All Forum Posts by: Andrew Syrios

So I have a large number of appraisals for a big refinance coming up and I have to shepherd an appraiser through a bunch of rented properties. I don't know this appraiser, so I'm not sure how they normally value things. Anyways, I've had some bad experiences with appraisers. Recently I had an appraisal on an eightplex with six units leased and the appraiser compared it to two vacant buildings and one that may have been vacant but I couldn't tell. Another time, a different appraiser compared our house to a foreclosure, an estate sale and an investor flip. Another property was compared to two houses that were 500 sq. ft. smaller (ours was 1450 sq. ft.) with only a trivial adjustment and the other was a foreclosure.

It's important these appraisals come in well, but all I really need to make sure that happens is that they aren't compared to foreclosures and fixers. I think in the 7th podcast for BP, they talked to an appraiser who said that it was actually helpful for owners to bring their own comps to show to them as well as any other information. Does anyone do this? On the other hand, begging for them to bring in the price at a certain number is, of course, very dishonest and immoral. How about asking they don't use foreclosures as comps?

Where do you guys think the line is ethically and pragmatically, and how do you usually approach important appraisals.

Thank you in advance.

Congratulations! Best of luck moving forward!

The way we do it:

In nice houses: tile in the kitchen and bathroom and either stained hardwood floors or carpet (at least one step above builders grade) in living room and bedrooms.

In less nice houses: vinyl in kitchen in bathroom (we used to do allure but it lost favor with us when we realized spot replacements really aren't as easy as advertised and it's substantially more expensive than vinyl) and carpet or stained hardwoods in the living rooms and bedrooms. In really lower end areas, sometimes we paint the hardwood floors black to save money. It looks OK, but certainly not as good as stained floors.

Put together a business plan and a lender's prospectus (with the deals you've done so you can show people you have a track record). Then write a short "elevator's speech" and memorize it. Then network, network, network and whenever someone asks you what you do, incorporate that elevator speech (without being to pushy) and you'll catch some people's interest. Then invite them to lunch or your office if you have one and go through your prospectus and business plan. Offer them a trust deed and personal guarantee and you should get some interest. Especially since a lot of these people are getting 0.2% in their CD's and what not.

Get some bids from contractors (and remember to add in things like carpet, HVAC and what not that most contractors don't do). In addition, add a large unforeseen allowance (at least 25%, probably on a project like this more like 50%) for add-ons, change orders and unforeseen problems. These types of projects always cost more and take longer than expected.

Some investors in short sales (SREC for example had a bunch of stuff on it, although I think they've moved on to other things: http://www.strategicrealestatecoach.com/). However, if you don't specialize in short sales, I don't think it's worth your time. If you know a real estate agent who does short sales, recommend them and make an offer that would net you a great deal and see what happens. But I wouldn't spend much time on it.

Unless the bank has agreed to the sale price, you're going to have a helluva time wholesaling a short sale.

To me, it sounds like this guy is almost doing you a favor (key word: almost) in wanting to break the lease. The longer he stays, cat or not, the more damage he will do. Did he agree to pay for the time to re-lease? If not, you can go through the legal process (check with your attorney, I don't know California law) to garnish his wages. To make things simpler and get your money up front instead of chasing him on the back end and probably paying some legal fees to boot, ask (or rather demand) a buyout. Maybe two months (we put three months in our lease, if we re-rent it earlier than three months, we refund the remainder).

If for whatever reason you want him to stay, ask for a pet deposit and pet rent. We ask for $250 non-refundable pet deposit and $25/month pet rent. But, given Kansas City is much cheaper than San Francisco and he's already damaged your unit, you should probably ask for more.

Stationary stores and office supply stores often sell simple real estate contracts. You could also take one of those and stop by a lawyer, ask for things they think you should add and then make your own based off of that contract.

From everything I gather, seconds are very hard to get from anyone. But the big, national banks are even harder than the local banks.