All Forum Posts by: Stone Saathoff

I would highly highly recommend AceableAgent, I used their course for my TX real estate license and it was awesome. You can use your phone or tablet and use it during down times at work, all the tests are proctored remotely etc. They also have these cool practice tests you can use, so I did those several times and got consistent 100's before I went and took the real test, ended up passing first try. 

Comps packet and rehab breakdown are included!

Call me to get on board 713-305-7995

40K is plenty of cash on hand for the hard money lenders that operate in my area. The minimum loan is 50K though for most situations. 

If you were in Texas, I'd have 12 different options for you right off the bat, for Florida I'm not 100% sure. I'll ask the people I know and PM you contact info for them if I get it. I'm not sure what you mean by refinancing a 203K FHA loan, you would already be in it for only 3.5%, so what could you pull out with a refinance? Maybe if your repairs add significant value and it gets appraised for a higher value, but I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head.

As an investor you should definitely look into the off-market properties more so than just what your broker/agent can find. Also consider other financing options for these types of properties, like potentially using a hard money loan and purchasing a property in need of repairs. I would talk to your bank though and make sure you can get approval to re finance out after repairs so you aren't stuck with a high interest rate. That is another option for you though

Like Tim mentioned it's hard to find anything on zillow or MLS that would cashflow. One thing I wanted to add is that zillow can be way off on the fair market rents, it's important to pull real comps off the MLS and see for yourself. If you don't have your real estate license I would recommend working with someone who does so they can pull true comps and let you know what market rent rates to expect.

Another option that I'm very familiar with personally is hard money. If you're planning to resell right after rehab that would be all you need, if you want to hold it as a rental you could just use hard money to fund the purchase and rehab, then refinance with a traditional bank once rehab is complete and you get it leased to avoid the high interest rates of a hard money loan.

I work with some California based investors who put their money into Texas for rentals, it's a different animal, you have to be a lot more diligent in collecting information and looking through what you can at your computer, also have some boots on the ground where you're buying. Property manager or buyers agent at least.

Not sure if laws differ in Washington but here in Texas generally dealing with a situation like this, the tenant can ask permission to add something like this, you can approve, and if you approve they can do the modification. They pay for it, and when they vacate they can either return the property to the way it was before or leave the modification if you approved it. I would have a hard time imagining a tenant wanting to take a patio and cover with them, especially since it would probably be destroyed when removing it. When they say you can restore it to normal and take it with you that's more common with handicap fixtures inside the property. I would have her pay for it entirely either way.

Most of the deals I've been a part of have been either cash or hard money financing. Those are both cash or cash equivalent so it gives you extra negotiating power when you're making an offer on a property. Otherwise you could find someone to partner with you on the deal AKA other investors. There may be other options outside of these if you do more research but those are the most straightforward methods that I know of.