All Forum Posts by: Tina Verstrate

Just sent you a PM

Looking for an investor friendly realtor for a home we may need to foreclose on in Warren, MI.  In need of eyes/boots on the ground to help us determine our options.  My husband will be up there next week to check things out, and it would be great if we could have a contact point in the area prior to that.  Thank you in advance.

I too am one of Chris McClatchy's Real Wealth students, but I apparently have a very different relationship with Chris' group than you. Chris and Steve are always available for me, and go above and beyond with their patience and guidance when I have questions. I've even had times that I've emailed a question to them (because I felt it wasn't worthy of an immediate phone answer), and within less than 5 minutes I'm getting a phone call to verify that I understand their emailed answer. Therefore, if a time comes that I might need to wait an hour or two for a response, I understand that they too have lives...as well as other students to mentor. Chris has been very upfront with all of us about the milestones happening within his family, and that he was taking some time to be with them. Frankly, I don't blame him at all, and would expect the same consideration if it were happening within my own family. To me, it doesn't matter which person I speak with, Chris or Steve, because I'm learning from both of them, as they each have their own unique talents and investment experiences that they bring to us. Sometimes you will go through a spurt of all Chris responses, other times it's all Steve. If Chris didn't trust Steve to give the right guidance, Steve wouldn't be his right-hand man. If Steve were not in the position that he has, Chris would never have time to call his own, because he'd have students to tend to 24/7. With both men in place, it's a good balance.

@Chris Tracy, it's currently only a 3 unit, zoned for 5 (but thank you, I appreciate the offer to speak to your "guy in the know")

@Anthony Chara, looks like we are going the "residential" route.  It's a duplex and a single unit on the same parcel, along with a glorified shed/shared laundry

We typically flip SFR, so this is out of my wheelhouse, but when opportunity knocks...

We had an opportunity fall into our lap for a multi-family property in Orlando, but we need to finance the deal.  What options are out there for us?  I'd love it to be in our entity name instead of our personal names, but I don't know what that would entail.  Can anyone lend some advice, or are their potential lenders from the area that I should contact?

I had a similar situation last fall. The appraiser came in very low, and my agent said he'd never had any luck contesting appraisals in the past because it was deemed that the appraiser would know what he/she was doing. The buyer chose to contest it and the appraisal was upheld. We negotiated some and they tried different financing, but our home was already flagged as being overpriced in comparison to the appraisal. FHA appraisals apparently stick with the home for a while...so we found out (the hard way).

Good luck with your situation turning out better than ours!

Let us know, once you get what you need and have it under contract.  Someone here might just bite...

Depending on the area, you can do quite well.  Be ware of high taxes, however.  We just moved from Cypress, which is on the NW side of Houston.  We thought about renting our home when we moved, but knew the asking rent would be too high to cover mortgage and taxes.  We had to figure a minimum of $1,000 per month toward taxes alone.  The oil and gas industry is doing a bunch of layoffs (tens of thousands) so home prices are dropping.  The best advice I can give you is to find the area you would like to focus on and do your research on that area.  Harris County is huge, then you have the immediate outskirts that can go from busy to rural very quickly.  The Grand Parkway (99) is being built in stages on the far west loop, connecting The Woodlands, down to Sugarland.  It will open tons of land, and will be connecting at 45 in The Woodlands by the new Exxon headquarters.  Schools in The Woodlands (I think Conroe ISD), Cy-Fair ISD, and Katy ISD are sought after school districts, if you are looking to factor that in. There is an Energy Corridor off of I-10 in the Memorial/Katy area, as well as a lot of medical from Memorial in toward downtown for the Medical Center.  Anything inside the loop (610) will be pricier than if you are outside the loop.  Almost every major highway is under construction at the moment (I don't miss that) and traffic is always a joy to be stuck in.  Keeping the homes you consider, near major roadways is a curse, but almost a necessity for someone needing to traveling to get to work.  Good luck!

What recourse do I have if an appraisal comes back substantially lower than the contracted amount? This is for a FHA loan, so my understanding is that the appraisal sticks with the property for 6 months. The difference is significant enough that if we were to consider lowering our price to the appraised value, we'd lose any profit we would have made, plus lost approximately $11K of renovation costs. We're talking a $200K home, not something huge by area standards... My realtor has had no luck disputing appraisals of this nature in the past, based on the depth of information the appraiser typically uses to determine a value. One of the main comps used was 6-1/2 months old and over .75 miles away. This is a hot community of hundreds of homes, where homes are selling like crazy and nothing stays on the market long, so I don't know why the appraiser chose to go almost to the edge of the community for comps. Can anyone advise me of options that I may have or alternatives at my disposal? I'd love the family to bring cash to the table, but I doubt that will happen.

Rob's advice is spot on!  We used to live in this area, then moved away for the better part of a decade. While gone, I still kept up with the market, but when we decided to move back, the first thing I did was find a realtor that I could add to the team. He was my eyes on the ground before my move was complete, and has been a great confidant now that I'm here. There are several Orlando based realtors on BP for you to look at, as well as the searching you do on your own, so you can start building your team.