First Post- Introduction

[Account Closed]

I'm sure like most people reading this, I'm not necessarily a "new member" but this will be my first post. Up to this point I've been a creep just lurking in the shadows and learning as much as I can about real estate investing.

So I began my real estate journey over this past summer ('17) when I was finally at a point in my life where I was able to get into investing of any kind. That point also happened to be while I was deployed overseas with the army and had virtually no bills with a bunch of tax-free liquidity coming in.

I began with stocks (Amazon, Tesla, etc.) and then decided I was going to get into day trading and make millions. I figured I would read a few books on day trading, open an account, and then use my free time to trade futures.

Well -2,000 dollars later I realized I wouldn't be quitting my day job. However in between of my friends busting my b$$$s about the big bad "day trader" with negative assets, a few spoke about the successes they have been having with real estate.

Two of my friends then gave me the starter guide for real estate which included, "Rich Dad Poor Dad", "The Ultimate Guide....", "The Bigger Pockets Podcast", and also starting an account on this site.

So while sitting in Baghdad, I did some due diligence and happened to settle with Kansas City, MO as the area I was going to buy. From there I also decided to go to a turn-key company since I live in NYC when I am in the states and would't be local.

From there I found KC Metro Homes which is a turn-key company and they did an amazing job working with me and were extremely user friendly. Through their site I was able to find a house and was about to go through the offer process when I decided to find a realtor to help me through the process. Due to KC Metro Homes selling their homes "for sale by owner", I wanted to have to pay out of pocket for a realtor to represent me.

And that is where I combed through this site and found a recommendation for Alison Chaplick with Moffit and Associates Realty. However since I only needed a realtor to "spot check" the deal and [I thought] most of work was done, I asked her if she would take a 2% commission instead of 3% which she agreed.

From then on Alison was in constant contact with me and pretty much took on the project like she was buying the home for herself. She personally met with the turn-key company and we were able to put in an offer the property.

Unfortunately [at the time], I was beat out by another investor due to the fact I decided to go with Quicken loans. The rationale was that they are too big and bureaucratic that they take too long to close. So after I decided to go with a local lender and had better success in the future.

After I was beat out on the property was where Alison really stepped her game up. She suggested that through her network, we could find a home off market which only needed minimum repairs and I would able to save a big chunk of money.

Within the next few weeks, we had a great offer accepted for a house way below market value. The problem was however that I was redeploying from Iraq and still haven't seen the house. So Alison was able to go out to the property multiple times and send me pictures and videos and kept assuring it was a great deal.

Finally when I was back in the states, I was able to fly out to KCMO for the home inspection. On the way out there I was still trying to listen to as many podcasts now on rehabbing homes as well as reading the Bigger Pockets, "Ultimate Guide to Rehab Costs."

When I arrived at the home, Murphy's law showed up and more things couldn't have gone wrong. I was able to see water shoot across the room, gun shot holes in the front door and ceiling and also exterior holes and wood rot. Not to mention the inspector listed like 100 items that needed to be addressed.

In my head I kept seeing myself close on the property and then owe about 50k in rehab costs. However Alison kept reassuring me that it looked worse than it really is and the the full rehab will only be around 10k as I planned. In order to reassure me, Alison was able to get a rehab quote BEFORE I closed on the house so I would know all the costs associated with the property. I was also able to get some good KC BBQ so that might have had some effect...

On top of the physical state of the house, there were problems with the title that had to get addressed. The previous owners owed the state from a grant they were given because they haven't stayed in the house as long as the grant stipulated. Alison was able to talk the state down for the amount they wanted and made sure there would be no more issues with the title.

Additionally, the appraiser that the lender ordered did not put the house in a class where the loan would be approved. To mitigate this, Alison had to use the funds she saved working with the state and had the seller repair the items that the appraiser required. 

But finally through all the issues, I was able to close last week and finally begin the planned rehab.

Looking back it seems like it was a rocky process but really for me it was pretty much stress free because I had such a good team working on my behalf.

Going forward, I'm looking to use my VA loan and house hack in the NYC area.

If anyone has any questions regarding contacts in the KCMO area or buying while deployed with the military feel free to hit me up!