All Forum Posts by: Kristine Ann

I bought my first house with two loans, one for 80% and the other for 20%.  Unfortunately after the housing crash, lenders stopped doing those. 

I have a little different perspective on this and it comes more from selling in a down market, so it's not necessarily applicable.  When a family comes to see the home, the kids do spread out and explore. This especially happens if the house is a good fit for the family.  The realtors know to give buyers some space so a family can start to feel like the house could be their house and so they are more likely to buy it. Normally the realtor will walk through the house with the family first like they are exploring too.  But the realtor will give time for families to really dwell in the space and think about how their furniture will fit and how it will feel to live there.

I'm assuming that the buyers are preapproved and ready to put a deposit down otherwise the realtors wouldn't be wasting anyone's time, hopefully.  The kids shouldn't be jumping on the bed, that's unfortunate.  However, the end goal is to sell the house.  When I sold my house in a down market, I didn't care if the kids were playing with our toys and sitting on the beds as long as it sold the house.  If the kids don't get a good feeling from the house, they will talk their parents out of buying it. 

You kind of have to stop thinking of it as your home during a showing.  If this family felt so comfortable in the house, I would expect they'd make an offer.  And that's what you want, right?

Like I said, I don't have experience with this kind of deal at all.  30% interest is sweet for an investor.  I would wonder how would you would pay that back in 6 months.  You're planning on revenue of 10k per month starting immediately, on month one? 

I have never done this but I'm interested in hearing more about this from the money investor's perspective.

I may be wrong on this but isn't 10k interest on a 50k loan over 6 months equal out to 30% annual interest? So, you are basically trying to borrow 50k at 30% interest?  At that interest rate, is there a reason you wouldn't just put these expenses on a credit card or do credit card cash advance?  If you can't pay the 50k back at 30% interest, the money partners stays your 50% partner indefinitely? 

I'm curious if this is the standard practice for money partners.   Seems like a good deal for the money partner.  Might be a good deal for the hands-on investor, but might not be.  

I wouldn't get business cards. There's no benefit to having them.  

There is a benefit to setting up a simple webpage, facebook page, google business page, and/or small youtube channel. I would choose one of those and focus on that. 

Quote from @Ed O.:

I probably should have been more clear. It's been a few decades since I have had an account at BofA. 

@Kristine Ann

Is it a concern that my subs get paid - yes. When sub / general relationships are purely transactional, the quality of work and responsiveness crumble. I've worked with many subs over the years. When you genuinely care about your subs, they take much better care of the jobs and work. I've had it both ways and was lucky to have a successful GC teach me this. It's been a game changer.  

Bank of America had this man's money for a week - in their account. Yet even a week later, they refused to release funds without calling to verify funds. It's clear they're making a couple of dollars on the float while screwing their customers. 

I know you just needed to vent, but I can't help giving advice on this.  Maybe because I've kind of run into this issue with paying people in the past.  

If the vendor needs funds right away and can't wait for a check to clear, you might want to pay a couple dollars to get a cashier's check. Those clear very quickly.  

There is also zelle which instantaneously deposits the funds from your checking account to theirs through the bank.  You can also write smaller checks more frequently.  And there's always a credit card (if he has the problem with 3% fee then he can wait for his dumb check to clear!)

Bank of America doesn't charge us anything.  If you have enough money in accounts there, their checking is free, bill pay is free, and they reimburse for all ATM fees.  Also their credit cards are the best out there.

Yes, right.  Not a buyer. 

I'm only around in that area on some weekends, so I don't know if the trash getting taken out. That is something I was thinking of just calling the two garbage companies in the area to see if there's an active account for that address.  The grass isn't too overgrown, but we are just coming out of a harsh winter here and there are a lot of deer.

Coach Carson has an excellent video on self management this month on youtube.  I'd recommend you watch it.  He also talks about keeping your tenants happy so you have less vacancies and overall costs.  (I'd just add to his video the idea of having a plumbing company set up so that your tenants can call that company directly if they have a plumbing emergency.)

Don't compare yourself to your friends. First of all, STR are very intense and are not passive at all. The grass isn't always greener on the other side. Second of all, I always doubt blanket statements about profit or revenue. Unless you see someone's bank account statement and accounting software, I would consider it no more than gossip. Many people accidentally leave out a bunch of their expenses when they are bragging. It sounds like you have a handle on the accounting side enough to be nervous. Your friends might not fully grasp their financial situation at all.

Stash that entire $2k cash flow into your business savings until you have enough in reserve in your business to cover vacancies.  In 6 months you'll have 12k set aside for this worse case scenario you are worried about.

You are right to be skeptical.  When you say "deal" do you mean "cheap?"  Just because a house is cheap, doesn't make it a good deal. A good deal is snapped up quickly and won't be on the market for long, if at all.

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Kristine Ann:

I'm new to foreclosure auctions.  There's a property in the neighborhood I grew up in that I'm going to bid on. 

Read through the court documents online and it doesn't appear that the owner on title attended any hearings or tried to stop the foreclosure.  The proceedings went on for two years because the mortgage company couldn't show that the house was vacant but also couldn't prove that the notice was delivered/received by the prior owner.  It sounded like they suspected he was not living there but couldn't figure out where he was.   

As part of my research, I was thinking I'd call the utility companies to get some information.  Is it common place to call the utility companies to get information on electric, gas, water and garbage pick up? I'm curious to see if any of the utilities are on, how much is due, and when they were turned off.  Will the utility company give me this information or no because of privacy laws?

The utilities can't legally give you that information.

Drive by the property and see if the lights are on. Send a letter to the address and see if it gets returned. Plenty of ways to find out if a property is occupied. 

But being occupied doesn't make them the owner. There are faster ways.

Right, there could be a squatter.  I'm pretty sure its vacant.  I just want to get as much information as possible before I take on this potential headache. Sending a letter is good idea.  I will try that.

The lights haven't been on, but that doesn't necessarily mean the electricity is off. I remember getting information as a new buyer from the utilities in the past, but I was already under contract.  They gave me dates of shut off and dates the utilities changed name.  I was under contract but not the owner yet.  Wasn't sure if you could call as a potential buyer and get that same information.