All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Mich Copper If you have your own handyman he could move the two stoves at their expense to ensure nothing gets damaged. However for sure I’d insist on a plumber/gas company hooking up the lines billed to me and then I’d bill them for it.

@Bryan Rodas Hi Bryan. For a non-resident occupied rental you will need a 25% down payment plus your closing costs which are usually 3-5% of the purchase price but might be a big higher in NJ.

The mortgages will be based on your DTI, Debt to Income ratio which takes into consideration outstanding debts compared to your income and assets. If you are buying a rented multi family many banks will consider at least some of the rental income into this ratio as well.

I would recommend talking to a local bank or credit union to see what you can get pre approved for, this pre approval usually lasts 3-4 months. If you don’t think your timeframe is that fast you can get prequalified which will at least give you a ball park figure of what you amount you can buy. But you should start getting your documentation together so you will be ready when the time comes to submit it.

If neither you nor your father is handy I would probably steer clear of a BRRRR right now because most of the good contractors are all booked for the summer already which would give you holding costs until you could get someone to work on your property, materials are through the roof, and real estate prices are through the roof which means unless you buy a real dump you'll not be real likely to get something under market value. Some people still are getting stuff under value, I just think until you have a little experience it might be best to wait.

I think buy and hold is great, I’ve got several. I’m in a small market and if I had 40 more I could rent them all.

If you divide it in half and buy 2 that’s great, or a small multi if you can find one that works and get several rents might be better.

@Brennen Bridgeford There’s no time like today to pick a state and town and start building your team. The Midwest seems to be one of the hottest spots for new investors with one of the lowest costs of entry. There are great realtors, good property managers, and a lot of inventory to choose from. The cash flow is reported to be solid.

With a little interviewing you can find a great realtor who will help you find an excellent property in a solid neighborhood.

I know you can do this! I just started looking at the MLS one day and found my own property. It's harder to do out of state, but I've got the best realtor! He was with me every step of the way. Your realtor will be too!

Make that call today! Change your future!! Best of luck!

@Keenan Munro In the single families the tenant is responsible for all snow removal. However if there is a huge snowfall or a bunch accumulates you should have the roof cleared off.

In my small multis the tenants are responsible for shoveling out their own walkways and cars but I have the driveways plowed and sanded or salted accordingly. If there was only one sidewalk I might negotiate with one tenant to have it shoveled and sanded or salted. I’d pay for the sand/salt. Once again remember to do the roof if there is accumulation.

You also might want to dictate where snow can be plowed to or moved to. In one of my houses tenant plowed all the snow right up to the front of the house then as it melted it leaked through the wall and into the bedroom damaging the wall and flooring.

@Kegan B. I’d recommend doing both the walk through with the inspector and the contractor.

I am buying a property that I had my contractor walk through and he gave me some estimates to finish an unfinished unit but didn’t really find much wrong with the two buildings on the site.

I had the inspector out and he found some major issues. My contractor got a second contractor to come give an estimate on the repairs the inspector had found. This second contractor had run a very large construction company in Massachusetts for about 25 years and now works “retired” jobs for his past time. He quoted me $100,000 to fix the issues.

At that point I decided I could take or leave the property and lowered my offer by $100,000. The seller countered and I said no, I was firm at the new low price. The realtor advised the seller to take it. She did. I’m about to close on my new property.

Im in the process of lining up the workers to begin repairing the problems, but without both the inspector and the contractors I would have either gotten a dangerous building, or not gotten a deal on it.

@Mary Jay In my state the bank is responsible for creating an Assignment of Leases which is then given to the buyer and it says the leases have been transferred to the new owner.

I am in the process of buying a new building, scheduled to close on Monday. Monday we discovered the bank at my previous closing did not provide me with the Assignment of Leases. My loan officer has been trying to find the documents from the February 2021 closing, no one has them. Today I had to contact all of the tenants in that building to have them sign a new lease. One lease was up for renewal, one tenant was happy to help, one man was suspicious and is “thinking it over” and the fourth tenant I have not heard from yet.

I’ve had to ask the Seller for an extension of the closing.

Make sure you get whatever your state requires for the Assignment of Leases. If it’s bank provided like mine, or something else. I’m paying the price of a newbies mistake.

@Chad Chalmers I’d stick with BiggerPockets and the pro membership for the content on it. The bookstore is great, the calculators will help you analyze all sorts of deals, there’s free webinars once a week, and the podcasts and the forums are great as you’ve discovered. For me $5,000-20,000 is a down payment or the start of one. I wouldn’t waste it on a guru.

In my market you can get a work horse property, nothing glamorous, that will rent for about $950 a month for $85,000 if you wait for it to come on the market. You may have to put some sweat equity into it initially like painting the interior or some yard sprucing up, but it will cash flow $150-200 after the mortgage, taxes, and expenses are paid each month which isn’t bad. So with that $20,000 instead of a guru you can put down 20% on your first deal and pay for closing costs too.

In other markets you can find ok deals for $50,000-60,000. Particularly in the Midwest. There is a book on Out Of State Investing in the BiggerPockets bookstore if you go that route. The best time to buy your first property was yesterday. The next best time is today. Learn first, but save your money to buy with.

@James Brackin Hi James! You’ve come to the right place. BIggerPockets had a great book store with information for agents, landlords, on how to buy property, etc. The forums are great as are the blogs and the podcasts.

Join your state real estate association and your local real estate association if there is one. They’re great places to learn things and network.

If you have questions be sure to post them so people can answer them for you! Best of luck!

@Will Boedeker I've had the same problem with the Zillow rent estimates. In some towns they're $500 too much and in others they're $300 too low and the data is 4 years old. And in another I get no estimate because there are no comps everything is STR and I'm planning on a yearly rent.

@Justin R. I was in a partnership about 22 years ago where the husband of a friend found the deals and my spouse and I were partners with the wife. We brought the money and the husband was going to do the work. Everything seemed to be going well with the first building which was a six unit apartment building with owner financing already full of tenants. If needed some TLC which it got, and we got a great tax write off and two years in the husband brings a second deal.

This building is vacant and will need a total rehab and will have 10 units when it’s done. After renovating one unit the husband says I’m out of money. My spouse and I say we have you what you asked for , your all in budget and he says that was per unit. We go ballistic and say we never would have agreed to spending $600,000 for a building when we could have had our pick of apartment buildings for $150,000.

Husband goes to work at first building. We go over and my spouse takes the checkbook out of his truck. We analyze it and realize he’s been stealing tens of thousands of dollars from us. We confront wife who is the partner. She says so what he works hard. We hire a lawyer and take them to court. We win in court and they are forced to buy us out for a large settlement.

My suggestion is if you have a partner always analyze the books and go over the finances frequently.