All Forum Posts by: Chris Masons

Hi George,

Basements by nature will generally always be more humid than above groud living spaces. It's just a matter of how much.

Dehumidifier will definitely help out and suck alot of the moisture out of the air.

chris

Hi James,

Seems lenders in general are requiring escrow, or charging a fee or 1/4 to 1/2 a point to waive it. My thought is if I can get it waived with no bump in rate/point or cost I do it. Otherwise I setup escrow and usually after a year of no late paymentst you can get it removed, although GMAC is requiring 2 years before they will remove it.

goodluck,
Chris

Don't make the same mistake many American's made who held for too long! sell now and cash out. You stand to make a nice profit and can roll that cash into something else and capitalize on the market thats hot or up and coming.

As Joel said sell at the peak, I wonder how many people would do things differently if they knew than what they know now??

SELLSELL SELL!!!

Chris

WOW, thats pretty amazing Will. Best of lock and hope you get it locked and closed!!!

Chris

4 investment properties with 20% not including primary.

regards,
Chris

Look at it this way. If your not managing your property, you are managing your PM or should be. NOBODY is going to take care of your property better than you will.

While managing a PM is in theory alot easier than managing a property and a bunch of tenants I prefer direct hands on approach just my style always has been. I guess when you get to a certain point maybe you should hand the reigns over to a PM but that point is different for everybody.

IF your just gettign started I would try to self manage first year and get your feet wet and see if this business is really for you and learn the ropes as there really is ALOT to learn when it comes to being a landlord. You need to know how to deal with all types of people and at the same time be knowledgable about household problems - or at least come across like you know LOL

regards,
Chris

Hi James,

Fo me I was able to have 4 total properties with 20% and when I bought my 5th and 6th I need 25% and actually 30% for my last deal.

But there is some debate if you have 4 investments and you buy a primary making it your 5th you may be able to get away with 20% b/c I believe they are looking at investment properties. Nto 100% sure though.

regards,
Chris

Hi Eric,

I just obtained my 6th Mtg. with wells Fargo. 1 primary and 5 investments. Not all with wells I should add.

There are stricter guidelines that need to be met. either 25 or 30% dp. cash reserves for 6 months on all financed properties needs to be shown. Credit score minimum of 740. No history of filing bankrupcy.

there may be a few more but I those are most of them.

good luck,
Chris

@ibrahim S Yes I remember those days too! The market has gotten so beaten down with all the shorts and foreclosures that SFH are becoming attractive again from an invester standpoint

I miseed out on a great solid all brick cape in Union that was an estate sale. Someone came along and offered cash and asking price. It was right in the section of union i ivest in. House needed nothing but a renter. Picture perfect home.

I am came up with an idea where if I can purchase a few SFH and get them rented to tenants who will rent for a few years then once they clean up their credit and or get back on their feet financially they can purchase the property from me outright or possibily via contract for deed deal at a pre agreed price (which would be hopefully roughtly 25k more then I am buying it for. In the meantime while renting I get + cashflow and a tenant who will takea care of the house b/c they will be purchasing it eventually.

What do you think of that business idea/plan? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts everyone....

One more thing I should add, in edition to paying the rent the tenants would pay me an additional ~200 a month which would go towards the agreed upon purchase price. If the tenant should decide they don't want to buy the property say a year in they would lose those funds they gave towards the down payment. I guess this very similar to a lease option.

regards,
Chris

James,

Why not have the Fiancee solely on the lease??