All Forum Posts by: Jeff McCaskey

:) Thanks

Good luck to ya!

@Matt Sauls 

From my personal experience it really does matter who the appraiser is. I had a property, the first one I bought actually was appraised a couple years before I bought it when it was purchased by the seller. It was a tri-plex and the seller was needing to reorganize finances to do whatever it was they wanted to do in their life. It came out at 65K and I live in an area where values change vary little year to year so things are fairly constant.

I chose someone based on you know, who does multi unit appraisals in town kinda thought process. He comes out, doesn't say much, doesn't ask many questions, doesn't seem interested really in anything that is going on but goes about his business. It was my first experience so I figure this must be they way this guy is or this is the way appraisers are in general right. I wait a few weeks and he gets it done in a timely manner, I think oh good I can get with the bank now and move forward..... (I had this property 2 or 3 years on lease option and time was up. I had made some repairs to the property and the roof which needed to be replaced at time of purchase was a little more tattered now than before) So I get the numbers and of course only care about the bottom figure bc that is what matters to the bank right. Comes back at 55K....... At this point i'm saying to myself WTF right....... I mean hey I was new to this but I did my homework and nothing major at all had changed and if it changed it was better than when I took over. I had done many little things and those add up when making something more tidy right (paint, trees trimmed etc etc). I was really upset about this. Needless to say I have never used him again for anything - he is also an agent.

I however, went with a different appraiser for everything else I have done and had much much better results and a much better relationship as well as more conversation with the second individual.

Bottom line is that, it may pay for you to have a second appraisal done on the property by another person and since the information you get from your request of an appraisal is privy only to you and your financing institution then you would be able to use the second more favorable eval to support your deal. You will likely learn a few things in the process and it may very well be just one persons opinion over another and at times though opinion is not supposed to enter into the situation, it does. I have heard many stories like this where appraisals were effected by opinions as well as numbers and as important as the numbers are this can be a major issue in order to get a deal done or to be satisfied with the end result.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

*** Oh, I now plan in late spring to spend about 45K going toward a roof, siding, windows, new porch and HVAC changes and that should double the value of the property and I should be much happier!

@Lorenzo Jackson I don't mean to be hard on you here, and it's great that you are rolling up your sleeves and getting into the dirt to play, but honestly this is a question that anyone and everyone should have answered for themselves long before getting into a contract on a property.

You might be able to get it bought and rehabbed with HM but you will get killed on fees of you can't refi with a bank and most things in the banking world, at least for a person starting out gaining financing for most things, well it's not a very speedy process and that can cause issues on it's own without adding the newbie factor to it.

I wish you luck man, I really do!! Let us know how it goes......

Bart,

Welcome buddy!

Tulsa is a great place to be when it comes to RE investing right now. It's the second, if not first by now, market in Oklahoma, specifically the Owasso, Broken Arrow, and Bixby areas. I think you're down to an average of a 6 month supply of homes on the market there which means supply is tightening up and the market is strong.

It should be a great place to pursue any type or strategy in real estate you desire while you get started!

All you really need are anywhere from 1 to a dozen books on REI and to read them all. It would cost you about 200$-250$ and would teach you more in a weekend than you would learn with any schooling and obviously cost less......

You know, the thing I see with so many new people is that they see investing and think they need someone to walk them through everything while holding their hand. That's not what is intended or what they literally ask but that's the mentality of many. Honestly there is no reason to actually help those that ask for the path to be laid out before them because to me that means they don't really want to put in the work required to be successful. So with that being said, if a person won't fight for it on their own they won't be successful anyway so it's not worth the time to stop and help much anyway.

RE investing is fun and challenging and rewarding and all the rest but it isn't for the faint of heart and it's no joke, it's not easy and it requires something that unfortunately the vast majority of people out there don't have or aren't willing or work for.

It's not worth paying huge sums of money for what someone offers because it's very doable without all that nonsense and once away from the "group" I don't think most people would fly but rather fall back on the fears that lead them there in the first place.

It's different to help a hungry person.

Josh,

I set a minimum criteria for myself at 200$/mo cash flow on any deal I get involved in on a rental. You can set your own criteria and make it whatever you want reasonably. Once I bought one that broke even and went with the equity building routine and most of mine actually beat that bench mark by a nice margin.

@Josh C. is right, fly over country has this around nearly every corner and that's one thing about why it's so wonderful living out here!!!

Learn how to do creative investing and you will go much faster in the beginning!

Depends on the bank and you should definitely know that before you spend any money!! Smaller banks are better with that.

Yep you got it!

Buy and rehab and don't cross the 80% of value number. That will be your down payment with the bank.

If you get it all done and you're at 60% then you will get a check at closing of refi for the portion of dollars between 60% and 80% that will go into your pocket as wages or what have you.

Andy,

or you could try just calling the county appraisers office that the property sits in and give them the address ONLY, and see if they give you back the same name you have come up with and then they of course also would/should have an address for the owners also since they still have to pay property taxes every year. And that is also free......