All Forum Posts by: Geordy Rostad
Geordy Rostad has started 4 posts and replied 530 times.
Post: 20yr vacant property - rehab?

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
Sounds like this one might work perfect for the BRRRR strategy. Do you have the cash to buy it and do the rehab?
Alternatively, you could wholesale it.
Post: Buying a non performing note from a bank

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
Are you talking with the owner now? Until the property has gone through foreclosure, it's still in the owner's control. The bankruptcy process stops the foreclosure process. That's part of the whole point, to give the owner time to sort things out.
Post: Mobile Home Value Resource

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
I don't think there is a bluebook for mobiles. In my experience though, values of mobiles are largely derived from the park they sit in.
About 10-12 years ago, there was a newspaper article about a mobile home park in Malibu that sat on the edge of the beach. People were paying $1M+ for mobile homes in that park. They were old early 1970's non-HUD houses and they still had to pay space rent.
A friend and client of mine made a lot of money flipping mobiles in parks a few years back. He would tell me that he would take a nice house that was worth $60k in one park and then he would move it to another park and it would suddenly be worth $140k. The hard part was finding an empty spot to put it. He would even sometimes find a park with several empty spaces and ultimately his activity in the park would end up raising the value of all the homes in there. Eventually the park owners were able to bump up the space rent even.
In your case, the nicer you make your park, the more they will be worth. Also, If you offer seller financing, that will make them worth a lot more. Most people are purely looking at monthly costs and don't care nearly as much about the principal amount they are borrowing. Even when the interest is 15-18%, they still just want to know "how much per month?"
$30,000 for a scraggly old 1970's mobile sounds like a lot of money but $5k down, 18% interest with a payment of $450/mo for 10 years starts to sound pretty affordable to buy your own space.
Post: A Few Seconds Ago...

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
You might want to try a different web browser or clear your history and see if that helps.
Post: Is an inspection necessary for a 500 sq. ft. condo?

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
The answer to this depends entirely on your comfort level. Some advisers say "never buy without an inspection" but then again, people buy at the county auctions every day without even being able to step foot inside the property ahead of time.
I would say that in a condo, there are much more important factors than things you'll find in an inspection anyhow. You will want to pay special attention to the resale certificate and the reserve study. Read those carefully. That will tell you the health of the association which is crucial for future value and appreciation.
Post: Balancing debt reduction and cashflow

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
Also, from one perspective, paid off properties carry a higher risk than one with a large mortgage on it. If a tenant decides to sue you for some reason, one of the first things their lawyer will do is look up your house and see how much debt is owed on it. If you own the house free and clear, the lawyer sees a nice juicy target.
Post: At least double or nothing

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
Every property and property type are different. It's sort of hard to apply this uniformly across the board.
High expenses can be good too. When you find excessive expenses, you might have found a big opportunity to increase the value of the building. Look for ways to cut them down to a reasonable amount. Find better property managers, shop repairs around a bit more, split utilities with RUBS, etc, etc.
After you analyze enough deals, you'll get a good feel for it.
Post: Where should I have my tenant send mail (notices)

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
A PO Box is a nice thing to have. We have one for our business and we walk the 1/2 mile down the hill almost every day to check it. Gives us something to do. If you are planning to build up your investment portfolio, might make sense at some point.
Post: Slowing/Stopping Roth/Stock Investments

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
You should look into the roth rules. From everything I can tell, you can withdraw all of your contributions anytime you like without any penalty because you've already paid taxes on them.
I don't know how long you've been contributing but chances are if you've been doing this a while, you already have more than enough in there for the down payment you might need.
Post: Is it a good idea to buy an apartment with no tenants in it?

- Real Estate Broker
- Kirkland, WA
- Posts 549
- Votes 411
Think of it this way. YOU get to pick the tenants. YOU get to reset the rent rate back to market. You won't have to kick anyone out to do the rehab. You won't have anyone there in your way.
Just do your own pro forma analysis. Leave some margin for overestimating the rent and underestimating the expenses.
How many units is this? The only question I would really have is "why is it empty"?