All Forum Posts by: Kel S

This video seems appropriate if we don't see things turn around soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSQozWP-rM&feature=player_embedded

Here are pictures of our 3/1 that is almost done and ready to rent. Hopefully, this will will work. I think it's really looking nice.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=268283&id=612887141&l=d145b3be2c

Kelle

Don't underestimate your time frame for rehabbing. Also don't try and do a entire rehab by yourself. Unless you are really efficient and can whip right through it.

We learned this the hard way because while hubby knows a thing or two as he's learned rehabbing skills along the way, it's slower going for him and somethings that might appear minor can end up burning up 1/2 day. We ended up losing 8 months of potential rental income. The cost was around around $2,400 in mortgage payments.

If there is a silver lining though it would be; if we had hired to have kitchen/bath gutted and remodeled it would of cost around $5-$7k or more according the estimates we received. But the bigger issue is the time lost, evenings and weekends that hubby could of spent at home.

We currently have Three 2/1 houses, One 3/1 and our most recent is a 3/2. The 3/1 bath is a overall smaller house (right around 980 sq ft) so not concerned with the heat bill as I don't think that will be an issue for tenants. However, our most recent 3/2 is 1,600 square feet. I am a bit concerned about it being quite a bit bigger as far as utility costs for a tenant. Plus, of course with that much more room we are bound to get a larger family. Not that I have a problem with that as I don't but I know children can be hard on houses (my own children have been hard on ours!). So will be interesting to see how this goes.

My husband and I were actually talking about this very topic the other night and he and I both agree we don't mind the 2/1 homes at all. They are smaller, lower maintenance and the tenants we have in ours now are either single women (w/teenage son) or a couple with no children. My husband had to go over to each of these homes for some small fix and he says all 3 houses are very very clean. That in itself couldn't make me happier :D

So yeah, I have no problems with 2/1 in nice neighborhoods.

I should clarify that in those 8 months we had a number of interruptions where my husband couldn't work on the house including funerals, a tenant moved and had a ton of cleaning on a different house but got that one cleaned and re-rented in about 6 wks, vacation, etc.,) plus he could only work on it during evenings after 7pm and weekends. That house needed a total remodel of the kitchen, bath, paint throughout, railings, flooring, windows, trim, etc.,

Unfortunately, I couldn't be of much help because I have young children. One thing we learned though is to not try and take on a house that needs THAT much work.

Mike,

This house is 3/2 bath and 1600 sq ft. Price 24k. Work: new carpet throughout, paint and basically some small stuff. Fortunately nothing major that we know of. Furnace and water heater look newer. Unless the inspector finds something. We expect rent to be $850/month. No mortgage as we paid cash. But taxes/insurance will run about $150/month I believe.

Jeffrey,

Yes, that has been a issue. ie; taking a long time to rehab this last house. 8 months worth! So expensive (loss of rent) learned. He's going to hire out going forward and it just is too much work and time for him alone to handle. The house looks wonderful but just took too long. I'll post pics when I go over to take some for the Craiglist rental ad.

I'll take some pictures when I can. The bank accepted our offer and we are just waiting for closing.

Not interested in Apts and the main reason why is re-sell. If we ever wanted to re-sell I believe single family would be easier and more profitable. With Apts, the only buyers would of course be other investors (:

Yes, we've given a lot of thought to offering a owner-contract to prospective tenants and that has been mentioned to a few, though no takers yet. It's not something we've really pushed heavily though as we kind of like the idea of the re-occuring income that rentals produce and I think we'll really appreciate that income once we reach retirement age and all of the houses are paid off.

Kel

It's been awhile (life, busy, etc.,) but wanted to pop in and see how all the fellow investors are doing.

We received notice that the bank accepted our offer on what will be our 5th single family house (foreclosure). What is suprising about this one is it's the largest 3bed/2bath, 2 car garage, big fenced backyard) in a great neighborhood and it's thus far the cheapest of all of them. It also needs minimal work to get rent ready. Blows my mind sometimes.

3 out of 4 of our houses are rented on 1 year leases. The 4th we are finishing up since purchasing it. It needed new kitchen/bath/flooring, etc., and since it's just hubby working on it, it's taken longer than we hoped. But that one will be ready in a couple weeks.

What suprises me is that some of these houses that are priced so low, people could buy and pay such a low mortgage payment! But I suppose they are renting for a reason and perhaps they can't qualify due to credit or other reasons.

After this 5th one our goal over the next 1-2 years is to get a total of 10 rentals. We chose that number for the immediate future just based on what my husband can handle as far as maintenance, etc., as he works full time as well. Then we'll see how we are doing with them and re-evaluate and perhaps buy more.

Kel

Here we've seen a slow down in the # of REO's being listed. We keep waiting for the next "wave" of them to come on the market but so far it's been 1 here, 1 there so the choices have been pretty slim the last few months.

One thing my realtor mentioned is she expects a considerable slow down in those buying homes due to the $8k tax credit ending a couple days ago. I wonder if the Feds will extend that yet again.

I also think in our area if something decent comes on the REO market and the price is lower this is why we are seeing the feeding frenzy with multiple offers. I think it's other investors trying to pick up whatever they can for rentals. As they too are likely noticing there is a significant slow down on the REO's listed.

If for nothing else the tactic wastes my time. But yes, they can do whatever they want. I see why though some investors don't waste their time on the bank owned. I see a number of them seeking other avenues such as advertising that they buy houses, etc., and let the sellers come to them. Probably a lot less time wasted that way.