All Forum Posts by: Alice K.

Sometimes I feel my biggest mistake was not being interested in it sooner.

But, then I think "Well, I never had money all those years ago! So, it wouldn't have mattered" OR "well, at least I didn't go bust as I just would have recovered now." (And, I can't imagine I'd be diehard enough to hustle people and partner back then.) Agreeing w / @Austin Fruechting @Matthew Paul

@Christian Wathne -- I too was in Seattle / Bellevue and remember running around looking at all these signs of for sales for cheap thinking: "Man, houses are a loser! Glad I live in an apartment!"20-20 hindsight--

I think we all did the best we could with the information we had at the time, even though I am kicking myself a bit. 

I had a close friend who was divorced in Redwood city next to Crossroads mall and refi'ed at the peak, terribly underwater, and wanting to walk... Good thing he didn't! (I told him to but he said he would just eat the 100k loss as we had known eachother for a few years and he was dying mentally) 

It took him 10 years to get to these "great numbers" in Seattle we see today... It's finally what it should have be return-wise had the market not plummeted!

He FINALLY got the return on his investment. 

Also, agreed with everyone here-- this is such a bizarre post, had to share it with my (very old school) property manager. 

This almost happened to my friend in his large, posh SF apartment (they're pretty sloppy in the bigger places)--

The office gave him a lower renewal rent lease and he was about to sign (and looking up legal rules if he should say anything or just keep his mouth shut and sign) but then they ran back to change it.

As @Kathy Johnson mentioned, there needs to be consideration (they need to give you some amount of money for the contract to be valid-- same as when you put in an earnest deposit-- you can't just give $1 as that likely won't be upheld as real "consideration" in court). 

So, you should be able to amend that. 

As the others said, getting the past rent is a whole different story since you never had that documented to begin with... I'm just guessing you won't be able to get it (e.g.: tenant could just walk and who could blame them?)

Words can count as a contract, but usually paper trumps that...

I'm no expert lender but if the commercial loan isn't nonrecourse (you are still on the hook regardless), you might as well go the residential way. As @Moshe H. mentioned, commercial loans tend to have higher interest rates and balloon payments after 5 / 10 years. 

Agreed too, perhaps you can shop around for other residential options. 

I would go with option #1 in your list and then once the rehab is done, get it refi'ed and pay off most of the HELOC (assuming this deal won't overextend you) if the rates are super high. Or, heck, keep using that money.

@Chris Mason - Thanks for the screenshare. I have never seen options before but will keep this in mind next time. (And, be sure to give you a call when / if I decide to do a deal in CA.)

@Jared Viernes - Certainly learned my lesson on this one. Everything was just peachy keen, and I stupidly relied solely on Washington Zillow Mortgage reviews (alleged 200+ 5 star, could easily be gamed). The broker seemed ok, it was more the sketchy out of state online lender I decided to go with through him. 

I should have known as there were several disclosure papers I didn't get last time I had a loan (eg: they require using their in-house appraisal company.... Is that even legal? Isn't that how we could get back into another housing crisis?) 

@Kevin Sherman You can use https://calibre-ebook.com/download for free! and then, hook up your kindle via USB to your PC/Mac.

It should convert pretty well as their PDF formatting is clean. 

To get PDFs converted and placed on your kindle-- (As per @Chris Ellis)

Download Calibre! (I have nothing to do with this company-- I just use this, it's free, you can donate to support them though)

https://calibre-ebook.com/download

Just bought the book. Love the writing style, down-to-earth thoughts and practical advice.  Not like those "it's super easy to do" RE books by people selling dreams. I'm under contract now (likely about to drop it), burned out and feel like I've been running around just for 1 dang deal for months.

Great job @Anson Young!

@Christian Bors - If it was some other hustler I'd be right there with you-- 

But I met Anson at a RE meetup and he's a super humble & great guy. 

<unrelated rant> The worst is when you get a 7 minute podcast (not BP but some other silly podcasts I listen to) and the ad is 2 minutes. BP stuff is nice in that they give you a good amount of content and just a few ads. 

As a person who makes content as well for another industry, it's soooo hard to somehow plug in your content without feeling or sounding like a sell out. :) 

@Ralph R. - Thanks so much for the story.
I am so sorry about those crumby appraisals! 3 weeks late is absurd. 125k for a duplex, practically anywhere these days is unheard of (your area certainly is no Ohio / Kansas!) 

We need a huge rehaul of this system. Seems this is the only sector of professional services that WE pay for that we can't select-- ludicrous. 

I do on Twitter! 

The most valuable for me is email. A+
Podcast updates are also great. 

Facebook / Twitter get lost since I follow so much additional junk. 

Also, from a real estate-standpoint, I've found FB / email to be the most effective. 

Instagram seems like the kiss of death time waster from what I've seen of my generation.