All Forum Posts by: Randy E.

@Dawn Anastasi

I'm loving your diary of a SRPR.  Keep up the posts.

I wouldn't mind doing such a diary, but I'm in the middle of a SRPR myself and I'm so busy (rehab+life) I think I'd drive myself over the looney brink if I tried to maintain a diary.  Maybe next time out.

-Randy

I would not give out name and address.  I might call the previous tenant myself and ask if they would return the package I know they have in their possession.  But I would go no further than that.  Under no circumstances would I tell one tenant any personal information regarding another tenant, without having explicit permission to do so.

Sell the BMW.  

Buy a cheap car you can pay for in cash, no matter what it looks like.

Temporarily cut back on all non-essential expenses.  Essential means things like rent/mortgage, food, ... and not much else.

No vacations for the immediate future.  Not even if they are already planned.

Redirect all the money into the rehab.

Complete the rehab.  If you don't have the requisite time and/or knowledge to do certain tasks, hire a professional.  The money you saved above should help you afford this.

Rent the apartment and collect money.

At this point, you can start spending money as you had been before.  Or, you can keep saving money and make plans to buy other income-producing properties.  It's your decision.

NO EXCUSES.  There are only choices we make, or choices we don't decide to make.  There are no excuses.  There are only reason why we don't achieve our goals.  There are no excuses.

Identify the reason for failure.  Correct it.  Succeed.  That's it.

@DaVina Smith

In my opinion, the best, most affordable way to start learning about Real Estate rules and laws is to take a Real Estate class at your local community college.  You don't have to be a full-time student at the school.  You can just sign up for that one class, and take it over the course of a semester.  When it's over, you can choose to take the test to get your Real Estate license that will allow you to legally sell and manage Real Estate.  There are Real Estate classes offered by for-profit companies that promise to teach you everything you need to know to pass the RE license test in one or two weekends, but they generally cost a lot more -- and you may not have enough classroom time to adequately learn the material.

Until you sign up for that Real Estate class at your local community college, read as much as you can hear at Bigger Pockets.  There is a lot to learn here.

And stay away from those weekend conferences that promise to teach you how to get rich in Real Estate without spending any of your own money to buy properties.  They are expensive, and once they get you in the first session, most try to sell people more lessons that cost thousands of dollars.

Good luck!

@Alexander Reams

I just saw this article on Bigger Pockets.  It has a lot of helpful tips for people who are considering getting into Real Estate Investing

 http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/191...

@Alexander Reams , from one Durhamite to another, welcome to BP.  

I'm sure you've figured out that two things you should begin addressing immediately are saving your money and improving your credit score.  If you plan on investing in RE, you're going to need capital and that's either going to come from your money or a loan that will be dependent on your credit score.  At least, that was my plan when I started.

On the other hand, some people swear by various No Money Down and/or No Great Credit required ways to get started in Real Estate Investing.  Personally, I never bothered to learn much about those plans because my simple brain understands investing better if I actually have some money to invest.

Another avenue to try would be to take the Real Estate License class at Durham Technical Community College.  It's not very expensive and you'll gain a lot of knowledge that will be helpful to you if you move into Real Estate Investing.

Yet another avenue is Wholesaling.  Some people who want to get into RE but don't have any capital and/or have low credit scores use Wholesaling as a way to begin their move into RE Investing.  Just search the forum for threads about Wholesale and you'll find enough to read to keep you busy for a long time.

Good luck

One thing that caught my eye is you are using the list price as the starting point.  Often, the list price is a number no one but the seller thinks is achievable.  Your position might be better served by using three or four comps in the immediate area to set the value of the property.

Assuming the sold price is the actual value of the property, the seller lost approximately 10% of the value as a result of selling the house using all the other numbers you listed above.  

Now, if your stance is you can actually sell the house for $215000 and eliminate the closing costs and whatnot, then that is a better value add scenario.

I've never participated in a Lease To Own from either side, so this is just a quick look at the numbers from an outsider.

Hot dog!  Great job and great buy, Shawn!!

It's not a bad idea if 1) you have enough money to not worry about the cost of rehab, or you are so absolutely certain the rehab is minor enough that your ability to afford it is not an issue.  And 2) you are not under a short, hard deadline.  

There are probably a few other smaller reasons, but those are the big two that come to mind.

However, don't move fast simply because you, a new RE investor, think you have a good deal so hot you have no time to wait.  I know when I first started, I thought I had to move quickly on every good deal I thought I saw.  Somehow, since that first purchase, I've managed to get better houses at better prices in subsequent deals. 

I'm just saying, take your time, pump the brakes, and run all the numbers before jumping in too quickly and closing this deal.  Make absolutely certain it's as great as you think it is.  Don't let anyone else tell you how great the deal is.  You convince yourself by running the numbers.  (And the numbers almost always include either a contractor's estimate on the cost of repairs, or an experienced investor's opinion of the cost of repairs.)

I see nothing wrong @Max T..  Looks to me like she self-removed herself from consideration.  That's just what those questions were intended to do.

The reason you're not the kind of landlord she wants to deal with is because you're a landlord who conducts proper screening.  You're the type of landlord she can't just trick with a couple of tricky confusing verbal answers.  Apparently, she knows her answers to a couple of questions won't be to your liking.

Aside: Yesterday, a guy called me about a house I'm rehabbing and will rent soon.  He asked what I looked for in a tenant, and I answered with some of the questions you have on your form.  The guy then asked if we could meet face to face so he could answer those questions because he was certain that if he wrote out the answers that I wouldn't consider him.  He wants to woo me with his charm, I guess.  Your potential tenant realized the folly of that and just quit.

You email of questions just saved you some time.