All Forum Posts by: Andrea Castor

If I couldn't refi some of the cash out, would you still move forward with the deal? $20k + $10k isn't a deal breaker for us, but also lowers the cash I have on hand for buy and sell properties.

looking at a condo in a B/B- neighborhood. Asking $24,900 but fairly confident a $20k cash offer would close the deal. It's a 3 bed, 1 bath (1300 sq ft) plus attached 1 car garage. Needs about $10k to get ready to rent. Will be able to rent between $700-$800/mo. 

My question is whether I'll be able to refinance? Comps in the area used to go around $50k, there is one listed for $46k but has been on the market for some time. The rest of the comps in a fairly large circumference have all been foreclosures around $25k-$35k. Assuming that's all it's worth, can you refinance for such a low amount? Is it even worth it? 

Two things to consider, but really not part of your question.

1) I'm not sure if the laws are any different there than Ohio, but assuming she doesn't have a large sum of cash stored away, and something happened and she'd have to go into a nursing home, they go back 5 years. If the house was in her name in the 5 years, she would have to sell it to pay for the nursing home before switching over to Medicare. If this happens, I think you could actually lose the money you are paying because the house was in her name during that period.

2) I'm not sure what the situation is with your other two siblings but assuming all of you live out of town and all of you equally care for your mother, they really should get a share of the house (assuming there isn't some other large stash of cash). Personally, I would have a plan in place to pay them the $250k in equity divided by 3 people. BUT, this should also be written out in her will.

Thank you for this answer! This is a way I hadn't thought about it yet. I really do want him to succeed in the business and I want a long term relationship with a good realtor for my benefit as well, so this seems like the perfect solution should it come down to it. Thank you!

We are working with a new realtor. He's only been in the business a few months but has a lot of experience. Overall, he really has been a great realtor on the few properties we've looked at/made offers on.

The issue is that he's looking to build his clientele and looking for other investors. The issue I have is when multiple clients of his are looking at the same property. What if both of his clients decide to bid on the same property? I feel like he couldn't really be in the best interest of both, knowing what both offers are.

This situation has not yet happened, but if it does, I'd like to be prepared.

Still new to REI, but feeling frustrated today. I know we can't win them all but still.

We bid on a bank owned property the first day it hit the market. Husband wanted to start low ($52k cash for $59,900 asking price) with ARV around $116k. I wanted to put in out REAL.offer of $59k we were willing to pay. Our realtor figured they would get multiple offers, the bank would ask for best and final.offers, then we could go to our $59k max.

Today we found out bank got multiple offers, all very close, but ours was not chosen. I'm obviously disappointed because we wanted to pay more. Is it typical to just choose one of the offers or more typical the banks give everyone another chance? Just trying to learn fornthe next time....

We aren't super new to investing, we have cash and yet I STILL feel bad that an agent is wasting their time. But not every showing is going to be a home run. I try to do as much of my homework as I can before asking to see a place, ask for realtors comps to compare with my own, and make a reasonable (yet sometimes it is considerably less) offer.

If you are not a cash buyer though that would for sure be my first step. Talk to the realtor about what you are looking for (and be reasonable), show how you are qualified to buy the property and go from there. I've found we've had to go through a lot of realtors though to find what we were looking for.

We are now using Transunion SmartMove and have found the service to be easy to use, more private (I don't personally like to provide my SS# to just anyone), and as a landlord very informative and accurate.

you've got some good solid advice but I'm just going to add one more thing. I worked and went to school full time. My husband and I also bought our first house to live in and fix up during this time. Then I got a "real" full time job and went too rad schools full time. We thought it was son hard. Nothing compares it to to our crazy busy life now. 

Also, school isn't everything. You can't walk out with a degree in construction mgt and get some awesome job. Chances are you'll start at the bottom just like everyone else. Don't use it as just a time to mature. 

Personally if I were you I'd continue living with the parents, minimize your expenses with a beater car, gas, and whatever amt of rent/food your parents make you cover. Work and get a job inside the career field. Work for a property mgt company, at a real estate office, for a builder, at an apartment complex. Pay down the debt quick. Learn. At night take classes online that will eventually transfer. If in two years you've paid off the debt and still feel you would benefit more from finishing the degree then finish full time without going back into debt. Start your careers still living with the rents, buy a multifamily when you have a down payment and now awesome credit, and let it build from there. I realize 4-6 yrs seems like an eternity, but it'll go by in a flash. 

I think you may want to first speak to the current property manager and get a feel for the tenants. From the looks of it, there is an older population in this area that could be reliable just on a low fixed income. That would be your best case scenario and probably the ONLY reason I'd ever even look at this idea.

Have you looked online at median rental rates in this area?

Zillow, and use a couple other sources you can see typical rents in the area are closer to $450-$550. One stat also showed a 14% vacancy rate.

Here is some of the stuff I found on crime rates, but like someone mentioned, there are better pockets of Tortwood that I think makes this sound better than it is (which still isn't good rating it at a 6 out of 100).

http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/oh/trotwood/crime/