All Forum Posts by: David Martin

@Wesley Yu What you keep saying is 'manufactured' housing, but it sounds more like your describing 'modular' housing. Can you clarify which type you're meaning?

@Grant Doyle I think you're only chance for success in this arena is if you have direct control of the construction from top to bottom, so you would have to either learn the in's and out's of construction, or JV with a builder that is willing to sacrifice short term profits for long tail revenue. Just keep in mind, building the thing is probably the most straightforward part, it's all the work that goes in to play before the first shovel hits the ground and in the background while it's happening that gets you.

@Heath Jones Alternate... advertise it as scrap metal for free on condition of being picked up on Craiglist... copper and aluminum in the unit gets the scrappers excited to haul it away at no cost.

@Oren Kachel In principle, yes, in practicality... maybe?... Do you feel the income limits for the area prevent potential for a buyer to get lending? If so, make sure you have a contingency to be able to utilize as a rental that covers costs until a buyer comes along that can.

@Curtis Woods Presuming your current 401k has loan provisions. Do a rollover of your old 401k in to your new employers plan, and then you can access it as a loan vs paying the tax hit. You might get limits on how much of it you can touch, depending on how big your current 401k is.

@Maurice Smith My thoughts on this related to RE... at the micro level, as has been mentioned, those working in public facing hourly jobs, retail/travel/hospitality/etc... are likely to have a medium term income crunch. A few months of low pay becomes more credit cards, which feeds in to having to cover those short term costs in higher debt coverage over a few years. If that equates to your tenant base, prepare accordingly. At a macro level, my only major concern is the potential that the downturns in equities causes further panic in the lending space, getting us in a credit crunch for a little while.

@Ryan Smith 

Hit a variety of sources and find the middle space that feels right to you:

Rentometer estimate

RE Agent and a local Property manager can answer "What are market rents for the area"... take advisement from both, not just one or the other

MLS/Apartments.com/Zillow/etc...: listings for rentals that actually leased...

Surf Craigslist and Facebook market for a few weeks... look for units similar to yours, call/message the listing and see how firm they are... if they're willing to drop $100-$150 a month without much fight, then that's your competition showing you how fast they would undercut you in a weak rental market.

@Mindy Jensen Proposing this post gets sticky status so that this area of the RE community is encouraged to find propinquity among it's members.

@Luke Simonetti Not sure base on your anecdote, but relative to the 'consulting with the spouse' part... are you guys presenting to only one half of the decision making team? If so, give that a little change for a few and see how it goes. Having everyone at the table is pretty key. Just imagine the person you talked to giving a half-*** explanation of it all to the other person in the decision without you're ability to clarify things for them.

 Apologies if this is just rephrasing, but wanted to clarify my understanding, and might helps others. In essence this sounds like you are saying that the mortgage still exists as a lien again the title, however, the recourse the lender has is now limited to just seizure of the property, and not trying to chase collections from the FIL. As things are occurring now, the bank is being paid, so they have no interest in property seizure or foreclosure, as it is a performing note, so the FIL currently has the opportunity to conduct control of it in the same way a normal person would, which should allow him to pass this via normal methods (living trust for example) to heirs, provided the payments on the note have no interruption.

Am I off on any of that?