Newbie from Hurst, Texas

[Debbie B.]

Hi, everyone! I stumbled across this site while researching REI and it's great!

My name is Debbie Butler and I live in Hurst, Texas. I'm a business/systems analyst and manager for a large investment bank. I work in the capital markets group. We support the trade desk that buys and sells loan portfolios in the secondary market. With the current market, most of our loans are scratch and dent and are either in foreclosure or REO. Seeing all these distressed loans every day got me to thinking there's got to be a way to make some money off this.

My husband and I bought a new home (new to us) a year ago and rented out our old house because of the depressed market. We lived in our old house for 18 years and have good equity. The rentors are pretty good and have never missed a payment. They actualy want to buy the house but have poor credit. We've considered a lease option but don't know how to go about it. We don't make much off the rent (about $83/month) and would be making a lot more if it weren't for the 2nd lien.

I'm hoping we can find a few fixer uppers. My husband is self-employed and he's coming up on a slow time. He is very handy, so our thought is we could buy fixer uppers and he can do the rehab then we'll rent. We have excellent credit, but he is self-employed, which might make the financing difficult.

Thanks for all the great information I've read so far on this site. I have a much better idea what I'm up against to enter the REI world. I'm currently reading several books on investing in foreclosures and rehabs. After reading several posts here, my wish list on Amazon keeps getting bigger!

Debbie