All Forum Posts by: Loc R.

Melodee,

Welcome to BP!

Ojai is a beautiful area...wish I had bought some property there when I first started...

Bill Bronchick is a well known real estate attorney and he is based out of Colorado if I'm not mistaken.

If they're older, there's a good chance they have equity. If they have equity, they can seller-finance the whole thing, or wrap their current mortgage. In either case, you can show them how to create a win-win situation.

First, find out what is preventing them from moving now? It may or may not strictly be financial. If it is financial, figure out how much they need and compare that with what you have to offer and go from there.

Real estate has not made me financially independent, but it has made my life a lot less stressful with respect to money.

I have a few passions in life, and fortunately I'm involved in all of them: I love my work, I love real estate deals, especially paper deals, and I love fast cars.

Unfortunately, the last passion is an expensive one.

I think your investment opportunities should drive your decision here. If you have the opportunity to make money and need a large sum of cash, then you should sell and get your capital out so that you can put it in another vehicle of your choice.

The last thing I would do is rent it out, as it is only one property, and I personally am very biased against long distanced landlording.

Another option would be to refi to the 3.6% rate you've been offered, then sell via owner-carry on a wraparound. You can take your equity in the form of a down payment, and make a 2-3% spread on the borrowed money.

You have to file a writ of replevin with your county, which is another way of saying a repossession.

At the very least, the title of the mobile home should read "Buyer" as the Owner, and You as the Legal Owner/Lien Holder. If you don't have that, then you need to contact an attorney ASAP.

Jeff,

Ask yourself the question: "Would I lend without an appraisal?"

Sounds like you're eager to jump into a deal. Let the RE agent use his 12% no-appraisal money - you surely don't want to lend $40k on a property that ends up being worth $20k, do you?

If I knew then what I know now...

I would "snowball" my money, just like I wrote in this article:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/519/blog_posts/12767-snowballing-your-money

The best part is that you can buy 1 good note, and really not have to worry for a while, until you had enough to buy your next note.

I'm 35, and I "wasted" about 5 years of my investing life doing the mutual fund thing / asset allocation / re-balancing crap / stock-picking crap.

In another 15 years, I will probably own 1-2 more LOCAL rental properties, a lot more paper, and I will probably have a bigger % of my portfolio in hard-money loans.

Jeff,

You have every right to see a credit report - it's YOUR money! I would trust the broker's "underwriting" about as far as I can throw him. An actual appraisal is the bare minimum after the underwriting of the payors.