All Forum Posts by: Crystal Smith

I’m the property owner and wanting to see if what I’m dealing with is “legal” or illegal (just plain unethical) We called a “we buy houses for cash” company out of Colorado. They gave us an offer we was content with being it was a “quick cash sale”.  They asked why we was looking into this route for selling. I explained we was on a very short timeline to purchase another property. That owner agreed to give us some time to sell. Also said I work remotely and can’t have realtors telling us when we can’t be home cause I work here. Also have 5 dogs, can’t pack them up very easily. Company said title search would take approximately 2 weeks then we pick our closing date. No showings, no cleanings, no fees. I questioned the assignment of contract. Company says oh that’s “only” so we can sell your purchase agreement to an investor in our network, no big deal! You may have an investor swing buy once in a while just to merely see the property is all. You won’t have to do anything, leave the house or none of that stuff. 5 minutes they will be gone. 

We, very stupidly signed contract and nothing is done as they said, and lead us to believe!!! 

Realtor hired, realtor showings, any time of the day can’t refuse or we (sellers) breech contract. If I got to work oh well according to them 🤷‍♀️, 26 days left till the closing date and no buyers. Even if they do get offers loan offers are off the table the closing date is 26 days away. Mortgages don’t finalize that quickly. 

The contract was written with the closing date 90 days later. Which I questioned because it was supposed to be a “quick cash sale” they said that allows time to fix any hiccups in paperwork on either end.

We knew they would make a profit, I said once you own them you can make however much money you can, I don’t care. He said well yeah we can’t sell a property we don’t own. But they knew they could with that assignment clause. 

How can they legally lie up front, during. Explaining those cover there *** clauses to save there scamming hides! 

How should they make a $50,000 profit on a property they don’t own, and mis lead us into signing there contract. 

We are 26 days out from the closing date escrow of course is not opened that’s for end buyer to do. And I have asked multiple times about closing, it’s getting close we should be discussing the final date. They will not respond back an answer at all!!! 

How is this even LEGAL???? 

Hi There-

I have been buying and Selling Real Estate for a while. (I am a Realtor) In Albuquerque, it's tougher to find those deals, even as a Realtor. I have a client that wants to sell her 2 bed 2 bath, 2-car in NW ABQ. Mature area, brick, new roof, AC, new hot water heater. I can most likely pull $2,100k per month renting it straight out.- Would just have it painted. Easy care landscaping front and back. Our 2 other Rentals are 1 mile away (1- long term- great renters- 1 mid term- have has success with almost zero unrented in 2 years. Home would most likely sell for around $280k- I can offer her around $260k- as is- Then get a lower interest ARM for 10 years- Then refi as interest goes down. The home should give me around $400 per month- Thoughts???

I'm running to BiggerPockets because no one else understands what I'm doing or how excited I am. I closed on my first home/first house hack last week! It is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathrooms single family home. My plan is to convert the dining room into the 5th bedroom and the 1/2 bath into a full bath and ultimately make this a 5 bed, 3 bath home.

The home is exactly what I wanted with light renovation needed. I've never done anything DIY so this will be my first attempt. I am planning to put in LVP, paint the kitchen cabinets, and add some tiles to the bathroom. Unfortunately, it seems that I may need to replace all the carpets upstairs since it has black lines on the edges due to soil filtration (previous owners didn't clean their air filters often).

I'm feeling very optimistic right now, but have spent a whole week just trying to decide on a good value LVP so I can replace the 1st floor... I still need to pick a carpet, get it installed, and find a contractor who can do the bathroom conversion (I definitely cannot do that).

Would love to hear other's experience diving into doing DIY for the first times. Any tips?

I'm interested in executing my first rehab but thinking it might be best to partner with someone with experience. My question is, what are some ways to structure the deal that are a win win for both parties?

I'm a licensed but inexperienced broker and own a small portfolio of STR's but I don't have any experience with a rehab. I'm open to a flip or BRRRR and would be comfortable investing ~$100K in the first one. I also have excellent credit.

Are there some common deal structures that work well to join a capital partner with someone with rehab management and estimating experience? I'd like to ride shotgun on the rehab to learn and happy to help under guidance, as needed. (Just the management, not hanging drywall). I'm in Denver, if that helps. 

Thanks in advance for any insight! 

Hello Bp,

I would like some feedback on this creative financing I am trying to do.

I have done 2 successful flips and also have one 1 buy and hold.

Now that I have a little skin in the game I’d like to ask my dad who is 62, with a 6 figure 401k to allow me to use $50,000 to invest in more real estate. I’d like to pay him as if he’s my private money lender after each deal.

