All Forum Posts by: JT Spangler

Does anyone work with an investor friendly lender (small bank, credit union, etc)? 

It's obvious to me now that the choke point in my buy and hold strategy is financing, since anyone who follows Fannie/Freddie guidelines sees my DTI as way out of whack (due to an oddity where they'll count the debt servicing on properties against my debt but won't count the rents as income until they show up on tax returns). This isn't going to change, so I'm looking for a lender that makes underwriting decisions in house and doesn't sell loans on the secondary market.

I can buy and fix up with private or hard money, but unless I have a lender that will put long term financing in place based on the rent rolls and my track record I'm going to be waiting a long time to acquire new properties. 

Man, I would love to find a local lender who'd loan more than 100% purchase price. I've been calling for the past two days around Nashville trying to find something like that.

 In case it wasn't clear before, I do sincerely appreciate your help on this subject. I have learned a lot. :)

You'll note that I did not have any issue with his information (in fact, I thanked him [and sincerely meant it]). I mentioned only that if you know so much you want people to pay you to learn a small portion of it, then condescending to your potential audience makes that more difficult, which negatively impacts both the teacher and the learner. And regardless of how much you know about real estate, that's the mark of an inexperienced or ineffective teacher. So, I thought I'd offer him some advice in an area where I have some expertise, which he's free to ignore. Much as I was able to separate the useful parts of his post and not worry about the parts where I was insulted and talked down to. 

Thanks for the welcome, though! I've been here for two years. I do a lot more listening than talking, though, so I suppose it's easy to get lost. Still have lots to learn, for sure.

Personally, I find I'm able to get valuable information from everyone, even if I disagree with them or they're less experienced than me. The challenge isn't on the presenter to BRING VALUE! The challenge is on me, the reader, to find the value that I know is there. Something for you to consider, perhaps.

The difference between "basic" and "advanced" is entirely subjective. And while I whole-heartedly appreciate you sharing the information, I advise you not to try and sell your guru programs to people by insulting and condescending to them. This is friendly advice from someone who gets paid six figures a year (part time) to instruct employees at a Fortune 10 company. :)

Yeah, we have a solid rapport now, but I don't live in the house next door (it's a buy and hold), so I have limited chances to interact with them. My lawncare guy does have instructions to cut their yard when he does mine if it needs it, but so far it hasn't needed it.

So, either risk getting an artificially inflated offer because the other buyer will know I have ROFR, or risk getting an artificially inflated offer because the seller gets to pick a number out of a hat? Man, I guess there's no good way to insure a fair price when they're ready to sell. And if there are heirs, they'll definitely want to squeeze me (given the negotiations on their mother's house).

 They definitely won't be getting taken. I paid fair value for their mom's house, and they paid $1 for their house in 1987. The market is such now that everyone can make money -- I just want to make sure I maximize my investment by acquiring their property when they're ready for a fair price.

Can you expand on how to "buy an interest" in their property?  Like buying a share of stock in a company with an option to purchase more in the future? I'm not familiar with how that would work here. This is all advanced stuff for me right now. :)

 Right, that's what I was thinking. Do you have any direct experience with this, or tips for how it might best be done?

So, I bought a house from a nice older couple. It was their mother's house, and they live next door. The two lots are totally fenced in together with no fence between them, and in total they're 1 acre (I have 0.6, and they have 0.4). 

My long term exit strategy is to acquire their house (for the lot) and sell the 1 acre to a developer. If East Nashville keeps building like it has been, this could net me 200 to 500 k, minimum, which I'd 1031 into a large multifamily. Or so the thought goes.

My question is: what's the best way to secure the right to buy their house when I know they have no intention of selling any time soon? They spent some of the profits on the earlier sale to me on upgrades for their house (they're both retired and on a fixed income, I assume), so I doubt they're planning to sell. But they're probably in their 70s, so at some point I assume they'll need to go elsewhere. I just want to make sure that when that happens, I get the right of refusal on their house/lot.

Could I draft some sort of option contract where I pay them some nominal sum now for the right to try and purchase the house when they get ready to sell? If so, how do I insure that they don't try and gouge me when the time comes? I don't mind paying fair value, but don't want to get hosed. And the property is worth more to me than anyone else, since controlling both lots is the way to maximize values.