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All Forum Posts by: David Begley

David Begley has started 23 posts and replied 348 times.

Post: Lendinghome.com

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298

@Jay Hinrichs  I was fairly pleased up until several days before closing.  I would not recommend to anyone that may have a hard deadline, like purchasing from a Wholesaler where a double close might be required.  

Post: Lendinghome.com

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298

@Craig Wilcox @Darrell Shepherd @Josh Stech

Darrell, your comments mirror my recent experience with LendingHome.  Very nonchalant regarding closing schedules and less than ideal communication along the way.  I had to postpone a family vacation because they kept dragging the closing out due only to their internal operations and nonchalance toward established deadlines and closing schedules.  What makes this doubly maddening is that, in 20+ years in the financial sector working with national and international financial institutions, I've never had to deal with one not in sync with New York EST markets and Fed schedules.  When one is scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. closing and the Lender doesn't wake until noon, problems arise that could've easily been avoided.  If you're looking for a competitive rate and don't care about when you close, they could be great.  Otherwise, the experience may be less than ideal.  

Post: Lendinghome.com

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298

Yes, I have. 

Post: 1st Flip Finally Finished!

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298

@Vonetta Booker Very nice job! Congratulations! 

Post: Trust No One (when it comes to contractors...)

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298
Originally posted by @Ross Bernard:

I found an HVAC tech online who had 64/64 five-star reviews on Google Maps. There was nothing but praise for him, so I gave him a shot. He diagnosed my problem as a faulty control board. He quoted me $700 for the board plus installation. I nearly said, "OK, do it". But then I looked up the replacement cost of the exact same board online and found that it sells for $380. I called him and said I found the board online for just over half of what he quoted me. He laughed and said, "That's the cost of doing business." A nearly 100% premium payed just for parts? I bought the board online, installed it myself in about 15 minutes. AC works. At least his diagnosis was correct.

Anyone have any ideas for finding honest contractors? I almost feel like the only way to find an honest HVAC tech is to become one myself. This guy now has 64 five-star reviews and one two-star review, courtesy of yours truly.

 I would say the HVAC contractor is a lot more honest than you in this situation.  You allowed him to diagnose the problem (apparently on his dime) and then turned around and used that knowledge to save a few dollars by doing it yourself.  If that's not bad enough, you gave him a bad review to negatively impact his livelihood?  After accepting his original estimate without even comparative shopping?  Shameful actually - but I bet if you had screwed up the install by doing it yourself, this "dishonest" HVAC guy would've been the first you would've called to bail you out.  You may want to re-think your approach to business in my humble opinion.  

Post: $1,000 gone missing...

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298

The last thing you want to do is accuse one of your employees, without a shred of evidence, as a couple of posters suggest.  Ready-Fire-Aim is not a good management practice, regardless of the situation.  In this case, I will bet you the MO turns up eventually and, besides, what happens if you falsely accuse or terminate an otherwise good employee?  I promise you the labor law attorney you will be forced to hire will ask for more than $1,000 for his/her retainer just to hear your sad, but indefensible, story.  If an employee (or anyone else) had stolen the MO they would've cashed it immediately before it was discovered missing and a stop-pay issued.  If MoneyGram or whomever are showing that it hasn't been cashed yet, it won't be.  The amount is too small to launch into accusatory mode.  Your dual control & procedures are sound - file a lost MO claim, get reimbursed, and install cameras.  

Originally posted by @Rick Baggenstoss:

@James Paisley  Welcome to BP!  Glad to see another intown investor.  I'm in Decatur and buy between here and Historic West End (aka the next Grant Park). :-)

As @David Begley mentioned, you'll find some great resources here with broad experience.  You'll want to narrow your criteria so when the right deal comes along, you can make a confident, quick decision.  

Best of luck!

Rick

 Perhaps the three of us can grab a coffee soon - except the coffee I've owed Rick now for over a year has compounded to at least a lunch by now, maybe more....  

@James Paisley Welcome Jim!  You've come to a great place to meet like minded investors.   You will find a good number of very astute Atlanta real estate investors on this site and all I've met are very helpful for those of us starting out. Good luck! 

Post: Quit Claim Deed to LLC on Fannie Mae Financed Property

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298
Originally posted by @Eric Stoltz:
Originally posted by @Account Closed:

As a former Fannie Maer, don't do it

Can you clarify. Don't finance with Fannie Mae or don't try and QCD it afterward to move it into an LLC?

If you are going Conventional,  "financing without Fannie Mae" is like saying I'm going swimming but I don't plan on getting wet.  It's pretty much unavoidable.   Even if Fannie isn't the eventual end-buyer of the loan (technically they purchase loans, not finance them), the lending institution will most likely use Fannie Mae guidelines and write the loan on Fannie Mae documents.  The obvious exception are the smaller banks/credit unions that portfolio their loans and don't sell on the secondary market.  The trade off will be higher interest rates, shorter terms, and overall less attractive terms.  (Comments are generalizations, not absolutes)

Post: Quit Claim Deed to LLC on Fannie Mae Financed Property

David BegleyPosted
  • Investor
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Posts 415
  • Votes 298
Originally posted by @Account Closed: 

As a former Fannie Maer, don't do it

@Eric Stoltz, but if you do, do it, you might want to wait after 12 months pay history, and then never be late for a payment by even a day as long as you pay on the note. You really don't want to QC before the mortgage is actually sold to Fannie/Freddie and/or the servicing rights are sold. (That is an on-going risk too that the paper or servicing will subsequently be sold and a new Title search ran.)

Also, you might want to think twice about changing the loss payee on your Hazard Insurance Policy to the LLC, which could cause a trigger/red flag, but then the Catch-22 is if you have a fire, water damage, or other major disaster, the Insurance company could try to weasel out of the claim since the Insured is different than the recorded Owner.

I know a lot of folks on here QC to their LLC and roll the dice with the Due on Sale clause. I have four LLCs myself for asset protection, but I've never borrowed under my personal name and quit claimed to the LLC. The risk in doing so is much greater than the reward/protection, IMHO; however, I also have a $2.0MM Umbrella policy that probably affords me more protection than an LLC would or could in a situation similar to yours.