He’s funded my deals by taking out a loan from his 401k and I would make the biweekly loan payments , and pay him a fee once I sold my flips and refinanced my last property. That way we both made profit.

But we can’t do another 401k loan for another 6 months .

My question is , what steps would I need to take if he does the 50k withdrawal instead of the loan? Since he's 62 I know we can withdraw with no penalty, but is there a way to avoid taxes ? Like transferring the funds to a SDIRA or Roth IRA ?

Thanks for the feedback

Also, I'd like to maybe do 2 deals at a time this year if the opportunity presents itself, should I start building relationships with HML's ? Or am I on the right track by avoiding fees and points and keep partnering with my dad. Thanks

So I inherited a house from a family that passed away a few months ago. It has no mortgage, pretty good condition, and has so much opportunity. It has 2 bedrooms upstairs and an unfinished 1090 sq ft basement (house itself is 1250 sq ft) No inheritance tax and I’ve been living here now for a few months. I just don’t know what I should do here. It’s such a great opportunity but I’m very new to this world and I want to make the most of the situation but I don’t want to take a lot of risk. My goals in the next few years would be to achieve financial freedom and I know that is possible with the house. Maybe I get the basement finished and move into there while getting tenant(s) for upstairs. Maybe I take out a full home equity loan and just buy another property to rent out/Airbnb. Maybe I take out the home equity and try to flip a home. Maybe I do a bunch of other things. I guess I am here because I feel lost and overwhelmed and want to learn how to make the most of this situation to achieve my goals in a safe way over the next 1-5 years if possible.

Hello Everyone,

I purchased my NACA home more than 5 years ago, and I obtained a HELOC on my home last year.

The financial institution that approved and funded my HELOC was fully aware of the NACA Lien on my home and continued with the process either way.

Also, I am not in violation of the occupancy requirements.

What would NACA's actions be?

Looking for some advice. I have a property that we originally bought to flip in Southern WI (close to IL border). The ARV is roughly 180K+. Investment is budgeted for roughly 120K. 1) If we flipped, likely will get 50K in our pockets after closing costs. 2) If we hold, according to the BRRRR calculator, the CoC ROI is 16.8%/Inf%. After the refi of 125K, there would still be about 20K in equity to tap, plus about a $650/mo +CF. 3) Another option is to hold, refi at max equity, which drops +CF to about $250/mo, but puts more liquid cash in the bank.

Note: I am the GC and the Realtor so fees are already reduced.  House will be ready in March for any of the options.  We have flipped several houses already and own one rental at this time. 

Which would you do and why?  Is there an advantage to maxing out the refi and pulling as opposed to leaving the equity in and tapping it over and over?  With the numbers, all options are good options, just looking for feedback on why you might choose one over the other.  Thanks!

I’m a new investor out of the Chicago area, I’m also working out of the Indianapolis area as well. I’m just trying to net work and further my education in the Realestate industry 

Stating the obvious, I am very new to the real estate world other than owning my own home. A 2024 goal for my family and I is to “do” real estate, 19 days into the new year and MANY bigger pockets podcasts listened to I finally decided to join the website. Consuming all of this content has been very enjoyable, MUCH more positive and inclusive than I would have guessed, the “you can do it” mindset is refreshing. To the point where I ask myself why is everyone NOT doing this? It is too good to be true? Things that seem that way frequently are. Anyhoo…

A few questions that I have not yet really found the answers to that I would like to get some insight on with a post. (I am sure the answers are on this forum but holy moly is it massive.) All of these are connected to a point, but they are also unique questions.

Mentorship: I find that reading books, listening to podcasts and reading forums is helpful, but I feel that finding a mentor is my best form of education – hands on. Being new to this site I assume that I will eventually bump into someone that I can learn from. I have found the Meetup section and will make it a point to show up to a local event. It seems like the Denver area has an agent that has them on the regular. Any other advice on finding mentors?

Masterminds: Seem like a mentor for hire while others are free? How is a mastermind in Alaska useful for helping me the Denver market? Paying to be a part of a group where education is shared / given is not an outlandish notion but at unless it is local, I question how it can be relevant. Are they worth it?

Investing out of state: Currently the BRRR is the most attractive method to me, perhaps starting out with a good ol' fix and flip to test the waters, however the Denver market seems very expensive to do this and the cost of skilled labor (at least for things on my own house) is SKY HIGH. The podcast talks about people buying property not local to themselves like it is a piece of cake. How the heck are you able to rehab a property in TN, while living in CO? Hiring a trustworthy PM seems like it would take away most/all of the profit.

Just 3 of the many burning questions that I have. Thanks so much for any thoughts on these!