All Forum Posts by: Marcus LaGrone

Sebastian, you have plenty of time. Even if the property forecloses in March, new laws make it impossible for you to be evicted earlier than 90 days from the foreclosure sale if you have a valid lease. In this time, you do not have to pay rent.

On another note, the bank that is foreclosing will more than likely offer what is called Cash For Keys or Relocation Assistance. I would not move until you receive an offer or are contacted by the bank. When you receive an offer, make a counter offer. In our market, banks are paying up to $3000 in many instances for the tenant to vacate in 45 days.

Congrats Alex!....Use the fire that you have right now to keep burning through deals. When you reach your goals remember that your mentor pulled you up and you do the same for someone else. Great Job!

4) Change your model.

Many 1st time investors unfortunately don't think about how they are going to fund the next deal until it's too late. This should be part of your business plan. Real estate is one of those unique businesses that can fund themselves in a very short period of time.
Knowing this, we as investors have to continually look ahead.
The problem with your business model is that it stopped at acquisition number 1 or it was dependant on another source of income to finance future ventures. It's time to get back on track.

I just recently posted a similar post in another area, but find a hard money lender in the area if your current lender is cannot fund future deals with less than 40% down.

Instead of focusing on rentals, focus on rehabs.

Buy 3 rehabs (1 at a time), fix them up, sell them, and then buy a rental. Make this your new model for a while and you will not have to worry about funding future ventures.

Anthea,
The big questions is why do you want to buy a rental property?

Are you just looking to supplement your income with one property? Or, are you looking to become an investor and purchase several properties?

If it is the latter, the best thing to do is to NOT purchase a rental right now. 25k is a good starting point for investing in several markets (not necessarily NY), but you don’t want to invest the whole amount into one rental property because then you have no money to continue investing with.

You would be receiving a small amount of additional cash flow each month, but you would be unable to purchase additional properties.

The best route is to take the 25k and go to a market where you can find a property (within your price range) that needs rehab.

Find a lender that will lend on a rehab or (if your credit is not the best) a hard money lender. Purchase the house, fix it up, and sell it for a profit. Do this a few times before you start buying rental properties and you will always have money to buy more.

Anthea…I just gave you the simplified version. Please don’t be over anxious to purchase a house because you have a few dollars and please do not read this post and think it’s super easy to do.
Investing can be done, several people invest everyday and make a lot of money (just read the stories on this website), but several people also loose their shirt trying to invest before they have a full understanding of what they’re doing.

For now, educate yourself, network, and enjoy the ride.

If you have any questions, send me a colleague request and we can talk.

Send the Seller a Unilateral Termination of Contract. It's not your fault they (or their agent) didn't request Earnest Money.

There are some really good pointers on the 50% rule for rentals on this site. You may come out better using that strategy as opposed to the Nice "basically all white" italian suburb just outside of Chicago formula.

The best way is to:
1) Include a clause in the lease pertaining to the Insurance requirement.
2) Require that the tenant add you to their insurance policy.
3) Contact the insurance provider and request to be notified for non payment or cancellation of policy.

Another option is to require the tenant to have a policy that covers their pets.

If there are set %'s they would fluctuate depending on the different areas, submarkets, etc.

We perform 1000's of BPO's a year (for banks, private investors, shortsale companies, etc). We still have not been able to determine a pattern that runs accross the board, but we have seen some small patterns in specific areas.

We have also recently noticed that the banks are not taking the numbers that they used to take. For instance, most banks require a quick sale value (30 day) and a reasonable market value (90 day) in georgia. Now that inventory levels have decreased several are now moving closer to the reasonable market value as opposed to the quick sale numbers.

Hope this helps.

Congrats Rich! Great Job!

Tiffany,
Not to bash your mentor, but he/she can be great at crunching numbers, but if they don't know the market (within a few blocks) of your property they are doing you a disservice.

Also, what mentor gets paid before the deal is done.

Tiffany....your are an investor now! Question everything....Twice!

Cancelling Contract:
Did you have an inspection clause in the contract? If so, has it expired? If not, use your inspection as a way of backing out.

Do the same thing with any financing contingencies, etc. Go through the contract with a fine toothed comb......80-90% of contracts are voidable.