All Forum Posts by: Andrea Castor

Great job @Kyle Grimm! I've always lived by the list, but I'm trying to get my husband into the goal setting. He loves to sit down on a yearly basis and look at our networth and its growth over the year so I think setting goals for his business might be great for him too!

Although we've live-n-flipped and bought/held/sold three properties over the past 8 yrs, we now feel financially secure enough to really get a real estate business going. We've decided for now our main focus will be on flips, as 4 kids 8 and under keeps us busy and not a ton of time to deal with rentals. My husband can do all the work himself but it puts us on a bit of a time schedule. We'd like to have a house closed on, rehabbed, and on the market by Apr 1st when my husband's landscape business gets busy again. We'll then look for another one to start on around the Aug 1st time frame.

So far, we've found nothing we're in love with (aka, profit margins not large enough, property may not sell quick because busy street/one bathroom family house/possible risks with foundation, etc) BUT we did find a short sale. Mortgage is showing it was refi'd at $154k in Jan 2015. It was on the market maybe a month at $120k. Price dropped yesterday to $100k and became a short sale. It really needs VERY little work. Biggest concerns are huge deck and above ground pool all need ripped out and house reeks of pets. Rest just needs cleaned up, even has upgraded light switches, lighting, fans, siding, etc. BUT, its a short sale. Hard to believe that a $95k cash offer would be something the bank would even entertain. There is also the risk that the power has been shut off and if the temps drop below 30s, the pipes could freeze. Comps are looking around $140k BUT it has a new extra 2.5 garage and yard is 2x (.5 acre) all the other comps so hoping to list around $145,900.

BUT, should we make the offer and keep looking for something in the shorter term. Worse case scenario we get two flips almost at the same time? (And we only have the $95k cash so if we ended up using that on another property we'd have to find a short term loan from family) Should we not even make an offer? Thoughts?

Although Im still a big fan of the Dave Ramsey fan (like Brianna mentioned), my vote is for doing both. Stop wasting your money on rent and find a multifamily unit. $10k in student loans should be knocked out easily in a year or less if you are budgeting and living even fairly frugal. Don't keep student loans around like a pet, especially when they are that small. Knock it out and move on.

What type of neighborhood is this? $67k even for a totally rehab'd house seems unheard of and I'm in a very low cost of living area. You did a great job buying low and minimizing your cost. The curb appeal is amazing.

If I were in your shoes, I'd pass. Even with the perfect end buyer lined up, the profit margin is just way too small for me. $100k in it (plus time) to get $105k. Or are they willing to pay $105k as is (hence the double close)? 

I think this is a great reason to network. Pass the lead along to someone else knowing they'll be in the same position soon. What comes around, goes around. 

Agree, I use Zillow and craigslist and also calling around to the larger complexes and pretending I'm a perspective renter. I then try and see what finishes the competition has in their rentals and do mine just a touch nicer. I try to find features, like an attached garage or include high end front loading washer and dryer to give my property a leg up. Using this, I have always been able to price at the top of the market, find good tenants quickly, and keep them there for an extended period of time. I also like to point out the advantage of dealing with a personal owner vs a large rental company when they need something fixed (which I personally think IS worth something).

Sadly, you don't even need to follow divorce filings. As a mom of 4 young kids you just have to go to the gym, PTO meetings and soccer games. Ha! That being said, after 4 years even with great renters, we're done with the rental side. To slow for us in terms of investment and I can't stand the couple days of showings in between renters and people who expect you to wait around for an hour till they get there. Or dropping everything because their toilet handle feels jiggly or they think someone is in their attic.  

So I guess that would meet your qualifications. Purchase $89k, $2k taxes, $1800:

12,000/92,800 is just under 13%. 

If you purchased it without a realtor involved you could save a couple thousand too. we were one of the highest comps in the area. 

I really think our area of Ohio is great for this. We personally purchased a condo/town home for $49k, put in $12k, rented for $1000/mo. Expenses were $2k taxes and $150/mo HOA.

Even turnkey though, we just sold it for $89k, but other units not as nice we're going for $1100/mo. Not sure the exact ROI on that but I still think it's decent.

The best part for me is that $1000/mo here for 1,000 sq ft is not avg rent. It's on the higher side and attracts usually young professional singles or older singles/couples looking to downsize. In 4 yrs with two rentals in this complex I didn't have one late rent, one damage to my properties, no complaints from HOA, nothing. The key in my opinion is finding properties that don't feel like apartments (with the shared hallway that goes to multiple front doors).

Another good strategy here with the good schools is smaller, cheaper homes for newly divorced moms. I know that sounds odd, but I constantly know of ones looking and there just isn't much that meets the criteria.