All Forum Posts by: John Suralik

I had a meeting with a loan officer from a small local bank. They do portfolio lending and I was sharing my past projects and my future plans. He calculated my debt coverage ratio for one of deal I'm looking at and he calculated it at 1.43. I gave him a detailed spreadsheet on the deal, which included a 12% cost line for property management. My question is should I include property management costs in my expenses for the bank because it is included in my NOI, or omit the costs for the debt coverage ratio? I'm reading Frank Gallinelli's 36 Key Financial Measures and he doesn't state PM expenses as costs in the chapter on DCR and I notice that a lot of deal analysis spreadsheets don't include PM expenses when making specific calculations. In the end, I just want to make sure that I'm using the correct numbers in my calculations when I'm talking to bankers, or comparing deals with other investors.

@Rick H.

Thanks for posting. I always get a lot our of the information you pass on here. 

I've found two properties that I'm really interested in and both have 100% equity. One is an abandoned brick rancher (ARV 200k) and the other, more exciting property, is a 5500 sq ft commercial building close to down town. I have not been able to make a break through with either property making contact with the owner. I've sent multiple letters to the address on the tax cards and have tried calling phone numbers (bad phone numbers) from online searches.

1. How do you determine owner of record by using record title?  

2. And how/who do you go to do title research to learn if the owner is deceased? 

3. How do you find out who are the heirs?

I greatly appreciate any insights you have.  

@Jay Hinrichs Thanks for sharing that. Smart move. I love hearing how people use their noggins when it comes to log'n!  Ok that was bad. But it's inspiring.  

@Kris Haskins and @Jay Hinrichs

I never heard of that before it's like "owner financing meets derivative contract!" I'm pretty sure that is going to be the headline in the papers after the next housing crisis.  

@Jay Hinrichs I Smiled. Good stuff. I could be wrong, but I don't think my market is saturated with mailings. I  don't  think there is a lot competition in Eastern NC at least not compared to areas like a DFW area. I definitely like the honesty approach; The money is not worth being someone else. 

@Kris Haskins What kind of financing did you use to buy the brick rancher 3/2? (I love those. Little outdoor maintenance, and they hold up so well.)

@Jay Hinrichs What are some recommendations that you would make to improve the his mailing campaign? Glossy color post cards? More professional looking? What would you do to make it stand out. Just curious because I'm wanting to start mailing campaign in the near future. 

I'm a part time investor and bought house number three in June and I've been working towards creating a solid financial picture for banks to get traditional financing for a fourth buy and hold deal: paying down debt, saving six months reserves, filing taxes to show rental income to lower DTI, and rehabbing (Higher HELOC appraisal) It's been pretty quiet on my real estate front and I've been wondering if I should be more active trying to acquire house four through creative financing, or mailing yellow letters? Am being patient or lazy? What was your experience?

@Ned Carey Do you know of any BP blogs, books, or resources that provide sample yellow letters? Or best practices? I did a search on the site, but really haven't found what I'm looking for. 

@Bob Ebaugh I like the idea of shooting high and seeing what price point meets resistance and posting on Zillow/ Trulia over Craigslist. I think I've been leaving money on table too, because I've been signing leases in a few days for years. Up to this point, I've been valuing finding a quick, dependable tenant over getting the best return, but I think I'm hurting myself. I can afford to have a month of vacancy to test my hypothesis at this point.