All Forum Posts by: Thomas Wood
Thomas Wood has started 2 posts and replied 7 times.
Post: Renting out my primary residence and making sense of the numbers

- Atlanta, GA
- Posts 7
- Votes 0
@Tim Herman, thanks for the reply. That makes way more sense.
Post: Renting out my primary residence and making sense of the numbers

- Atlanta, GA
- Posts 7
- Votes 0
BP community,
I'm considering renting my primary residence which is due for a refi. Conservatively it's worth $300,000 and I'm going to refi into a 30yr fixed for 150k (actually slightly less but rounding up for easy numbers). When using the BP rental calculator or others, should I be putting the 150k refi and associated fees in as the mortgage amount but utilizing my estimated 300k as the ARV? Rentometer and other sources estimate rents in my immediate area between 1800-2500/mn. I'm skeptical here and have yet to confirm with PMs and realtors who know the area but even if I lower the estimated rent to 1500, it still looks pretty healthy. So much so that I'm strongly considering renting rather than simply selling.
Simple question: am I doing this math correctly? If so, it seems like I could turn my non-performing asset into a performing asset and maybe even double up down the road by leveraging my equity via a heloc.
Thanks in advance for any advice or commentary.
Post: Phone App Receipt Tracking

- Atlanta, GA
- Posts 7
- Votes 0
Have you considered using the document scanning and optical character recognition features of Evernote? It already has pretty robust organizational capabilities and supports sharing notes or notebooks with other users. Would still require some work at time of entry to capture the specific fields you mention or have someone do that in batch.
Another potential avenue is a solution like expensify. I've used it while working as a consultant and while working under a w2 for large corporations for general expense capture, reporting, and submission.
Post: Financing Distressed Property in Historic Neighborhood

- Atlanta, GA
- Posts 7
- Votes 0
@Rick Baggenstoss, @Andrea Townsley, @Stephanie Medellin,
Thanks to you all for your advice and suggestions! I grew up in residential construction in Florida so I know enough to know a) I don't have the skill to execute and b) the time to devote to GC'ing that work vs day job and other RE investing.
It's absolutely a vanity project that would be my primary residence and likely willed to my kids (their grandparents purchased for a song in early 70s when the neighborhood was legitimately a war zone). Friends live there, schools are where we're targeting for kids. Strictly as an investment, I'll be the first one to state this isn't going to be a performing asset. However, 30312 is pretty high performing.
I'm going to review the mortgage for assumability options, but worst case if I end up purchasing through my investment company and financing it, I can hold with tax advantages while building cash and team to take on the project in the future.
Big thanks for all your responses!
Post: Financing Distressed Property in Historic Neighborhood

- Atlanta, GA
- Posts 7
- Votes 0
Originally posted by @Nick Rutkowski:
@Thomas Wood
That's important to mention you want to live there too. I'd go with your plan of purchasing it for what they owe. Get a real estimate and a new evaluation for what it'll be worth fixed up before you buy the property. When you buy it, go to the bank with your estimate in hand and pull a HELOC out and fix up the place. Banks would loan you money to fix a house you own rather than finance a purchase and construction.
You can go hard money lending and they’ll lend you the money as well. But that has a lot of draw backs too.
Appreciate the advice!
Post: Financing Distressed Property in Historic Neighborhood

- Atlanta, GA
- Posts 7
- Votes 0
Originally posted by @Nick Rutkowski:
@Thomas Wood
Wow, that is a challenge. 600k for a rehab on a historic property? Is this a mansion or something because that seems like a lot.
You’d make more selling it as-is if your appraisal is correct. However, I’d get your property re-evaluated before putting it on the market. Save yourself the time and the headache. If no one wants to finance it, then that should be a sign to you.
Nick, I agree with you. I'd rather it were sold and the equity reinvested. However, I should further clarify this will be my primary residence that I will hold long term. Obviously a non-performing asset but the property has a family connection so it's a "happy wife happy life" situation. Stated clearly: my in-law will not sell. My spouse will not support a sale. It's fun dinner table talk :)
My fall back plan at the moment is to acquire the property for cost of the note, get whatever insurance I can on it, perform stabilizing maintenance, and stockpile cash until I can make it work. But as I said, I'm new to this and trying to figure out a way to make this happen sooner.
Post: Financing Distressed Property in Historic Neighborhood

- Atlanta, GA
- Posts 7
- Votes 0
BP Community,
First let me apologize in advance if I'm posting in the wrong forum. This is my first post so I thought I'd make it personally memorable by tying it to my current real estate challenge. As my question likely reveals, I'm new at this so thank you in advance for your patience and advice.
I'm trying to acquire and restore a distressed property in a historic neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. Currently owned by an in-law and has about $100k mortgage on it. Two year old appraisal values at $400k as it sits. I have plans and estimate for restoration that require about $600k to get to a state where home could be occupied. Based on comps in neighborhood I estimate ARV of +$800k.
My challenge is finding a lender that will finance the project. I thought I needed something like a jumbo loan to acquire the property for cost of the note and finance the construction effort. Was talking with Fidelity in Atlanta but they pumped the brakes when Ameris acquisition occurred.
No national lender seems to offer this and my credit union doesn't do anything like it either. This leads me to believe that I'm looking at this situation wrong and/or talking to the wrong people b/c while there's risk here comps in the neighborhood should support a healthy ARV (but I lack knowledge and experience to prove that assumption).
What am I missing? I don't have the cash to take on the deal even if I liquidate everything but have the cash flow to support financing. My concern with simply buying out my in-law is that b/c the property is distressed, I doubt I could get an insurance policy to cover it until such time as I can raise funds to rehab.
I appreciate your advice in this matter.