All Forum Posts by: Leo C.

We're getting this unit ready to lease,

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/apa/4938832801.htm...

Fairly certain it'll go between 1100-1200 to market tenants. It has newer kitchen, hardwood floors throughout, new paint and fixtures etc.

We're looking to test the waters for section 8, we've looked at gosection8.com for the area and pricing is all over the place. This particular area is stable part of Baltimore, mostly low income residents, but very popular for section8 landlords. 

Officially this is a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath townhouse, but it has an added room that qualifies as 4th bedroom, plus a finished basement. Realistically what range will the section 8 program in Baltimore City pay for this townhouse/rowhouse?

Plenty of space for bringing efficiency to banking to the benefit of everyone. The market is huge, payday loans and check cashing places makes a killing off the financially illiterate, 100-650% apr a year. Credit card companies can pull 20-40% apr regularly from wage slaving consumer over spenders.

If a platform can introduce 10% apr loans, plenty of room to grow.

Yes there's always the bank, just that they mostly lend to ppl who doesn't need loans.

Anyways, I don't understand why investors would do hard money with 20% apr equivalent after points when 10-12% apr is available via p2p loans.

I'd say best to keep it hush and run it under the radar, hope that the returns will outweight the risks and fines. Too many entrenched interests in major cities to count; tourism and hotel lobby will run any competitor out of town. Its a workable business model, just have to factor in all the issues into the model.

I was able to get a loan w/ penfed, and they counted my rental income w/o the two year rule. Apparently they were satisfied w/ leases, low ltv on collateral propert and good credit. They are reputed to be one of the pickier lenders though.

Baltmore county you can get mortgage financing if you have 2yr income on tax return. But in the county the pricing is generally 100-120x rent to acquire, maybe 8% net cap self managing. It can work fine for patient investors going for the long long term.

In the city for under 60k properties, its probably more hassle than its worth to jump through the hoops to get a mortgage, banks will have laundry list of stipulations and it might not compute after all the fees. Probably need access to cash to make acquisitions or great skils to get a dump and fix it it up.

After a rental is in place, a few banks still do equity loans on rentals if sufficient income or co-signer exist to get equity out of the rental; some require 2yr reporting of the rental income to count it, some don't.

I wouldn't get too riled up over it. The US population is on a steady growth path [immigration, impending legalization of 12mil already in the US].

People always need somewhere to live, more people getting in at the bottom allows the middle to trade up.

The student loan fiasco is a big problem though, makes it harder for young families to buy. On the upside, it keeps the rental market healthy.

Credit card companies are in the business of unsecured lending, by charging higher interest rates to offset losses, and using credit history to determine limits. They calculate their default risks into the return.

Its the same concept, invest $25 each in 100 diffferent people, expect 10% default, collect from the rest.

Latest development is that lending club is now cash-flowing positive. No harm in diversifying investments. Credit cards at 20%, banks generally not lending on unsecured consumer sector, a decent space exists for companies that broker online loans in that space.

This lending platform just needs to work on develpoing credibility and stability. Larry summers just join their board, the loan originations are doubling year to year. If it succeeds, it could become a banking sector with very little overhead, less expenses, lower unsecured rates, better return to investors. 10% is great when CDs are going at 1%.

Eliminate or moderate the bankruptcy risk with increased stability, then it will have better returns on average than all the major stock indexes and mutual funds. Most people don't want to work on investing. Real estate investors can get better 20% returns on their cash usually through inordinate number of hours that went into developing and overseeing the investment.

Anyways, if i were a flipper i'd take lendingclub or prosper loans anyday over hard money loans.

As already explained above, main venue to profitability from property management is probably if the PM manager or company also get into their own hold and rent investments.

Margin/spread is too thin to make much out of the 10%. Could be pretty easy cash if focus effectively on the higher end low hassle rentals (condo market with 1-2k rents). Maintenance etc. can carry some markup but can't scalp too much before pissing off the owners.

Get a cut on transactions via referral to brokers, or have an in-house buy/sell operation. Plenty of opportunity to build a real estate empire through property management by using it as a vehicle to acquire and expand intelligently.

PM'n for 5-800 rent with deadbeat tenants and nickel and dime owners is probably too much work, just turn those down and go upmarket.

Buying cheap at too good to be true prices usually means too good to be true. Real estate markets are carefully monitored by local investors in any market no matter how much of a dump the location may be.

Could be a cloudy title (contested ownership), astronomical tax liens, unpaid bills tied to the property, major deferred maintenance, or any number of crazy things going on.

Call a reputable company in the region and a full appraisal or two can be done for 2-400.