All Forum Posts by: Richard Ball

@George P. Congrats!

@Doug Seaney Welcome to BP!

@Hisashi N. it sounds like you are in the 3rd quarter up by 50 and you want to start throwing hail marys. I am sure you have a reason for the 9 month time frame and the 20K a month but what you are doing is working. Since money isn't the issue start marketing more to get more leads/deals. I will assume your 16 paid off houses bring in 1,000 each and because you have no debt your expenses are roughly 25%. That means you are at $12,000 a month. If you are taking on debt for your next 8,000 that means you need another 16 houses, 16 houses / 9 months means you need 1.77 houses a month. Start advertising and hustle! You could also look into some small multi-family a 4plex would certainly speed up the process :D

@Tony Gazetti follow the money :D The free way is to look it up on the MLS, in RealComp you can go to Realist Tax and look it up in there and hope to see the transactions. Other then that look up Oakland County property taxes, someone is or has been paying the taxes. You could also just knock on the door, its Clarkston not Detroit so it should be pretty safe and this may actually produce the best results, people trust people that they can talk to face to face. You could also call the Clerk and see if they can help you, they will be limited in what they can/will tell you. You will have to figure out the right questions to ask them so that they will be more helpful, it may take a couple times of doing this before they become comfortable with you. If you could go into there office and talk face to face you may have better luck. I assume you didn't see a pile of mail in the mailbox so just mail it to the house, someone is picking it up. Be creative, your only limitation is yourself.

@Tony Gazetti Good deals are to be had even with conventional financing :D. I think there are multiple ways to get a property and I think you should take advantage of all of them. You should be looking on the MLS and studying that neighborhood everyday and every night. Don't just keep your search criteria at SFH search the Multi-Family, Condo, Commercial, Land, etc.. options that are provided. You never know if a listing agent messed up and categorized something wrong or didn't see the value in converting a duplex to a SFH to bring in more cash. Next I would say drive for dollars, find vacant homes that are more beaten down then the others and hand write the owner a letter and mail it to them. I don't know how many homes are in this particular neighborhood but I am guessing you can find a couple. The key to this will be consistently, over time, writing this letter and mailing it to them. If you are just going to write 2 or 3 letters to someone and then stop I would say don't bother starting. Good luck in your search!

@Cameron L. Welcome to BP!

Depending on the area in Oakland County I could be :D I would have to meet you at a few houses you are interested in and we would go through a house and you would tell me your rehab costs and if they are similar to mine or lower then we have a relationship. At this time you can send me deals you think are good and I will also go and look at deals I feel may be worthy and provide pictures, a video, estimated rehab costs, estimated ARV and a recommended purchase price. The first couple times you are going to be hesitant and want to look at the house before you put an offer in so we can but after a few you may not want to see the house until the inspection period.

@Julie Fagan Call Eastern Michigan Bank or Tri-County Bank commercial department and talk with them. Not sure what your debt to income ratio is but ask them what there requirements are before going through the process so you'll know if you are going to get approved. I am currently getting 5.75% on Commercial Loans for rentals at each place. I feel like Eastern has the better terms but my loan officer just went to Tri-County so we will see how my next loan goes before I decide on who I am going to go with from here on out.

@Robert Khabbaz I work with Eastern Michigan Bank and Tri-County Bank and I know @Troy Young works with a different bank. You should attend the next PHALA meeting they are bringing in 7 or 8 different banks that will lend to investors to give presentations on what they have to offer. 

@Robert Khabbaz Hello! I am always happy to see people from St Clair County investing :D

Over time any path that you mentioned will help you get to your goals, the key is consistent action over TIME. Going about it in a traditional manner I would continue to save and look for deals. When I found a deal I would put 20% down and get a loan for the remainder. After that fix up the house and then rent it out and rinse and repeat.

The only thing that scares me in what you said is "We have some money saved up that I'm getting antsy to invest before we spend it!" 

If you want to be an investor you have to think of investing as a business. If you are capitalizing your business to make further investments you assign that money a job and don't touch it for anything other then its intended purpose. As you grow you are going to be dealing with more and more money and the mindset has to change from spend to reserves and stable growth.