All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

First order of business is to purchase land that will allow him deeded access to a county road.

Sounds like the biggest help you can be to them is to pay their back payments for them and give them the name and number of a good realtor.

I am old enough to remember when solar power started to come into the public eye. This was back in the 70's. Great claims were made about it and all our electricity would soon be coming from it. It was always just 5 or 10 years off. I would hazard to say that our solar energy production is less than 10% of what was projected 40 years ago. If the computer and phone industry had seen the same progress that solar has, we would still only have desktops and brick phones. Henry Ford made the largest movement in automobile production not because of the assembly line but because he made a car affordable for the common man. Few people will dish out 50k just so they won't get a $200 power bill that month. Solar roofs are cool along with battery powered cars but I m a practical man and I don't have the money to gamble on technology that is seen as an unproven fad by middle America.

No one has mentioned the opportunity cost of buying under certain circumstances. Suppose you bought in 2005-6. 2010 your dream job becomes available 100 miles away. You don't take it because you are underwater on your mortgage and can't pay for two mortgages. What is the cost of that? I love real estate and have a farm and house that are both too big for me. I take a lot of pleasure from my property but with it comes a lot of responsibility.  I think many Americans are so in love with the idea of home ownership and being landlord free, they don't consider the true cost.

Management and vacancy brings that cash flow down to more like $230 a month. How about maintenance?  

I see this term frequently. What exactly is "investor friendly"? Cheap? Bandaid applicator? Hack? 

Why don't you buy the worst house on the street and repair it until it is the best house and then rent it out? You are improving the housing stock and providing a good house for someone.

Pass

Your problem is going to be proving that water infiltration. Occurred BEFORE you purchased and the previous owner KNEW about the water infiltrarion. What evidence do you have that the previous owner knew about this situation?

I would try and market these rentals through the plants they would be doing work at or the construction firms that were doing the work.