All Forum Posts by: Alan Mackenthun

I get back in town a little after 8 PM. I'll be late, but I'll try to stop by.

I'd love to meet, but I'm going to be out of town on other business through Thursday the 28th. Friday night would be great or anytime over the weekend.

Great question. I'd love to hear a concise answer, but don't think I'll ever get one. Experience is key, but starting out or in a new area it's hard. I check out craigslist. It's good to watch it for a bit. Watch out for duplicate posts. Someone may post multiple listings for the same over-priced unit. Seeing the # that many times may trick you into expecting too much. 1,200-1,400 is really a pretty decent range IMHO. Prices will vary based on location, parking, condition and age of the property.

I'd suggest looking for other mortgage brokers. I've bought multiple condos with conventional investment mortgages. It is harder, but certainly some will do it. The association will have to complete a condo questionnaire. Not all condo's can be financed, but most should be ok. In my experience, being FHA approved isn't necessarily required, but like Wayne said, too many rentals in a development is problematic among other criteria. You can usually get better deals in associations that have problems, but the problems can come back to bite you. I've got a couple in an association where no-one can get financing. I got these financed back when Countrywide would finance anything. It depresses prices and one guy owns 25% of the units renting all to section 8 tenants.

It's listed so the listing agent is going to get their fee. Either you'll get your own agentand they'll get a cut of the commission or the listing agent will keep the whole commission. I'm an agent, but really only to facilitate my own deals. This way, I have more control of the transaction and the commission split goes to my downpayment. :-)

Ditto. They buy all these property's and renovate them into high end properties and then rent them long term. They've said often they buy them for cash, but the last episode referenced a mortgage. At any rate, it sounds like they started right out of college, so where'd they come up with cash?

My other thought is that often times, it doesn't seem like they're clearing much cash flow for all the money they're putting into these properties. More insight on the business end of their venture would be interesting.

Outstanding question and I love the answers. I'll just add the old reliable expired listings search. These people are frustrated and often don't think they have options.

I agree with Mr. Scott, Bernard, Espinoza, and Holdman. You publically and flippantly admitted mortgage fraud and we generally don't appreciate it. When looking for my next business partner, I know where not to start. Good luck with that.

Who says it's successful? http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/02/military-tricare-costs-would-jump-in-budget-plan-022312w/ states that the enrollment fees are rising 30% next year and co-pays are doubling. You may perceive it to be successful because your not paying for it, simply sucking on the good old government tit.

I agree these are apples and oranges. Certainly the pure wealth transfers like student loans and pell grants shouldn't be the role of the federal government. The GI bill is part of the compensation offered to enlistees in our military and I support it. The MID is a deduction on taxes paid. I don't think it's a constitutional issue, but I don't support it. Federal highways support national defense (a bit) and interstate transportation and therefore commerce. In so far as highway funding goes, I support it, though not at the levels currently funded. I'm not going to address every item listed here. They don't relate to the topic of this thread.