All Forum Posts by: Michael Miller

@Jerry Padilla, it seemed that this loan may be too small for conventional finance.  Also, as I'm only getting back into investing, my credit history is without proven track record.

I just came upon a small, but conveniently located (5-minutes walk to a uni campus with a 25,000 student body and 10-minute walk to a fairly lively downtown, 80k population Michigan city), 3 bedroom home which had solid rental history until the house was condemned.

It was condemned due to being at the bottom of a hill, where the retaining wall gave way.  While the retaining wall isn't hindering the home now, it could, so the city condemned the house until it is fixed; at least, this is the story from the agent.

Comps in the area price this home at 35-60k. However, it is going for $15,600 on the MLS, and I have two price quotes for the retaining wall repair averaging 5k, bringing the final cost with closing costs at around 23k. Rent is likely 800 every month once ready.

Do ya'll consider this a good fit for hard money lending?  Any other thoughts?

I appreciate your time.

-mc

@Dawn Brenengen , is the ratio of property price to rents the major reason why cash flow is slight in Raleigh?  Here in Michigan it is fairly easy to exceed the 'one-percent' or even the 'two-percent' rule.

I'm curious if you're aware of whether this is also true for Durham.

@Trevor Ewen

Thank you for the welcoming and encouraging words.

At the age of 18 (2005), after working hard during my mid-teenage years and saving well, I bought my first property in cash.  That is when my first real estate blunder occurred; despite that I bought it with cash directly from the city, they neglected to inform me that via zoning laws I could not turn that old firehouse into a residential home or retail space.  Then months later I leveraged another.  With this home, I fixed it up well and had tenants in one side, me in the other.  They paid for my mortgage, and this relative success made me forget about how aggravated I was about my first purchase.  Two years later, I was closing on my third in late 2008 when everything was obviously hitting the proverbial fan.

To make this long story as concise as possible, I saw my property value sink, tenants became hard to find, thus ultimately I took the potentially bad advice from my attorney friends and filed bankruptcy.  I learned the hard lesson that confidence and passion are not the only essential ingredients in the making of a successful business.  I needed more education and direction.

After some years away from real estate, I found that I never lost the passion.  It was always in my mind.  I kept telling myself that after I'm older, more successful in some other industry, I could buy some property.  However, as the time passed and I educated myself more, I realized that real estate investment and management is the right career path for me.

Now I am aiming to get back into the industry through property management as I find that to be a quite interesting profession, for which quality firms are allegedly difficult to find (I say this through my own experience and through reading BP and listening to the podcasts).  I haven't been successful yet in finding a firm to work with for the next few years, but I am continuing my search in a few principle markets, especially NC's 'research triangle'.

Thank you all for keeping this community going.  I've already reaped much reward and I look forward to future correspondence with you.

-mc