All Forum Posts by: Hugh Ayles

It has already been mentioned but just issuing a W2 does not keep you from being viewed as self employed in the eyes of a lender.

I have an S Corp and am still treated as self employed.

Get 2 solid years of income behind you and loans get easier.

this reminds me of my first flip.

The house was 30 years old and had shrnkage cracks in the slab.  Those are no big deal.  However a home inspector wrote yhat he observed cracks.  That lead the buyer to call a foundation repair company.  They of course said the slab needed to be repaired.  I wanted blood.

I contacted a lawyer who is a buddy of mine.  He ironically used to rep the foundation company but dropped them as a client.

The point of this is he gave me some sage advice.

He asked me whst did I ultimately want to do. I wanted to sell the house.  It cost me a couple grand but I got it sold and still made a profit.

As long ss you come out OK, get that house sold.

@Austin Hughes

We all go through tough patches.  I really like the Rocky quote previously posted.

Another quote: How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  

List what you have to get done and focus on what you csn get done.  As you finish a task, check it off the list.

Hou'll get through this and be stronger for it.

@George P

Different municipalities have different permitting requirements.  Often if you are modifying a load bearing wall a permit may be required.  Check with your local permit office.

I understand doing the work yourself because of capital.

However if it is a few months before you can start the work, you will be accumulating carrying costs not to mention potential lost profits.  That might offset any savings you gain by doing the work yourself.

 You cannot and should not do this.  I say this as someone who made a successful living as an estimator.

What if after you get the property you found out there was mold?  What if there was a giant crack in the slab?  I could go on.

If you were unaware of any of these, you probably just lost money.

Also, square foot prices and suggested budgets are nothing more than sanity checks for a budget.  If my money or employment is on the line, I visit the property and put together a detailed estimate.  If I cannot do these two things, I pass on the property.  No exceptions.

Not only do yoy pay the interest each month but often you pay at least 1 point on the front end and more points when you pay off the loan.

You may also be responsible for closing costs.

@Bob H.

The Austin area HD's give the discount if you use an HD credit card.  Lately you do not have to ask for the discount.  

Generally banks ask what the money is going towards.  I would be very apprehensive to tell them the loan is for x when in reality it is for y.

I do not know the legalities, but I would assume they could call the loan if you used it for other than the intended purpose.

@Andrey Y.

Those are not new car prices.

I have an Aston/Lotus dealer as well as a Maserati/Spyker dealer just down the street from my office.  In another direction, I have Motoreum (they have a reality show on one of the channels).

I was surprised to find a '63 split window Corvette for around $40k at Motoreum.  You can find used Lotuses and Astons at the local dealership for numbers similar to what Mark has posted.