All Forum Posts by: Ali Samana

Hi Ivan,

From this site I have learned the 2% rule. Which means you take your monthly rent and myltiply it by 50. That is the number where the deal makes sense.

So, if you can get 2k in rent * 50 = 100k you could pay maximum.

Just your mortgage on a 288000 loan will eat up most of your rent, not leaving you enough for taxes, insurance, management, maintanence etc.

Just some thoughts.

I am getting out of the Navy in a few months, so I am finally able to buy a house for my wife and I. I found a house that is appraised in 150s (the average in Corpus is 140s) that the seller is willing to sell me for 80k net. It needs about 12500 worth of work. I was planning on buying this house for myself, but I wanted to know if I could cash out the equity in this market. I had a mortgage broker tell me that there is a new law that the title has to be in your name for 12 months, does anyone know of any other ways to get the equity out?

Hi E. Jacobs,

Those are some great questions, and lets see if we can get some good answers here for you.

When I have someone call me, I fill out a sheet called the IPQ sheet for me (you can email me and I can email you a blank one). It has all of the questions that I need to know, including why they are selling. I do pay alot of attention to why they are selling because if I know the strength of their conviction than I can guestimate where my offer needs to be.

Once I have the sheet filled out and I can tell the seller is motivated, I do like to go look at the property. I don't have them sign a contract up front, put yourself in their shoes and earn their confidence. I dress casual and I spend some time meeting with the seller/family. I repeat the answer that were given to me (in a conversational tone) so the seller verfies the information and then ask their bottom dollar, I also ask if we could move really quickly would they be willing to sell for what they owe. I explain to them how we would buy their property (sub2, shortsale, L/O etc) and make sure they understand and agree to that part of it. So far, I have always left and not made an offer right away (to discuss with my partner).

One of the things that I have learned about negotiations is, unlike the popular belief, you have to take it slow. Most people try to rush it so the other party might not catch on, but if I am negotiating I take it slow.

Then I present the offer over the phone, taking the blame off of me and putting it on my partner (my partner won't authorize me to spend any more than this on this property).

Most of the above was taught to me by my dad who runs a successful business and it works like a charm.

Here is a link that I found interesting:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3995.htm

This video was hillarious!! Thanks for sharing Tim!

Hi Rich,

I am not a left winger, I am very conservative when it comes to political views. As for education, It took me 7 years to get my 4-year degree; so not much there :)

Having said that, I didn't agree with the war in Iraq from the begininng. The "connection" to 9/11 never made sense to me and the fact that they were working on WMDs was not news. With the research that I had done, I thought we would get stuck in the country, and guess what's going on right now :)

I think one of the issues with this war was underestimating our enemy. Rummsfield from day one was under the impression that this war would be over by friday and we could all come and enjoy the weekend at home, how wrong was he!

I am not sure if the war was for oil, wmds or anything else, but it did distract us from the task at hand of going after Al-Qaida.

I am no expert, just my two cents.

Jim,

Myequitycafe seems to be a new website, there are no deals on the site at all.

I subscribe to success magazine...not really related to RE directly, but a great magazine regardless.

Hi Darrel,

Everyone has their own fears to deal with, it is good that you are trying to overcome yours.

Before I pick up any house I feel a lot of anxiety (caused by fear) since I am new to REI also. What helps me overcome it is having an excellent team. I have a great contractor that puts me at ease because he knows what he is doing.

Fear can be very motivating if used right. I do have a fear of making a big mistake in a deal and ending up broke, but I have a BIGGER fear of calling wal-mart my retirement home :) and that motivates me to take action!

Good topic, I would be interested in learning about this as well.