All Forum Posts by: Jean Bolger

Wait a minute- I remember you... So you talked the fiance into buying an investment property after all- sweet!
I would definitely get an inspection. David T makes some very good points above!
If there's no inspection and there is a problem that gets discovered later, then there could be be ill feeling between you and the F.I.L. and that would get super awkward. He may feel a bit miffed that you're not totally bowing to his opinion right now, but it will set you up in a stronger position for doing any business together in the future.

Or is "building equity" or "repositioning" just BS for flipping houses? ;)

It totally depends on the house, you just need to complement the siding/brick/whatever. The roofing guys can give you a sheet of samples on the colors of shingle they stock. If you don't feel you have an "eye" for it, ask someone who does. For a flip you probably want to stay pretty middle-of-the-road with browns and greys. Solid black, IMHO, is too heavy looking for most houses.

That said, I just did blue shingles on my own house (a 1950's blond brick ranch) and it just makes me happy every time I look at it. (The roof guy had never used the blue before and tried to talk me out of it, but in the end he liked it too.) Of course, I'm not planning to sell any time soon so I could indulge my quirky tastes.

Are those properties in the Denver area? I just tell them to call Xcel Energy and give the address. There's never been a problem getting the info. (I prefer to have the prospective tenants do the call themselves, so I don't get "but you said the gas was only $xx/mo..." later on!)

The assumption here is that these cash sales are investors or hedge funds snapping up properties, and while I'm sure that is true in the majority of cases not ALL of those sales were to investors.

I think the lack of lending (and the general distrust of the lending industry) combined with lower prices is getting more people to just pay cash for their house.

That's what I did, in 2010- I sold a bigger house in a nicer part of town, took the proceeds and got a HUD fixer for cash. There was no way I was going to qualify for any kind of mortgage at that point, so I just shopped within my cash budget.

My best friend is closing on a house next week, paying cash: part savings, part proceeds from the sale of his current place. He could get a mortgage, but he doesn't want one.

And we are not folks with a lot of money lying around; we are both full time musicians, and usually make less in a year than a lot of folks would pay for a car. So if we're doing it, it wouldn't surprise me that people with higher incomes were doing it.

I would still guess that owner occupied cash buys are a pretty small subset of these sales, but is there any data on that?

You're awesome, Deborah. I love reading your "warts and all" postings about your adventures. You're obviously a very savvy business person and it's great to get the whole story (entertainingly told, I might add) rather than a polished up version of "woo-hoo, look at this cash-on cash return!"

Ha! I have made the exact same mistake as Dawn on the first SurveyMonkey survey I did. It drove me mad, I thought I couldn't get it to work at all. I think their system is very counter-intuitive.... but they've probably tested it with a survey, right ;)

or just pay him when you get the bill... = 0% interest. You weren't planning on waiting a year to pay after the work was done were you?
He's probably just tired of waiting for deadbeat investors to pay up.

@Mark S.
well, I don't know your market, obviously, and it may well be that these are a good buy for you- ultimately it's what works for you. You are absolutely right to be thinking about low maintenance buildings, but I don't think you shouldn't have to overpay to get that

I'd also consider what you said about there being several of these close together. What happens to the desirability of your units if these other landlords hit tough times (or just don't care as much as you do) and start letting these properties slide?
I am shopping for multis right now, and one thing that I am trying to avoid is areas with a lot of the same duplex/fourplex/whatever all in a row. The reason above is part of it, best scenario for a duplex (IMO) is in an area of mostly SFRs. Also, if all the units in the immediate area are the same, and general vacancy goes up, the main thing you can compete on is price, and if you don't have room to come down you're in trouble.

just a few more ideas to put in the hopper....

"obsessed with" is your first clue... If you are buying a building because you love it, or love the idea of owning it, it should be the place you are going to live. If you are buying a building as an investment, it all comes back to the numbers. I think you may be trying to make these numbers something that they are not.