All Forum Posts by: Ronald H.

This subject is not pleasant for me.

I have my Dear Mother's home. God bless her, she is now in heaven with her husband and others.

My dilemna. I am a bit depressed and I own my Mom's place. It needs a lot of work and I will not be able to catch up on it. 

Latley, I thought that it would be good to move into a smaller place with half the room and half the acreage. My hope would be to get enough from the Sale of my Mom's home to move and have some money to get on my feet in a cheaper area, where living expenses are half of what they are now. I posted a Craigslist posting, and I get bimbo's who don't reveal their identity.

I work for a Broker doing "Grounds Maintenance" and he has told me to Sell for no less than Assessed Value, but with everything I have learned here that idea, might not work. 

Since I want to enter the Investing arena, I know the 70% rule and deducting the repairs, holding costs, selling costs and the basic formula's used. The summer is half over and I figure if I sold now, possibly the Investor would have lower holding costs, then if he bought during the Winter months.

If I use Craigslist, should I require any leads to specifically identify themselves? 

Should I require a Proof of Funds for any people to walk through the house? I don't want every average day Harry walking through my house. I want to see a track record, since I will be selling to Investor's due to the condition of the house.

Everyone here invests or wants to invest. We want to make money and grow a business, however I want to sell this house and use the proceeds to buy another place and have some cash left over to establish myself and perhaps start making offers on distressed properties.

Assessed value of home: $259.2K ARV: $275 to $285K Assessed Land Value: $147K

Property has a septic tank. Should I get a Title V inspection done, or leave the unknown to the new buyer who will undoubtedly factor in a safety cushion and I will get a lower offer. Everything seems fine with the septic tank. No tall grass above the tank or indications of leaks. Last pumped in 2012.

Removing all my parent's memories seems to be a hard thing for me, as well, and is holding me up.

Sounds like their primary residence purchase. Don't fall in love with it and overpay. It is on the MLS, so you are already going to pay more.

Take a level and see how bad the floor is. If it is off then bring a Contractor in to research the problem.

Hi, Chris

If you want to spend time, you can research the Massachusetts Real Estate Laws on Mass.gov     Just type In "Real Estate Laws, or Landlord, or Lead Paint. Warning: This can be a time consuming effort though.

Seems troubling to me, that the Bank says "They do not want any Inspections done." I would want to walk from it, but that is just me. 

Does anyone think Bank of America will stop him from doing an Inspection?

Welcome, Anne

If Chelmsford is too far of a commute, you can contact Mike Hurney from the Massachusetts Real Estate Investors Association. He is active on Biggerpockets. His Investment Club holds meetings generally on or about the first of the month and another one called the Mover's and Shaker's at or about the 15th of the month.  So 2 meetings per month.

Last I knew the membership fees are $99/Yr. Small price to pay to build a network of active Investor's and Buyer's. I am not following my own advice here, because I have not went to a meeting in a year or so, but I plan to join again, and soon.

Hi, George

Although, some may have did it, be prepared to provide an earnest money deposit that is substantially more. You could expect 1% to 2% with some seller's in order for your Offer to get serious attention. It all comes down to how you negotiate with the seller. "Rapport."

On the positive side, many Seller's willing to take a price hit on their home, realize that they cannot sell through traditional channels and they can be flexible.

If there is a Real Estate Agent involved and you have no credibility built, then you will more than likely be cutting a check to escrow for 1% to as much as 3% or whatever is customary for the Stockton California area. 

Much luck with your Investing.

Thanks everyone.

To comment on Cameron above. I do kno my Market. I have been following sale and creating my own databases of comps with all property details, such as beds, baths, total rooms, lot size, garages or not, and assessed values and sale prices of all sold homes in Saugus. I do have a strong knowledege, but it takes me too much time to create these databases, so I will have to get it from someone else or outsource it, in the future, to free my time to find deals. I have been tossing around the buy and hold idea. I will need to clean out my current home fairly quickly and make the decision pretty soon. Don't really want to be a landlord, See my post titled "Do I really want to be a landlord from last week or so." Thanks for your feedback.

To answer Daniel above. Yes, Wholesaling is what I want to do, not getting anywhere until I can estimate rehab costs, I guess. Need to find a good reliable contractor that will not eat up all the profits just with his rehab costs. I do have money, and I know that the Marketing is important. I have a fear that I will spend 5K and not get any results. That would be painful. I have never been good at sales, so that scares me too. Still, with all this, I just cannot rest this idea. The time is nearing to either do this, or put it to rest.

I

Hi, Jonathan

Until December of 2013, I had a contractor that lived next door. He has moved now. The ntwo areas I need to get under control to start off are Estimating Rehab Costs, and yes, if I can find one that would show me. I could speed it up and accept less, each transaction.

Problem with the guy next door, is he is very expensive, however he does have a godd reputation. I don't know if we could make it work. He still comes down to his old house, next door to me, so he could still be available, but we had a fallout about an estimate that he gave me at an earlier time. I was concerned about some fees that he was quoting, and he got annoyed and left the negotiations on a bathroom update that was then given to another local contractor. I later asked this neighbor if he would provide estimates and he said, Yes, but I wonder.

To change the topic for a moment. I have seen a few CT properties and ran comparable searches, using Trulia and their Recently Sold criteria. If these bargain home ads were legitimate, then there were a few homes that looked like they were asking 50% to 60% of the recently sold ones. They all needed repairs, though, but it seemed like there would be amplee room to make money.

I am living in Mass and I would like to get a smaller place and have some $$$ in my pocket to move and live cheaper, while getting to know my new market. I first have to remove a lot of personal items.  Depending on what I get for my home, I could move and perhaps have a little more money to use for start up costs, such as Marketing costs and R.E. Membership fees.

I have posted a the same question elsewhere and I cannot seem to get any answers.

Does anyone know of any funder's that allow an individual to buy in his name?

I do know of one called fundinginternationalllc.com but I had sent them a message a couple years back, and they did not get back to me, so I don't think they are legitimate. I also searched various web sites to see if anyone has ever used them, and I found nothing when searching with their name.

If you are correct then how is it that others here are having success using Transactional Funding?