All Forum Posts by: Marlene D'Souza

We purchase outside of our home state and started with a carpet/paint job 9yrs ago. Currently have several rentals and have flipped several homes.  I agree with what everyone has said so far.  I have a great PM in the ATL area and SO GA area . We have built a team of handy persons to do smaller things in both areas, our GC is top notch but pricey so only use him on full rehab jobs to flip.  Neighbors can also be a good source for who to hire and who to stay away from.  Lastly hire a inspection company to handle the due diligence even when purchasing "AS IS"  know what Is IS.

YES YES get that inspection it will be worth every penny,  then you can do the math based on the estimates from the inspector and other things that you want to do .  House 35k + inspection report 15k =50k personal cosmetic changes 30k we're 80k in at this point, misc 10% 8k total 88k  Appraisal with repairs  230k -88k - 142k    Same house with lower appraisals makes a difference.  App 98k - 88k  only 10k in sweat equity no worth it for me. 

So you really have to know the numbers but yes spend a few hundred for a inspection. 

 We had another one under contract with in Aug with them and was hoping the second one would get the delay as the first but that didn't happen and we had to close the second one Sept 30th.  I can't say they have their act together just yet but it might be getting better in the Atlanta area as far as them getting the foreclosure deeds recorded. 

We finally closed 9/8 it was frustrating and if it weren't for the value I would have pulled the plug at extension 2.   The seller did agree to a buyer credit when requesting extension 4.   We got it on the rental market 9/19 and I'm confident it won't take long getting a tenant.    For us the wait panned-out and values continued to rise,  as investors it boils down to the numbers.  

We are going through the same thing now due to close june 5th they sent a extension email stating its moved to July 4th - (don't these folks know) I sent back to please close on the 3rd or the 7th. You would think by now they would have gotten a system down, why bother putting it on Hubzu if title isn't clear or deed not recorded. Our lender has a fee to extend their lock on the rate, I'm trying to see if the seller Ocwen will credit that back at closing. Guess we just have to wait and see :)

Thanks Walt, I'll keep that in mind I tend to lean on the side of caution.

Hi everyone, a little background first, we have 3 rentals and 1 primary all with mortgages. The three rentals all have equity and positive cash flow with low mortgages. We are looking a purchasing either another SF or multi-family which has put us in the spot of larger down payment 25-30%+ which we have. My partner (hubby) came up with the idea of paying off one of the rentals and purchase another property he is thinking we would get a lower down payment of 10-20% because only 3 properties would have active mortgages. Then after the purchase refi the rental that was paid off to get the money back out My take on this is why increase a mortgage by 100% (400mo to 800mo) when we can just bite the bull.. and purchase with a higher down of 25-30% and keep the mortgages at there low monthly and with 25-30% the new mortgage would also be low. I like to hear your thoughts on this What say you :)

Just called their corporate office and was informed that "Yeah we didn't get that" by a senior loan office by the name of Dave.

Hi All, well I've posted a few times since I signed up a few weeks ago. Love this forum its very informative and everyone seem very nice. My day job is a moderator/admin on a forum for website development. My passion is investing in real estate. I hold a real estate license in the state of FL for the last 16 years ,worked as a agent for some of that time, did a bit of flipping and currently working on acquiring rental properties in Georgia. I look forward to learning new things on BP as well as hopefully can provide insight to others with the experiences we have had investing.

Congratulations all the best to you and your family.