All Forum Posts by: Jeff McCaskey

@Abou C. There is a lot that goes into making these decisions to get them right and start on a solid path. It would take a long time to run through everything typing or even face to face at lunch or dinner, likely several meetings. Do some searching on here, get a couple books, read and research these types of things and get a grasp on what you are about to do etc etc. It's not as simple as not knowing and someone saying the corner of A and B streets is good, buy there. You need to be informed and familiar with your target market. I think you might not be ready yet, add some additional information to your tool belt and you will be able to ask more pointed questions for better responses!

Goof luck on your journey!

@Lea Morgan Hi Lea, well it sounds to me like you are in a pretty good position to do what you want to do or even pass your goals you set if you so desire.

If you can buy 2 bed homes for less money than a 3 bed and get the same amount of rent out them basically then I would say look for the 2 beds. You should be able to go to the bank or find a bank that you can do cash out refi with on your 2 current properties. If you have 2 properties free and clear x ave value 42K = 84K worth of assets. 84K x 80%=67K you will have cash in hand.

You can use this 67K to either purchase outright the other homes you want to buy or split it up and use part of it as your 20% down on as many properties as you feel like purchasing. If you could buy 2 bed 35K homes then you would need 7K down to purchase. 67K divided by 7K= 9 more properties you could get into if there were no repair costs involved. That would be a perfect world, but there are costs and likely a few if not some repairs that can be done/need to be done on almost any home. But at least you can see that you do have purchasing power should you decide to use it.

As far as raising the limit on your card, if you have been using it I hope you have paid the balance every month. If not then do so. Start paying off the balance in full early or just on time and periodically call and ask for a higher credit limit. Often times they will lift the limits, especially if you aren't asking for huge increases and tell them you are using it regularly in business and need a little extra room for purchases in a growing business.

@Melissa B. You could probably look around and end up finding someone to work with. It will probably be slower doing it this way just keep that in mind. Something you might try is getting with your friends and family or coworkers and finding out if any of them know anyone a) that you could be referred to and b) that they know personally who you might be able to get some advice and onsite direction from in order to move at your own pace and leave room on there to learn in the process.

I'm pretty certain if you found a contractor to hire on this it will be a higher hourly rate to do it this way just because as you had basically stated, it won't be as efficient as them typically coming in and using their own people and just getting it done and getting out.

Just my opinions, I don't know Chicago markets.

@Nicole A. Did you ever get this resolved???

@Andrew D. If you are going to use a smaller lumber yard for any of these items you can usually ask for the contractor rate and they will give you a price reduction on things. I don't have a Lowes or HD in my area so they aren't options in my market.

Good advice though !!

@Chirag Parikh I would probably just think about it a while and choose some nice words to use "in conversation" I wouldn't go asking things so literally you know. It sounds like you manage your own units and have a decent relationship with the tenant already.

I would simply just stop by or call or just the next time you see him if you expect that to be soon, bring it up, ask "how are you feeling about xyz". By taking an interest in him in conversation it is easy to bring up potential situations and plans for the future.

You should also have a paper lease I assume, so when does it mature?? Maybe at that point you can change the tenant on the lease to being him only and that may solve most of your concern.

If you have other units you can possibly say you've had trouble in the past with multiple people on a lease and would prefer to have just one member listed. I do this especially with a roommate situation - get one person on the lease. What if one moves out and another moves in but you didn't approve them to live there? It can be an issue, so I now just make one person responsible for the unit and if things change then the others can reapply so to speak and the decision is up to me at that point not left to "nature taking its course" with my investment.

@Virginia C. Huddleston It really depends....... The lucky part for you is that there are many fewer people who are in the multi market than the SFR market so it should increase your chances right out of the gate so to speak.

Also depends on DOM (days on market), at some point the bank will want to clean up the balance sheet for the month or quarter etc etc and if not sold, will begin dropping the price, sometimes dramatically. There is an SFR here in my area that was listed at 52k after one reduction and an agent I know said "you could get that for 40k I bet" I said, you think 40k huh? He was confident in that. Well just a week or so later it's listed for 39,900, so I think I could get it for 30K now, I was thinking that when he mentioned 40K too but just let him talk. Point is, that you can probably get it bought for less than you think. Like was mentioned, make an offer, low ball, see what happens......

@Jason L. 

I would agree with @Steve Rozenberg on this subject. While it is vary nice to think of the tenant in this situation, if you step in and get involved it could really run the risk of potentially messing up the whole operation.

I have a place that I initially started out "managing" for some people who moved out of state. As time goes by they seem to need on some level a little more involvement in the situation with the tenant. I don't mind looking after the place and doing some things here and there but it really can create a convoluted situation and it's not beneficial. 

I don't have any issues with the owners so you know it works out ok, but if it were a slightly different situation it would become enough for me to just say ok, I'm out, find a new guy or do it yourself.

@Tresa Gibbs 

From my experience you likely will not be able to get the loan(s) without money down, unless you are in a situation where you bring equity to the table equal to the 20% figure. The best bet in my mind is for you to approach the owner to do an owner carry or buy on contract so that you can fix the property and then obtain financing. 

It's not likely a bank will loan money out in your situation or another newbie on a house in that condition, they don't like to make loans on REO property either due to the non move in ready condition meaning all the repairs that need to take place. To them it's a liability in that shape and they can't see it as an asset.

Now if you had a long history or long enough history with the bank and your own cash or equity to take from then they would do you some favors.

But in this case you would also need the skills to fix it/do the labor yourself.

That's my experience.

I guess most people out here in this part of the country don't play as many games etc, it's pretty easy for me to call up the previous and get a reference. You can pretty much tell right away if they are the landlord or not, and living in a town of 7000 makes it easier yet. I can call or get with any number of people and use FB and tell who is who and what they are about and what they do, who they know, who they are friends with etc etc to validate just about anything, even if I already know pretty much what I am going to do with the application from an initial reaction to meeting them.