All Forum Posts by: Allison Stewart

@Ben Cowles - that makes us practically neighbors - hi! I'd love to hear about your purchase if you want to DM me! 

@James May welcome! I've worked under mission for the CDC abroad - it's an interesting life. Sounds like you have a great start in real estate!

We are near the Lamar and Rundberg area. The NACA neighborhood is actually pretty nice - and the SFRs are going for $300k+ depending on condition. There are pockets that I would probably avoid, but it's really up and coming. We've been looking for another duplex in that area to owner occupy.

For what type of property (SFR, small multi, complex, commercial, etc) and what type of strategy (buy and hold, flip, etc)?

I personally wouldn’t. That’s a too risky position for me, but if you feel reasonably comfortable in your ability to flip, then you could always give it a go. 

Welcome to BP! Good luck with your strategy from a fellow biology degree holder! :)

@Glen Fullerton, wow, would love to work with your team if they work that hard. That has not been my experience with agents that I have worked with. All of them here have just set up MLS alerts and expect me to look for properties on my own. We have such a competitive market that I will make offers without even seeing properties, so my realtor doesn't really do anything, except submit an offer and potentially some negotiations (if there are any) - and they get like 3% for that. I've just been wondering if I'm using the wrong agents or if it's just this market. So I don't necessarily agree that you get what you pay for. :)

You can do an investment loan if you have ~20-25% to put down. The rates are a bit higher than a traditional mortgage with occupancy, but if you don't occupy the property, that's all that's available for conventional financing. In cheaper markets, the 20-25% down is much easier to achieve as well. Good luck!

We renegotiate during the option period based on our inspection findings. Some things you may just have to intuit based on age of home (wiring, asbestos, lead, etc) and work those into your initial offer. But I always find that an inspection provides good leverage - and if the seller doesn't want to renegotiate and we don't think it's worth the price anymore, we walk away from it. Sure, we are out an option fee that way, but that's less than a major foundation issue, for example. 

It would depend for me on your anticipated profit margins. It's $150K ARV but I don't know how much you paid or how much you have in the project right now. It sounds like the investment probably won't get you much return, but I'd want to about double my investment - so if you spend $500 on moving the closet, will it net you $1000+ higher sales price? Probably not, depending on the area.