All Forum Posts by: Selena Williams

@Deanna Skelcy I would recommend getting the rental property book written by Brandon here at bigger pockets. It goes over all the different ways to buy. A few are:

Hard money lenders

FHA loan

Houseklhacking

1. You don’t need a billion dollars to get started. There are a lot of other ways rather than a 20% down, 30 year fixed loan.

2. Shop around for a loan. It doesn’t matter who you piss off. You could literally save yourself thousands of dollars by doing this and increase your cash flow.

3. You’re most likely going to make a mistake. And it’s probably going to cost you money. But it will also be a huge learning experience. Take what you learn from your mistakes and let them make you better and a more educated investor. Do not let the mistakes scare you into stopping.

Legacy. In a lot of ways it’s “too late” for me. I’ve already spent years at jobs I hated, working 80-100 hours a week, already missed out on things I wanted to do and places I wanted to go when I was younger. Missed out on the ability to backpack across Africa and “find myself” before I decided on a career because I needed money as soon as I got out of school.

But my children will be able to do all those things. They won’t be shoved directly from school into the rat race because it seems like that’s the only option in order to have a certain standard of living. They will be able to backpack, be aimless, choose or not choose a job, go to university or not, they will have choices I didn’t see that I had.

@Gennaro Coscia thanks!! I don’t know, I just feel like the sellers are scammers at this point. It’s a developer so I can’t see how in the world they would make all these updates and not fix the FOUNDATION?! 🥴

Also - funny - the due diligence check was ruined by rain when they took it and they couldn’t cash it. But rather than acting at all embarrassed, they kept bugging my real estate agent to get another check to them ASAP. Knowing all these problems exist. Which makes me feel like they’re just going to try and back out with my money. They will have to disclose these issues though. So I feel like they will fix them then try and put the house back on the market at a higher price. But maybe I’ve lived in NYC too long and always thinking people are up to the worst, lol.

@Denis Woosley the deal is definitely not worth it to me with these costs unless the seller comes down a lot on their price. I offered $10k more than asking because even at that price my cash flow would be $900+ a month. And I walked into the deal believing - as they advertised - that the property was turn key. I don’t want my first out of state investment to be a property I have to figure out how to oversee huge repairs on.

I’m investing in North Carolina. I had to put down earnest money which I would get back but I also had to put down due diligence money which I don’t get back. That’s the $2k. NC is a buyer beware state. But because I’m from there and familiar with the area I’m investing in, I thought it would be much easier. I don’t have to worry or research if an area is good or not.

@Tommy Adeoye I didn’t even bother with the repairs that are under $200. It’s the huge ticket items I’m worried about - foundation/structural damage, termite damage, and appliances all being trash.

@Anthony Angotti thanks! I had a contractor come in and assess the damage and provide an estimate. It’s over $22k and that’s not including the appliances which I’m sure don’t work or any of the smaller problems or the termite damage. This is just for all the structural damage.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the total is $30k+ which is super high to me. I’m preparing myself for them to say no, try and fix the damage, then put it back on the market at a higher price.

And you’re totally right this would be a lesson learned. If I’m honest, what’s pissing me off is they HAD to know about all this. So they get to walk away with $2k and probably put a higher price on the property later. On the other hand, if all I lose from investing is $2k I’m doing pretty well, lol. This is my 3rd purchase so I guess I was bound to get burned a little at some point....

I would really love some advice from the BP community.

I recently made an offer on a duplex in another state. It was supposedly a turnkey property and is being sold by a developer. The offer was accepted however when the inspection came back - well to put it lightly I’ve never in my life seen an inspection this bad. It checked every box of the worst problems - structural/foundational problems, termite damage, electrical damage, roof damage (even though they represented they put in a new roof), water damage, and mold. There are also a million other smaller damages - one of the doorknobs to the outside doesn’t close properly, a brick is missing from the outside steps, and pretty much all the appliances are old and already don’t work or are on their last leg.

It appears to me like the developer did cosmetic work only, to make the place appear turnkey. Maybe I’ve lived in NYC too long but the inspection makes this whole deal feel like a scam.

Would you back out or keep going and see if the sellers will fix the problems? Keeping in mind I’ve paid a $2k due diligence fee that I can’t get back. Other than that and the cost of the inspection if I walked away I would be “free and clear”.

What would you do?

@DeAnna Beard no it doesn’t as long as you do it in a short period of time. Because shopping around for the best mortgage rate is encouraged, your credit isn’t affected as much. I for this most recent loan I don’t even think my score went down a point. I had 3 loan officers pull my credit. For the NYC transaction I know at least 7 pulled my credit and my score went down about 3 points and recovered in a month or two.

When I did the NYC transaction my credit wasn’t that great so the 3 points made me nervous, lol. But currently my score is excellent so even if it came down 10 points (which it totally won’t by having your credit pulled for a mortgage) I wouldn’t care much. I’d still be in the “excellent” score category.

To be clear, get a pre-approval then make an offer. You don’t have to go with the loan that gave you the pre-approval. Once your offer is accepted you can then start shopping around for the best rate.