All Forum Posts by: Jason F

sub2 would get you the protection with the deed but would open up a (possible) can of worms with the lender. in theory, they can call the loan due when they find out ownership interest has been transferred.

search 'due on sale' in the forums and you will find MORE than enough info (more like opinions) on what it really means.

to your first question, I would think since your seller is signing a legally binding document that they would have to carry through with what their obligations are in the agreement or face problems from you. obviously what someone says they do and what they do are two completely different things (especially in RE).

I think this is more a 'market problem' that is unavoidable regardless of your financing method.

The balloon brings the problem to a head, whereas, a traditional loan would allow to you to ride the problem out. You have to ask yourself, 'if the property I bought 3 years ago has lost $100k in value, A. do I still want it? and B. Am I in the right business?'.

In this scenario, I would have to seriously consider calling Mr. Seller/Note Holder and telling them the problem. They can either take back the property or rework the note with you. With seller financing, you have to remember, these people are not banks which makes them much more flexible. Who knows, maybe they were getting use to your monthly payments and would like to see them continue?

I'm sure managers don't like investors because they feel invaded. Most MH managers probably live on the property. They also most likely talk to 80% of the owners on a daily basis. The other 20% are the people selling you their house. So I'm sure there is a very tight group with a lot of gossip and they don't take kindly to some hot shot investor swooping up houses on their block.

As for the deadbeat buyers, trashing the house. I always think it's important to remember what motivates people NOT to trash a house and that is money. I can sit there and scream at a tenant that I'm going to evict them and I'm keeping all of their deposit, etc etc but that is going to motivate them even more to trash the place. Most of these peopel HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE. In my opinion it's much better to tell someone you will toss them $500 bucks if they leave the place clean rather than spending $2000 on the repairs.

I was thinking about the whole "gas prices/RV popularity" while on vacation last week.

Here's what I thought. I think high gas prices may actually HELP RV park vacancies. If a couple that lives out of their RV 8 months out of the year they can either A. Drive that RV or B. Have that RV parked. If someone pulls into Florida from NJ, they are left with the decision, "do we travel down to South Florida, or stay here in Jacksonville?". Seeing how much money they would spend on the road they might opt to spend the whole time in one place. If you are parked you aren't burning gas.

Just a thought.

The big effect would be on the number of RVs purchased. But I would see a bigger cause of decreased RV sales coming from the down RE market in much of the nation. Retirees aren't able to sell their homes for what they thought they were going to be able to, therefore, they must stay in them instead of downsizing.

I have used CL also, but to tell you the truth, I think 90% of it is a waste of time. Sometimes you can get good deals or find something you are looking for, but a lot of times it's just shady people or time-wasters.

Just my experience. But there is no doubt you get get some good deals on things.

how do you prevent neighbors from 'doing each other's laundry'. or splitting the $20 and 'opening the door' to the laundry room for one of their neighbors.

i like the concept though. i would see how it would work if you just upped the rent across the board and rented it as a benefit.

slimjim,

it should be just as easy as with refinancing a conv. loan.

your lender will ask what the debt is on the property, (hopefully it is a low LTV with your seller financing) and then they will approve the loan to cash out your seller.

it goes to closing, the title company will need the payoff from the seller (who should be happy they are getting their cash) and the new loan comes in place.

this is going to be an interesting scenario in the next couple of years with all of the 3 and 5 year balloons coming due from the 'hot market' and no banks lending on the refis. I think you are going to have a lot of people holding expired balloon notes not knowing what to do with them.

AD,

I kind of agree with TC. I would say do nursing until your REI pick up enough for you to make the complete transition. If you absolutely do not want to go into nursing...

I would do Finance. Actually, I did do Finance here at the Univ. Of Floirda.

Some of the other biz degrees are a little on the fluffy side and offer very little "real world" experience (at least here at UF). In my opinion, finance at least teaches you the bigger skill sets that can be applied to your RE career.

Accounting is good if you want to be an accountant. Hopefully you will be making enough money in your REI that you will just hire one, no questions asked.

So I would go with Finance, just if you are interested in what will help you in your commercial investment career.

Great idea. I think you are on to something that could potentially be huge.

I think from the owner's aspect. They want some cash while their unit is sitting there, they don't want to deal with stress of renting it out, and they want it to stay clean and look good after the tourists are gone.

Not a problem. Spell out everything and make it care-free for them to let you rent out. You get a key, you deal with the tenants, you take their deposits, you hire the cleaning crew, basically they get nothing but get a check. I don't see why someone wouldn't want to do that. It's a quick $500 pop for letting someone stay in your place.

Advertise to owners by sending direct mailings to "FOR RENT" or "FOR SALE" signs.

For the tourists, you would probably want to set up a website with multiple property listings in the area. I think Open Realty is a free web design tool that is made for this kind of thing. Then you would just get on some pay-per-click ads for people searching for "Miami Beach Rental". That should start kicking up your traffic and getting people looking at your site. Once the site is pumping, you are set, it will sell itself when it comes up on search engines.

Here's a couple of things off the top of my head:

Beds, Couches, Sheets, pillows, towels, dishes, etc. Will these be provided for the tourists? Will the owner need to purchase these things?

HOAs: I know a lot of HOAs have some pretty strict rules on renters and they must get approval. I'm pretty sure some of these HOAs will completely rule out having weekly rentals, but others may not (or not even notice). Might have to be a building by building thing.

Great idea though.

Without getting too much into the numbers....I would say definitely coin.

Think about each person doing at least 2 loads a week. That's 18 loads of laundry a week at about $4 a pop. So that's $72 a week or $288/mo. It seems that if you are not having to add additional buildings it makes the decision pretty easy.

And that isn't considering the benefits to the quality of life of the residents. It might help your vacancy rate in the long run when people are comparing alternative buildings or deciding to move to a new place.
I think laundry rooms help build a sense of community. (good or bad thing, depending on the shape your place is in, i would hate to think they are complaining about their lousy landlord while their whites are drying :)

document the income though on your taxes, it will help your NOI for your resale.