All Forum Posts by: Allen Chaney

Yes I still use Housters. We're manually collecting checks atm until we find a solution that our tenants want to use. 

Looks like you put alot of thought into it and considered all of your options. I think you're making the right choices and I have no doubt that you're going to do well for yourself. 

An example on the cash getting you a better deal, I was looking at a property and the owner wanted to get rid of it, but didn't want the hassle of waiting for bank approvals and such since he lived a good distance away from the property. I made an offer and at first he wasn't interested, but when he found out we could close the next day with cash he accepted the offer.

Cash makes for a faster closing and sometimes can get you a better deal. Refinancing can be difficult and sometimes at unfavorable rates. Make sure you can refi ahead of time if possible. Usually a conventional loan on the purchase is the only way to get a 30 year amort. Refis and commercial loans are usually 15-20 years. Also explore a HELOC. If you can find a lender to do it, they usually have pretty good rates. With a HELOC you'd buy with cash, then get a HELOC on it. You'd draw off the money as needed and could even use it to pay cash for other properties. It's probably going to depend more on what you can get than what would be better.

I can't say much about the books since I've never read any RE books lol. Personally I just listen to the BP podcasts and webinars. It's extremely time consuming to listen to them all, but I drive a truck so I have time to listen. My biggest suggestion to you is to not get stuck with analysis paralysis. Don't just learn, but take action. We all make mistakes when we start, regardless of how much information we absorb. I started small so that my mistakes didn't have room to ruin me if I completely screwed things up. The best tutorial you can ever get is by doing it. Also, pretty much everything you ever need to know can either be found here, or you can find information that points you in the right direction. What are your goals? Are you looking to build an empire? Interested in flipping or wholesaling as a full time job? Just want enough passive income to live decently? Real estate is very flexible and is different for every investor, and is different for every market.

Welcome to the community. Unless he's making over $250k/year at his job, donation may yield almost no affect(a $60k house donated might save him a max of $18k, and likely much less. Consult tax brackets for a better idea). The property manager route is a viable solution. Look for one that deals with turnkey property in my opinion, they're more likely to be able to provide the stress free setup that you seem to be searching for. Another option is to sell them at a discount to an investor. I'm currently trying to do this with a house that isn't in a great neighborhood, and needs a little work. I figured I'd sell it cheap to an investor that's looking to get started. A third option I'd suggest is consider seller financing. Collect a down payment of $5000 or so and sell it on payments. usually with 2-3 years of seasoning, the buyers would be able to refinance out and pay him off.

@Lindsey Matejak when you come to the screen that has the "start new report" button, look just to the right of it. There should be a small "view previous reports" link.

I found one small bank that was willing to do HELOCs on rental property, but they want my credit in better condition than I can get it in the next 6 months, or they want to see 2 years of rental income (I got my first property in February of this year). One credit union said they were going to be able to do it, but never ran my credit and started refusing my calls. I have a duplex that is owner financed atm at high rates, I'm going to try to get a owner occupied loan and move into it for a little while and take the extra $400/month I save from paying rent somewhere else to pay down some personal debt.

Ah yeah that would be a tough market to gauge. Some more local insight is what you need and for that I'm afraid I'm useless lol. I would think that buyers won't price houses too far apart if they're only 10 or so years different, but I have no idea. Good luck, hope you can sell it soon.

The issue I've had is that as soon as the lender finds out that it's rental property, I get sent to commercial department even though it's not in an LLC. I have no mortgages at all and I can't get any lenders to refinance the properties I have because they're rentals. I just have to keep looking for that one lender that fits my needs. I'd recommend asking if they can do residential refi or heloc on rental property. Once you find someone that will, then decide if transferring out of the LLC is necessary. Colonial finance and B2R have loan packages to leverage 5+ properties, but the terms aren't any better than commercial lending. BRRRR was my intended strategy, but thus far I've been unable to do anything but pay cash for my buy and holds and use hard money for flips.