All Forum Posts by: Gwen Fyfe

@Ellie Hanson Oh man, I had to laugh. Nope, no worries on getting chucked out - I'm American, born and bred. My problem was that tides are changing everywhere and I got chucked out of the UK! Scary times.

@David Terbeek Fantastic. It sounds like it's really lucky that Bedford and Garfield Heights were the two areas I was really looking at, in terms of the POS stuff!

@James Wise Interesting, why would that disqualify me? I don't think I've seen anything about that.

@Ben S. Awesome man, super encouraging. I'm not single, but none of the men in my life have convinced me to move in yet... real estate seems like another great way to put off big relationship questions, ha! ("I'll order pizza and we can wash some walls" sounds like a nice date night, right?)

Seriously, yes, I think that makes a lot of sense. Roommates are great. Definitely going to start a progress diary.

@Jayson Lesyk Yeah, that's true, now that I think of it. You can have more than one at a time, but only for reasons like growth in your family or having to move. Hmmm, have to figure that part out.

@Percy N. One of the benefits of working with a couple CPAs is definitely free tax advice! 

@David Terbeek This is so, so helpful, thank you. This is a huge thing I had missed. Are there any rules around the contractor? Could I get a couple guys in, and submit the lowest estimate? Would I then be obliged to have the guy who did that estimate do the repairs?

What is "just signature"? In Garfield Heights they want you to just confirm you'll do it? Garfield Heights is another area I had looked at for this. (Although I work in Solon, so it's not as attractive to me as Bedford!)

@Kyle McCorkel Thanks, that's solid advice. :)

I haven't paid any attention at all to rehab costs and ARV up until now. The properties I was looking at all needed just cosmetic work, and I wouldn't be looking to sell them. If I'm going to be buying in cash and rehabbing, though, maybe I can refinance afterwards and pull my money back out?

Sounds like I need to pick up some kind of book on estimating rehab costs.

@David Terbeek That's really interesting. I don't know much about the Point of Sale stuff, it wouldn't have occurred to me. Is that when a city inspector comes out and says x, y and z need to be fixed before the house can be transferred? Can I ask you for a "explain like I'm five years old" overview? :)

Right now I'm interested in Bedford, as it's right near work for me. Some googling suggests that maybe they've stopped doing POS.

I'm not super worried about getting the financing - it's really just a matter of time. If I wait around for another year, I'll be a great candidate for an FHA mortgage. But I didn't want to wait a year!

I moved to Cleveland about 10 months ago. Previously, I lived in the UK for 9 years. So in the USA, I have very little credit history and very little employment history - but what I do have for both of these is good.

I want to get into multi-family investing through an FHA loan. I might squeak past the qualification requirements and I have a mortgage broker who wants to help me out, but realistically, it would be better to apply in 6-8 months when I'll be able to demonstrate a year of stable employment. (I have a good job with a small accounting firm here.) In the meantime, I'm renting an apartment, and my lease is up in June.

There are a couple of blue collar suburbs of Cleveland that I've been exploring and would be perfectly happy to live in. In some of these areas single family homes come onto the market every couple weeks beat up but livable for 20-30k... which I could scrape together in cash right now, if I needed to.

So what I'm thinking is...

-Scrape together as much cash as I can and just buy a fixer-upper SFH outright before June. Cut both my commute and housing expenses by two thirds.

-Move in (with a sleeping bag and hotplate if necessary!), start fixing it up, and save up another $8,000-$10,000 for an FHA down payment and closing expenses - something I've already done, and it'll be even easier once I'm not paying rent.

-In another 6 months or so, buy a nearby multi-family home with an FHA mortgage. Move into that and rent out the newly fixed-up SFH.

-Live in the cruddiest unit while I do more live-in fixing up, rent out the other units ASAP. Suddenly, 3-4 doors cash flowing within a year.

This seems to make so much sense that I think there must be something obvious I'm missing. What are the downsides? What are the risks? What should I do to protect myself? Am I being stupid? (If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid, right?)

Yep, you can claim your real estate books as a business expense, no problem. In fact I just recorded a couple of book purchases as expenses for a client I do bookkeeping for, not five minutes ago.

@Andrew Bolton Very smart!