All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

We base our decision on whether we offer a lease or not and the length of the lease offered on what the background check turns up.

Really great tenants get a one year lease offer; okay ones get six months and the rest get a month to month IF we can't find a better tenant.

This is not from the bailout bill. The Senate passed "a bill" last night. The House will pass "a bill" today or tomorrow. Then a conference committee will negotiate to a common bill that both the House and Senate will vote on. Then it will be sent to the President for signature.

It will only become law AFTER the President signs it or if he vetos it, after both the House and Senate override that veto.

It's easy Mike, we aren't talking about how we MANAGE those properties. LOL!

There are lots of variables in play in relation to house values. There is a correlation between rents and payments but not a causation. In other words, falling rents don't cause falling house values and vice versa.

A rental is a commodity, like a gallon of gas or milk. The rental rates are set mostly by the supply vs. demand curve. If demand exceeds supply there is upward rent pressure, if supply exceeds demand there is downward pressure.

As for how house values are going to behave, you have to segment it into the micro level (what will it do this year?) vs. the macro level (what will it do over the long term, 10 or 20 yrs).

At the micro level, some areas will see a roller coaster while others will see a smooth ride with little or no appreciation for some period of time.

How long?

Housing prices will revert to the historical trend line. Some areas like California and areas of Florida will see prices jolt down and maybe even up as it reverts to that historical trend. Other areas will see things just stay where they are until the trend line catches up to the current market.

But, as an investor, I buy at a discount and I do not count appreciation in my buying analysis. Why? Because I am a long term buy and hold investor and that means the appreciation I receive will be near the inflation level over time. In other words, appreciation alone just keeps me near even due to the time value of money and inflation rates.

Forced appreciation is different but that is not what we are talking about here.

Prices are going to always be whatever a seller is willing to accept and a buyer is willing to pay.

Jason,

You are well ahead of 90+% of the investors out there, yes, even the experienced ones.

Since you already have a relationship with private lenders you have a lot more options open to you and many of those will be very profitable.

As to the approach, I am a buy and hold but still do opportunistic flips. The best return from the current market will be to buy and hold until the market turns around. It might take awhile, but if you buy right you can easily rent it, cover all expenses and turn some positive cash flow. Many areas are already seeing some upward pressure on rents and most areas will follow as the subprime mess sorts itself out.

From what you have posted here, I'd say you are very well positioned to take advantage of the current market.

When you do the walk through before the short sale closing if the house is not empty, you don't close.

There appear to be some details here we are missing. Have you already closed and they are still there? Are they paying rent? Supposed to be paying rent? Fill in the obvious blanks here.

Send a denial letter addressed to the husband ONLY. Unless he signed an authorization allowing you to discuss his credit history with her, DO NOT DO IT. In fact, don't do it even if he did.

Send the denial in writing, if you talk to them on the phone you can say the application was denied and the reasons will arrive by letter in a few days. You can always use the FCRA as cover for needing to do it in writing.

That is fine. Many will then return to get a changed contract signed without all the strike throughs and add ons.

We take a little different approach.

Our buyer pre-prints the paperwork before going to the seller's house. Then if they want to make changes, they strike through and add on as needed. Then when everything is acceptable, both sign.

Then the buyer makes the changes to the contract in our document assembly program and reprints the documents on the spot.

Well, then you are probably upside down on all of them.

If you are concerned about your FICO, anything less than a full 100% payoff or keeping the payments current until the market turns around is going to hurt.

Many will debate the degree of the pain but at this point, there is not much point to it. Credit is getting tighter and even minor dings are going to have a huge impact on the ability and cost of credit going forward.

Sure, sell enough of the other assets you bought with these funds to pay it off.