All Forum Posts by: Brant Richardson

Great advice by Riley F.

Definitely in agreement with Jerry W. about schools as well. Good schools is one of my main criteria in investing out of state. The overall plan is to have a very attractive property for a nice family to move in to and stay for a looooong time. A 3/2 with a 2 car garage in a quiet neighborhood with good schools is perfect.

Turnovers are a profit killer when you work with a property manager. You may have many months of vacancy, there is the repairs needed and property managers generally charge all or most of the months rent to place a new tenant. I see avoiding vacancy as one of the absolute highest priorities and buying in nicer areas of town that doesn't have as high of a rent to purchase ratio is unfortunately necessary. I'm talking about C+/B- areas, not A's and definitely not D's. Hopefully the income becomes equal with less headaches and more chance of appreciation than the D.s.

Books are still an excellent resource in my opinion. The podcasts here on BP are even better. The podcasts also recommend books. The link below has 12 of the most recommended books on the podcasts but half of them are business books that are not necessarily real estate related. I recommend number 9 as an excellent big picture book for real estate success.

www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/10/14/real-estate-books/

This is just the kind of story that has scared me away from going the Turnkey route. What do you think about the neighborhood the duplexes are in? Is it living up to what you were led to believe?

You might be a real estate investor when you consider a completely normal way to buy a house is to pay all cash for it, then use a bunch more cash to fix it up so that in 6 months you can refinance and own the house with 100% of your cash back in your bank account where it belongs.

Don't settle for 1%. 1.5% in Indianapolis should not be difficult. You will probably do better with two units in the 50-70k range rather than one for 100-150k.

There's no reason you should have to put down more than 20% either.

Does the downstairs actually feel cold to you? Maybe get a reading on the maximum temperature if possible. It sounds like the only error you made was in not getting an electric heater while the main heater was down. Start collecting documentation from all the repair companies to prove your side of the story.

I had a run of bad luck like that once. Sewage coming up the shower drain and all kinds of stuff. Luckily the tenant was very understanding.

The lender I have recently spoken with will lend 75% of the purchase price for the first 6 months.

After 6 months they will give 75% of the new appraisal value. This can be done with up to 5 loans in your portfolio.

On loan number 6 it is a deferred refinance rather than a cash out refinance. At this point the maximum they will loan is the full purchase price or 75% of the appraised value, whichever is less. There is still a 6 month seasoning period which is imposed by the bank, Fannie Mae does not require seasoning for this type of loan.

One or the other, refund rent or pay for alternate housing. I would pay for food losses too.

Good luck, hope you grab that one. Looks like you could keep making offers all the way up to the asking price and still have a good deal.

Are you actually going to these properties to check them out and then making an offer? Or are you telling your agent you want to make an offer and they tell you it is already pending? As David Niles said many websites are not updated, Zillow could take months.