buying a house. Read up on rental discrimination  laws in your state before you answer, and yes it is as simple as sending and email. You can PM me if you have more questions I don’t mind. Remember waiting to place the right tenant is better than evicting one, trust me.

@Travis Miles, you can get lower interest if you have good credit, and bank likes to see steady income, so a full time job will also help. If you haven't, download one of the free credit monitors so you can get an idea. Don't trust their score a 100% but the most beneficial part is that you can see all of your accounts. Then, bring your debts to 29%, and if possible 15% ( I wish someone would have told me this when I was young). Your credit score will jump very high. If you have items in collections there are things you can do but PM me for this (Not advise but general knowledge). With a good credit score many doors will open for you, from banks to private and hard money lenders. The next thing is an income so you can proofs you can afford it, and a downpayment. Just a quick disclaimer, what I have mentioned is from my experience and not offering you advise on what you need to do, for that seek legal advisors or lawyers in your area. Good luck.

You may want to let them put the number first. Asking something like, how much do you think your property is worth? That way they don't feel insulted if they think the offer is too low. Then you can start negotiating. 

@Ryan Fabry, send me a pm and I can give you a good referal from the area. I have refinanced in Enfield with no problem.

It depends buddy, you can ask a real estate agent to make an analysis of how much are properties selling around the area. It may or may not be a necessary item. If you can save that money you could spend it on staging which people take for granted, or simply save for the next deal. Good luck.

@Sergio Ortiz I forgot to mention that when you buy and hold there is also the option of doing a Heloc where the closing cost are just hundreds not thousands of dollars amd the rates are very low. I done this as well and is a great option.

@Sergio Ortiz Continued... Banks here in Connecticut let you refinance after 6 months but you can wait until the property drops to 70k which should be fairly easy if you pay a little more in your mortgage payments. Remember you are not paying, the tenants are. I actually have bought a HUD single family for 63k after putting 20% I only owed 50k so I was able to refinance after 6 months. But continuing with this example, I recommend let it deop to 70k at least and refinance for 20k. You will pay closing cost so your new mortgage should be around 92k. Your monthly mortage payment most likely increased for another $100 or less. Let's say it took this a year. In ayear you made 20k of the refinance + around 9k in rent. You spent 30k and have recouped your money and now you are ready to do it again. This is what is referred here at BP as brrr which I think stands for buy, repair, refinance, repeat . It works buddy, I been doing it for a few years and I am continuing to expand. I did flips before but they can take sometime as repairing is not the same as renovating. With a flip you have to increased the value of the property through fancy and shiny objects which cost more than making a place clean, safe, and make sure it works. When you refinance there is no taxes paid because it is a new mortgage but in a flip you have to pay taxes on your profit. Some people that do flips do 1031 exchanges but is not easy to do specially if you are just starting. Anyways good luck and feel free to ask me any question and I'll do my best to answer them.

@Sergio Ortiz, I don't know how much are properties selling in Arizona, but let's say is a single family 3bd, 2ba. At a conventional loan you most likely put 20% down so now you owe 80K. There are other expenses other than the 20% such as closing cost and repairs you may have to do to the property. Let's say you buy a HUD house (HUD houses can be found on the HUD website, click on your state and select investor if you own your home), for the 100K -20%= 20k + closing cost + repairs= 30k (this is just a figure number it may be more depending on the amount of repairs). So your total investment is 30k and you owe 80k. I rent my single families 3bd, 2ba) for $1,500 but this may or may not be your case depending on your demographics. Assuming you can rent this house for that $1,500 at a mortgage of 5% interest for the 80k it should be around $340 a month. To get a good estimate of your cash flow you can get quotes for insurance and look at what the property paid in taxes the previous year on the town website. Let's assume taxes and insurance is 4k a year that's another $333 a month. This leaves you a cash flow of around $800. I have to start another post this is lagging.

Hi @Carlos Querido, I have a strategy that may work as well. I don't do flips but a good way to start, or continue to build your portfolio, is to buy a real cheap single family either through HUD, REO's, or seller finance etc... and renovate. It costs less than a flip, because since the house will be for rent all you need to focus on is making sure the property is clean, safe, and that it works without have to worring about putting fancy stuff for appreciation. Banks nowadays are refinancing in 6 months so you can pull a significant amount of cash without paying taxes and still producing cash flow. A year later you can see where the market is and sell the house if the property has appreciated enough. Now you have the opportunity to squeeze all the cash out. So buy cheap property, spend way less than flipping, put a tenant that would begin paying you (Recoup money invested), refinance the property to get cash without paying taxes, and possibly sell the property after a year to get all of the cash out (pay less taxes than a flip). Not discouraging you but offering a plan B option. It has worked for me. Good luck!