All Forum Posts by: Orion Walker

Hi @Siddharth Shastrid, I haven't pursued doing anything with the foundation, and realistically I probably won't for quite a while if ever. The property cash flows well, so I'm not really focusing on resale value issues. It would be nice to increase my equity and ability to draw money out of the property, but for now I'm mostly focusing on general maintenance and repairs, and then preparing for things like a new exterior paint the in the next couple years. I've got plenty to do to tighten up the property before I'll worry about the foundation. The post and pier foundations are pretty common in this area, so I'm not even sure how much of an issue it may be in terms of valuation. I was told t would increase property value by about 15k. I have a neighbor that got a foundation done for $16k, but I've been told by other contractors that a more normal figure would be 30 - 70k. I have another property of similar size where the seller had to do foundation repairs before our loan would go through and they spent 25k just on repairing some sections (that was a top dollar contractor for our area, other folks thought it could have been done for $10k). 

As for needing to get city/engineer involved, I would think you would want to do it with all necessary permits if you are concerned at all with resale value. I think the contractors are right in that it would be a simpler/cheaper permit process because you aren't adding anything.

Hope that helps.

I found my way into 3 remodels at the same time. I'm nearing the finish line, but I could use some extra funds to get all three finished and rented. Hoping to hold and rent, but would do fine if I need to sell. Not sure if there are folks on here that bother with small loans. I'm hoping to borrow 10-20k.

Good credit, stable W2 job... See my profile and/or ping me with any questions.

Thanks

-Orion

Thanks for the helpful info on HELOCs @Ryan Murphy. I'll start shopping around. And I hadn't thought of the option of buying out a current loan with hard money. Probably not super practical, but good to know about as viable option. 

As to your question @Nazz Wang, I'd say 15k would pretty safely put me across the finish line on these. 

Thanks again for the input/feedback folks. Gotta love BPers.

Thanks for the great feedback folks. @Ryan Murphy and @Eric M., I've been thinking that if I can survive the renovations and get the properties rented (I'd like to hang onto the properties if I can, selling is less desirable back up option) then I would try to secure a HLOC to consolidate my debt, but I've been wondering about the debt to income being a problem. Sounds like it probably will be a problem. I imagine my ratio is pretty bad right now. I know on initial loans they go to about 44%, do you know if it is the same on HELOCs? 

So far I'm taking the risk of using credit cards with 0 interest options for 12 to 18 months figuring that if I can get through the remodels and stabilize things I'll then have some time to figure out best options for repaying. I also got a line of credit through Home Depot on pretty good terms. As @Andrew Syrios suggested I am also thinking about who I might turn to for a private loan, or cut someone in on a property. @Eric M., you mentioned hard money, is that an option in this situation? wouldn't any hard money be in second position? I've been assuming they don't do that.

My only other idea so far is to try one of those crowd lending sites (Prosper, SoFi, Lending Club...) I think my interest rate would be pretty high given my current DTI. Anyone have opinions on those?

Anyhow, thanks for the input. 

A couple folks have pinged me wondering what ever happened with this deal, @Andrew Kniffin, I got as far as a friend investor and I met with the the seller's main agent, and presented a letter of intent. Turned out they wanted quite a bit more down than we thought (800k-1m). I pretty much let it go at that point because I wasn't convinced it was a particularly great deal, and I wasn't feeling like I wanted to get into trying to raise a bunch of money for a deal like that. As far as I know the status on the property hasn't changed, but I haven't talked to the agent in a while, so I'm not sure.

I also got caught up in buying a couple SFR fixers and that diverted my attention away. It was a great learning experience. And a good mental exercise in expanding my concept of what's possible. I do want to buy a property like that in the future, and I feel confident that I'll be able to when the right deal surfaces.

interesting thread. Kind of hard to follow when folks keep mixing up Santa Rosa and Santa Clara :)  Karen and jay know their stuff, I'd tend to agree with their assessment. I did like the idea about contacting builders on nearby blocks though. That and asking lots of questions at the local building and planning sounded like good steps. Happy hunting for a better deal.

Earlier this year we bought two houses that needed major work. We purchased them with a Fannie Mae Homestyle loan, which is similar to an FHA 203k. I got a bit carried away on the rehab, going beyond the bank loan amount. I figured that would be okay as I could figure out how to make up the difference.

What I wasn't counting on was throwing in an offer on a big old expensive house in the nicest part of our town, getting my dad to jump in as a partner, and then actually closing on that place. 

So now I've got three remodel projects underway at the same time, and funds are running quite low. I can see the light at the end of the rehabs, and I'm confident we are still well under market value on the properties, and they will make great rentals, but I just have to figure out how to get from here to there. And I have to figure it out pretty quick so things don't grind to a halt. I've tapped about as much family support as I care to ask for, I've dipped into the zero interest for x months credit cards, I've looked under rocks...  

Any ideas/suggestions on what to do at this point? I've got good credit and a steady day job. I've got a property that I bought in 2012 with about 30% equity on current value. 

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

Thanks!

@Charles Soper, I should post some before and afters. Wish I could say we are done, but not quite yet. Contractor hasn't exactly been fast. But I like the loan a lot. process has been very smooth thus far. 

Hey @Kyle Rosseau, I'm surprised this post didn't pick up a few more responses. Anyhow, let me know if you want to chat. If we did want to connect and find some other folks I could reach out to some bay area contacts. 

cheers

Hi Kyle,

Your post caught my eye as I have been meaning to post basically the exact same thing for quite a while. I used to have a great mastermind group for general business goals. Since becoming obsessed with REI in the last year or so I've been thinking that I really should find/start an REI specific group to reinforce my efforts. If we were to form up together it would probably need to be via Skype/google hangout, but it would be nice that we could meet in person without too much trouble. I'm about 2 hours north of SF.

I was looking through some of your posts. What ended up happening with the 4plex in Oakland? 

I'm crazy busy right now with three houses in remodel plus day job, family, etc. but I have been meaning to do the group thing for a while. I know it will help me stay focused and continue my acceleration, so maybe now's the time.