All Forum Posts by: Chris Seveney

Is your strategy buy and hold for cash flow ? Reason I ask is It will be very difficult to find a realtor to get you a rental deal in northern Virginia. Listings on MLS typically do not make good cash flow due to the high price of housing in the area. If there is one on MLS it is gone immediately due to the number of investors in the area. Unfortunately in this market you either find deals at REIA groups or word of mouth. Sitting back and having a realtor find you properties I feel you will come up short or find a very hard time getting deals. If you want to go into Baltimore or PG county then that's a different story.

I personally think you will be way over your head if you don't know where to start and want to do an apartment building. First you need to purchase land that is zoned for an apartment building then spend 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars to get it permitted. No bank will fund a project prior to it being permitted and plans approved. So you will need a large amount of cash. The banks will only provide a construction loan which is approximately 50% of the overall costs as you have many many other costs involved. Sorry to be so harsh but this is the equivalent of getting in a plane and asking how to fly it.

This is illegal to do. It was being done during the boom years and you can google it but there are limits on cash back at closing and to intentionally due it to inflate the price is illegal. This will also be shown on your HUD-1 statement that whoever is doing your closing will notice and the bank will see. If you do it as a side deal contract then you are taking an awful lot of risk. The 1003, which is authorized by Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 1001, is very clear in this regard. To paraphrase, you cannot lie on a loan application or any other document related to a transaction. When a buyer, appraiser, real estate agent, loan officer, or another party provides a false statement of a property's value on a 1003 or any other document related to the mortgage loan, they have lied, which means they have also broken the law.

Send me a PM and I can show you how to sort through the data by web scraping

Garrett is correct, air conditioning is not a necessity - a residence is still in occupiable condition without air conditioning. 

Police cannot do anything it is a building official and you are not breaking any laws.

Keep records of contacting HVAC and I would notify tenants of status of repairs that way they know what is going on.

Also you do not have to pay the hotel bill. As noted elsewhere, I would offer a complimentary 5 day rent credit. Note that its complimentary though as they will attempt to seek credits for anything later on.

She can always let it go to the bank (deed in lieu etc) or get the bank to short sale it but the issue is will the bank come back after her later? This depends on the state etc. I know of someone who had a great job but had to move because of work during the downturn, the lender about a year after the sale came back after them for the balance and filed it in court. They settled out and the bank to .50 on the dollar which was a lot more than the person thought.

One thing to realize is a 1000sf home is a lot more expensive in cost per square foot than a 2 or 3000 SF home as the $ on a home is in the baths, kitchen, and electrical/HVAC and plumbing.

Thanks for the info that is good to know. For my situation I was owner occupant.

See if any investors or fix and flip companies would hire you. When a person has no money, what can they provide to the investor? You need to bring some sort of service to make it worth their while. Maybe bring them a deal thats worthwhile and if it works out to get a portion of profits etc. in order to build money to get your own place. 

Another option would be to see if you could buy a duplex and rent out one side and live in another to save money. But if you only have $300 that will not get you there. 

Is the floor floating or glued down ? If it's floating and you put flooring down first and use a granite countertop you may get board cupping under the floor. I work for a company that builds several hundred town homes and condos a year and we put cabinets in first every time.