All Forum Posts by: Jean Bolger

I know nothing about this subject.
But I bet if you could work "Not Legal In Tennessee!" into your marketing somehow you'd get attention :)

That's nice landscaping out front already. I would lose the awnings; those metal awnings always look incredibly dated, and unless you are in the south where there's fierce sun, they make it dark inside.
Then maybe paint the front door to match the shutters?
Both those things would add to the aesthetic appeal of the place. But, do you need more aesthetic appeal to get it rented? probably depends on your local vacancy rate more than anything else

A very successful real estate developer I know talks about identifying "barbell" areas. That would be an area, or a corridor, between two areas that have already gentrified. I experienced the benefit of that with my first property (by luck, not on purpose!) when I bought in a dodgy area of town that was between two fashionable areas. Now it's almost the priciest part of town. (I sold up, took the money and moved on to another dodgy area, haha!)

The low score is probably due to youth- meaning that in the eyes of the credit bureaus you haven't been at it long enough at nineteen to show if you're going to screw up! And frankly, the banks won't make those little loans to anyone, there's just not enough in it for them. That FHA owner occupied multi is a great idea for a way to start. Having mortgage debt can actually help bring your score up, where as consumer debt won't. So see what you can qualify for w/ FHA and look in that price range- it's possible you might end up with a much better property for less initial outlay. Good luck!

Actually, painted floors are actually kind of a "thing" now in interior decorating. Just Google 'painted floor' and go to Images- there's a bunch of pictures, some very elaborate (probably a little more elaborate than what Dave has in mind, haha!)

Here's an article listing some (19 listed here) of the lawsuits B of A has settled recently. This was from last year, I think there's been a few more big ones since.
http://thefinancialbrand.com/22274/ethical-issues-lawsuits-plague-bank-of-america/
A quote from the article:
"Looking at BofA’s track record in court, it seems BofA has a history of abusing all its key constituencies. At some point or another over the last 10 years, BofA has been accused of sticking it to their customers, their shareholders, investors, the government and even their own employees."
Personally, I was incredibly relieved to get my own mortgage away from them.

Tax photoshopping! I'm sure it's happened. Although much more likely they'd fake a return that made it look like the property was more profitable rather than less.

As a wise man once told me: "Figures don't lie, but liars figure."

Steve and Matt, I don't think I actually need to get transcripts, but I am confused. The 4506 -T does require the SS# and signature of the person whose return it is (as you'd expect- I certainly wouldn't want just anyone being able to request a copy of my tax return without my consent...). So you'd have to be asking the seller to fill out the request anyway, right? I'm just not seeing how this would help...

I do have the Schedule E's for both 2011 and 2012, the ratios are substantially the same. So at least it's consistent!

Thanks all! These numbers are about the same (pretty much) for the past two years. My agent is inquiring about getting some more details. I did check with the utility co this morning and there's definitely some "inflation" there.
I like Kurt K's suggestion... these numbers would support a price of about 50% of what they're asking.
ah well, I'll just have to see what they come up with. The place has been on the market for a while; it may just be the case of a seller who doesn't see the conflict in saying "My place doesn't make any money, but it's worth a hell of a lot"