All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Joe Melendez Yes. It is called "Subject To." It needs to be done properly and I do these all the time. Check with your local escrow company.

@Kelsey Marshall I've been to Philly, in fact I was stuck at the airport in a blizzard one year. ;-)

Always start with owner financing. Save the bank for projects you love that you can't find owner financing for. I would use Subject To if there is current financing and Owner Carry if it is free and clear. Suggest his tax bite is less, if he does owner financing because things are spread out over time. Keep in mind that numbers can be "fudged". Ask for documents for each of the rent rolls, utilities, etc. Don't go with a Proforma. I can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge and convince you it would be profitable by Proforma.

Congrats on finding a project you like and are moving forward on.

@Mike Higgins There are quite a few unanswered questions involved in that. If she wants to sell real estate, well then "sure". If she wants to make real money in real estate investing, then "no". After she gets her license, it could be 6 months before she gets her first check which is split 4 ways. A house selling for $200,000 has a plausible commission of 6% so $12,000 commission. She and the other agent split that so they both get $6,000 - that gets split with her broker so she gets $3,000. (This is Generally the split - there are other comp plans but this one is fairly typical). I am not an agent for those reasons among others. And you can get access to the MLS without becoming an agent yourself. Sounds to me like she simply doesn't like her current job. That's where to focus. What if she did the staging or the "bird dogging" for properties, or some such thing? Becoming an agent means competing with tens of thousands of other wannabe agents (the people who get their licenses but never sell anything). Is she competitive? The really Good Agents work nights and weekends and take time to build their clientele, and Always pick up the phone when it rings.

@Simon Stahl I hope you haven't bought it yet. Of all the ways to get involved in a Real Estate, a project like you are talking about is by far the worst. Well, actually the meth house that caught fire was worse but I didn't buy that one. I've done two like you describe. Cost waaaay more than it should have, and took waaaay longer than it should have and buyers never appreciate the trouble. If you like misery, just buy yourself a rock quarry and a sledge hammer. It's cheaper and more therapeutic.

 Unfortunately that method is probably going to bite back if interest rates ever go up again. Banks will sort for any loans owned by "trusts" and check to see if the original owner is still on title. They will want to call in all low interest loans so they can lend out at a higher rate. Also, if the original seller misrepresents information on a loan ( a federal form is used because the loan probably is eventually to be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac backed by the US Government, it could cause a legal problem for the seller they don't want to tangle with. Just be honest and most lenders will accept the regular payment of the mortgage as an offset to their debt to income ratio. 

@Rivy S. We bit the bullet when we started having kids. My wife quit her job, stayed home and we bought our first house, a fixer in a nice neighborhood. It put a lot of pressure on me to provide. We gave up some things but we got sooo much more. My motto at the time was "Honey, we don't want to raise the kids Twice." That is, once while they are young and the other when they are grown up and in therapy for the rest of their lives. These days it would be in the basement in their shorts playing computer games at 30 with no jobs. Don't get me wrong, my wife had a fantastic career that she loved and is highly educated. But, kids need their parents around. Most pregnancies for teenage girls happen between 1:00pm and 5:00pm. Now why do you think that is? (Oh yeah, parents are at work.) Our kids turned out great (according to the neighbors) and are very successful now each in their own right. We've been married 38 years and it is because we understood the priorities. When I was in the corporate world, I couldn't be there. But when I switched and because of the flexibility of real estate I was able to "be there" for all of the important events. We are "tight" as a family as a result.

@Jay Dean I buy and sell in Texas and my real estate attorney said I should not use lease options. They are heavily regulated and are limited to 179 days if I recall correctly. This one takes a Texas real estate attorney to answer.

 Hi Crystal, you make my point for me. Most Investors entirely miss the big picture and suffer large losses when things change. By making investments only at the micro level, long term investments suffer. Then people act surprised that they are caught "unaware". The last real estate crash was predictable, as is the next one. (Not necessarily the year, but the certainty.) By knowing the economic health of the states we invest in, we can mitigate our exposure when the market tanks the next time. If one's investment strategy spans 5 years or more, one needs to understand the fundamentals and that means asking "what is going on around us" world wide and nationally. 

@Ron Biggs I do this on a ongoing basis. I use a Mortgage Broker instead of a bank since the Mortgage Broker has access to hundreds of lending products and are easier to work with. Search the interwebs for "Mortgage Brokers Richmond VA" and start calling. Also, the Veterans Admin has some great programs for Vets. Zero down.

@Wes Short Perhaps if you rephrase your question it would direct you to your destination. Ask "How do I find someone who has only 2 or 3 houses under his belt". Someone that has that number of Fix & Flips or Buy & Holds or Subject To's is still learning himself and is likely to be able to use your enthusiasm, hard work and time.