All Forum Posts by: Jason G.

@Jason G. curious if there is a reason you are not creating an LLC to buy your remote investments or I got that wrong? Does it not put your personal assets at risk if one of your tenants sues you?

@Jason G. thank you so much! The Canton one must be a bit disappointing for you, but hopefully it will smooth out now that you got a new tenant in. I'm going to have to go over this thread again and reread everything you wrote about the Canton property.

The other two are really solid, and it's very encouraging to see those numbers. Thank you for being so transparent and open!

@Jason G. Thank you for this! It's awesome!

Based on what I've been able to follow, it seems like you've had to renew or lease up 5 of the 6 units. Were you able to increase rents? Can you provide some detail on this? Like, how were Roofstock's "market" rent numbers as compared to the in place tenants and to what you actually got at market?

Would you also be willing to give some more detail on the types of returns your getting? Both in terms of net cashflow after all expenses and reserves, and on the cash you've had to invest?

Thanks again and best of luck moving forward!

@Jason G. Thank you for this! It's awesome!

Based on what I've been able to follow, it seems like you've had to renew or lease up 5 of the 6 units. Were you able to increase rents? Can you provide some detail on this? Like, how were Roofstock's "market" rent numbers as compared to the in place tenants and to what you actually got at market?

Would you also be willing to give some more detail on the types of returns your getting? Both in terms of net cashflow after all expenses and reserves, and on the cash you've had to invest?

Thanks again and best of luck moving forward!

Hello all,

I'm currently looking at making an offer on a duplex in Lithonia, GA. Which is about 20 minutes outside of downtown Atlanta. However, before I jump the gun and have to end up scrabbling to find a bank, mortgage company or broker that will work with me as an investor. I thought I'd ask you all if anyone investing in or around Atlanta might have some good recommendations for lenders they've worked with in the past. As I'm currently an active duty service member in the Air Force, I was considering using a VA Loan and was also wondering if anyone knew of any lenders in the area that offered VA Rehab loans. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you all soon.

All the best,

Anthony

Since there are few threads requesting for roofstock experience, decided to share my not-so-good experience with them. 

Disclaimer: I might still work with them in the future, but definitely will not be my first or second choice to pick properties from them. 

First Property

I did some research on few properties and finally found a one in Minnesota (IIRC). The numbers looked good and roofstock had all the valuation reports and everything else marked as green. What could go wrong, right? But thankfully, I went through every line in the property inspection report and noticed that under "Basement has water damage" marked as Yes. I was happy, since I found it, and furious at the same time. How could they mark all green for a property with basement water damage. 

Second Property

I thought this was a one time mistake and then worked with one of their agents to identify another property in Indianapolis. Again, the numbers looked good and I submitted an offer. It got accepted and from that moment on, Roofstock assigned me an agent who was very responsive and dynamic (kudos to that). I carefully looked at the property inspection report and the images and every line item looked good and marked green. 

I then engaged my lender and they sent someone to do an inspection/valuation. This is where things started to go south. The property assessor was obviously a tough guy and had highlighted every little thing as a disaster. But ... he found cracks on the wall (with images), broken windows, fences, structural issues in the kitchen which raised lender's and my eyebrows. How did Roofstock missed these? We then contacted Roofstock and their managers apparently had said they standby with *their* property inspection report. How can they standby on their report when the pictures were showing otherwise. I had a bit of rough time convincing them and finally decided to give up. 

I did more research and found out that Roofstock bought this property for way less, spent few thousand $$ to renovate it and had added about 50-60% markup on the price. This was also obvious when the lender's property assessment came in low. 

Summary

I had two consecutive bad experiences with them. One of the key traits I rely on REI is trust and they lost it with me by not only putting false information on their website and valuation report AND standing by those erroneous reports. How can I trust them going forward especially when I'm buying a remote property without being able to rely on the provided reports.

Hence, I decided to not to work with them at least for sometime because I don't want to spend a lot of time going through each and every item myself and not relying on the info they are providing. 

This could be a one time thing for me but I warn everyone of you to spent extra time verifying the information they are providing and not solely rely on the numbers. 

Roofstock still provides a very good property buying experience - no question on that. But they need to spend more time on making their reports on properties more realistic and build trust with the buyers. 

Hope this helps someone. 

BP - so I have 15 SFR's and planning on buying 10 more. I am tapped out on FNMA so I secure a commercial lender out in CA (I'm in TX) with a 7% 5/1 ARM. I have tried lending one and they were about the same.

Any good solutions out there for 30yr money fixed with no impounds?

@Jason G. Yes, I have GL coverage for this rehab project. I have forwarded a copy of the lawyer's letter to my insurance agent to see how they want to handle it. So frustrating...I'm very confident this is a bogus claim!

My GC also has a GL policy to which my LLC for this property is named as an additional insured. The claim is that a piece of wood fell and hit the claimant on the head. I'm 99% sure that my GC wasn't onsite or working with any subs on the day in question...is my insurance carrier going to try and file this with my GC's coverage because the claim is that part of the building was left unsecured?

If the insurance company decides to settle, do you have a sense for what impact it might have to my future Builder's Risk/GL policies? I assume I'm going to end up paying significantly higher premiums for the next couple of years. Does the answer change if the insurance company fights the claim and wins?

Thanks all for the advice. I'm definitely not communicating with their lawyer. It seems like my insurance agent is out of town, but I've sent him a copy of the letter. I also know an injury lawyer in my state, so I'm trying to reach out to him as well.

Any investors and/or contractors have suggestions or knowledge on how to approach a home with a septic tank. 

Stay away, factor in extra maintenance costs, or no biggie?