All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I stumbled across a vacant property and had a couple questions. I did some digging and found that the lender had sent a notice of pendency for foreclosure in 2011, but it looks like nothing ever came of it and the owner still owns the property. I double checked the lenders website for REOs and the property didn't come up. I also checked the county tax records and it looks like taxes are up to date with no liens.

I have the name of the owner but before I made a phone call I just wanted to run it by the forums. Is there a particular approach to contacting absentee owners that works best? I obviously need to know if he's interested in selling (I'm assuming he would be?) and what price he'd be willing to sell at. I'm not prepared to offer cash so I'm also not sure of the best way to approach giving an offer. I don't want to scare him off by sounding like I don't know what I'm doing so I guess whatever advice you can provide would be great.

Thank you all for the thorough feedback. Quality of life is very important to us and we have good w2 income. We have a guest room, a modest man/lady cave, garage workshop, etc, that would certainly be missed if we moved. My gut has been saying stay put and save, but I like to consider all options so I figured it can't hurt to get some opinions.

@Jassem A. Agreed. We're starting a family and quality of life is a non-negotiable at this point. If we did the live-in rental option, we'd be focusing our search on the more desirable areas of the city, where most of the young professionals want to be. The other upside of this, if we can find a good deal, is we'd be able to get our foot in the door as landlords in a highly desirable location which we wouldn't otherwise be able to afford if we had to go conventional 25% without being owner occupant.

My wife and I are seeking out our first investment property, with the goal of acquiring a portfolio of cash flowing rentals for passive income. We purchased our current home (SFH) with an FHA in 2010, before we had any plans of getting involved in REI. It is a 3/2 in a nice neighborhood. Here's the options I'm currently considering to get started:

1. Stay where we are, continue to save up for a rental downpayment and simply buy what we can afford when a good deal is found. I would be open to somewhat less desirable areas (not war zones, but not neighborhoods I would necessarily want to live in myself).
2. Look for MFH rentals with the intention of moving into one of them (which would restrict the search to more desirable areas), and doing one of two things:
   1. Sell our current residence and pocket any gains to go towards the next deal, pay down the MFH, etc.
   2. Rent out our current residence (cash flow would be very thin or break even, but we used the homeowner credit in 2010 to do alot of improvements, and it requires little maintenance).

In the end, I guess my question boils down to whether it's worth finding a way to get out of paying our current mortgage to live for free so we can really get some momentum, or just stick with what we have for a home. I'm also not sure if it's possible to use an FHA myself on our first rental, since my wife used one on our current property before we were married and I'm not on the title. Maybe someone could chime in on that as well.

So, what would you do?

I hope I explained that well enough. I can provide some numbers if needed.

@Aaron Stevens

Welcome! I'm also a new investor but actively seeking my first property at the moment. Have you checked out any FFREIA meetings?

Just realized I misread your original post and that your first rehab was your own home. That was my first experience too. It's a great opportunity to get familiar with a variety of things and develop an ability to look at a problem and have a good idea of what needs to be done.

So going forward do you think you'll be doing them yourself? I'd like to find places to fix and rent, but I'd have to be mostly hands off on the fix part unless it's done in the evening.

Hey @Shawn O'Shea so you're working fulltime while doing rehabs/flips? Are you working on them yourself in the evenings? Just wondering how that's working out for you so far.

Congrats! I'm still in the learning phase and on the sidelines myself. My wife is on board with the whole thing as long as we're not neglecting our home (we have a family room on the other side of the house that we haven't furnished yet). I think she's also afraid of not saving for a 'forever home' if all our money is being thrown at investing. We didn't really have a budget on paper, so I'm going through that process to find areas we can cut back and save for investments.

Are you looking for SFR? MFR?

Welcome, Chris! I'm pretty new here myself. I'm 30 and just changed careers from Mechanical Engineering to Software Development. My wife and I have a SFH and at this point I'd like to focus mostly on acquiring multi's. How long have you been educating yourself on this? I finally just got myself going a few months ago.

Here's a thread that was started to get people connected in the Rochester area:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/86/topics/88228-anyone-from-rochester-ny

Also, if you haven't heard of FFREIA, it's a club in Rochester. I might be attending next month some time.

- Josh

I'm booked on Fridays but any other night works.