All Forum Posts by: Mindy Jensen

@Travis Mathews, welcome to BiggerPockets. If you are looking for real estate investment advice, you have come to the right place.

FICO scores range from 300 - 850, although it is extremely difficult to get to the far end on either side. I'll be honest, a 500 score isn't all that awesome. You should get a copy of your credit report and see if there is any false or inaccurate information. You are entitled to one free copy of your credit report every year. Skip the sites that advertise. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com, which is the one set up by the three big credit reporting agencies to provide you with a credit report as required by law.

You say you are careful to not exceed 30% of your credit. Do you pay your credit card bills off every month? If you do, consider carrying a small balance for a month or two. I don't know why, but carrying a small balance can help you increase your credit score. 

Are you paying your bills on time every month? Late payments can have a big effect on your score as well.

One way to get into real estate investing is to house hack. Buy a multi-unit building (and if you buy 4 or less units you can qualify for an FHA loan) live in one of the units while renting out the other(s).

I would absolutely concentrate on raising your credit score, while trying to figure out where you want to invest. I don't think you are going to be able to get a loan with a score like that, although I could be mistaken. The good thing is that if you don't have a lot of negatives on your credit score, you could bring it up quickly. Good luck!

@Kyle Hipp, @Curtis Bidwell, @Marcia Maynard, thank you all so much for the information. I know this will help her make a better, more informed decision.

@Bill S., thanks for all that information. I will absolutely share this with her. What you say about old local drainage makes me wonder.

Congratulations @Brie Schmidt! What part of Chicago are you in?

@Tariq B. thanks for this description. I am going to copy/paste this into an email for her. Or better yet, I will point her to this site!

@Steve Babiak, thanks for the cost estimates. No walkout. The windows don't have any water issues. 

@Michael R., this is exactly what I told her to do. For the exact same reason. If 9 people give you 9 different answers, maybe none of them is correct. But if 9 people give you the same answer, you probably have the solution...

Thanks, @Steve Babiak. In the property where you had it done inside, did you ever have a leak after it was installed? The stress is really eating at them, and the first guy came out, described it as you did, and said it was guaranteed to never get water in their basement again. 

Can I ask you what you paid for it? I had a quote for my own basement several houses ago, and it was similar in size to theirs, and the quote was also similar. I don't feel they are being ripped off, but I just want to make sure they are going with the right guy.

Thanks so much!

This is the only house having this level of problems. The water is coming in so fast they can't keep up with removing it - they have 4 15-gallon shopvacs running nonstop. It seems like it is coming in from the floor. We have a drainage ditch running behind our houses that, according to two separate city employees is either not in use anymore, or still in use. So that isn't helpful at all. 

It just isn't stopping, and we did get a ton of rain, but the amount of water they have dumped doesn't seem to be connected. The quote they got was for $15,000 to install the drainage system in the basement, which would be guaranteed to not ever get water again. But I want to make sure they are doing the right thing before they drop that kind of cash.

I should have been more specific. They had water in the basement about 5 times over the last 2 years. They initially thought it was from a backed up sump, because the people who installed the fence hit the sump exit pipe and filled it with cement. They removed the drywall in the basement, because of course it is finished, and there are no cracks in the foundation walls or floor. Water just seeps up from the floor. On Friday, they could barely keep up with all the water coming in, and they had 4 shop vacs.

They don't know how it is coming in. The grading isn't bad along the house. The water table is really high right now. She isn't very DIY, and is about at her limit with frustration. 

All the downspouts are routed away from the house about 12 feet. They are the only house on the street with this amount of water. All the other houses with water issues can be explained by poor grading.

My neighbor's basement is flooding after some pretty heavy rain over the past week. They have called a basement guy out, who would solve the problem by jackhammering up the cement floor in the basement, digging a trench and installing a French Drain that goes into a sump. Has anyone done this before? Did you have success? Do you know the benefits of interior vs. exterior french drains?

Thanks so much.