All Forum Posts by: Andy Collins

My experience is that for every 20 houses I look at, I might make an offer on one.

90% or more of the time I put an offer in on a house, it won't be accepted.

When an offer is accepted, nearly half of the time my inspector or foundation person will find a problem that makes the deal not work, or some other problem will present itself (like having the house go into foreclosure while I have it under contract.

You have to keep looking at more and more properties, knowing tomorrow might be the day you find the 'right one'.    Just keep plugging along and you will do great, just remember its a business, its not personal if they reject your offer.  

andy

Move on, the seller obviously has the  price they want, and is hot 'feeling enough pain' to want to sell cheaper.

Don't ever get emotionally involved in a house,,,numbers are numbers,,when you start wanting a property too bad, you make mistakes.

Often if you watch a property in a few months it will either be a short sale or REO property, or the seller will come down, but not always

andy

If  having 3 hot water heats out of 5 rentals is "normal" to you,,then you have a problem,,.  The hot water heaters all started leaking,,

I have had more in maintenance cost in the past 3 months than in the previous 3 years,,but that's the way it goes,,they all make money and have a lot of equity

I have 5 rentals that I have owned for several years now, all 'cash cows' throwing off money, with few maintenance problems.

Since Christmas, I have had to replace the water heaters in 3 houses, had the blower motor and control unit in an HVAC unit go out, and have a pipe under the foundation of the fifth house start leaking requiring two holes in the foundation!

I would cry, but it wouldn't help, I just laugh and  know its just part of what happens!

I would love to hear stories from others that have hit similar stretches of heavy repairs... 

Stated Income loans are nearly a thing of the past,,if you have perfect credit and lots of assets, you might be able to get a loan from an individual, but today banks have to  be able to prove you can pay them back (that sounds kind of weird doesn't it).

There are people out there that will 'find you' a loan,,they will take your $5k or so and disappear...look for high net worth individuals you know that have money in savings/money market,,they are making virtually nothing on their money,,talk to them about taking property as collateral on a note,, 

As far as changing professions,,that really only kills you on mortgages, you might be able to get a banker to go along with your income on a personal note, just not a mortgage.

The problem is your describing a house that 'regular' buyers would buy, so its hard, depending on your market, to buy and have any equity left.  

Ideally you want to buy at a discount, which normally means your buying a house that needs some work.  

If you buy at fair value, have to sell for some reason fairly soon, you will be killed with selling expenses with no equity,

Being an accredited investor isn't necessary for a PIG membership, that really has more to do with SEC and making certain types of investments.

If you don't have the money to invest in multifamily, you can start out in the 'regular' membership (I think about $500 first  year), then later if you want to go over to multi and want you can upgrade to PIG.

I'm not a PIG member, nor ever have been, so I can't tell you the good and bad about it, but was a regular member for several years and it is a great place for new investors to gain the knowledge to move into real estate investing (or someone that has screwed up a time or two and wants to know the right way)

If your holding single family homes in your personal name (to get conforming mortgages), an umbrella policy will cover your rental properties, just make sure the agent is aware of them

Buying a house for $45k that rents for $1100 works great, but those deals are very tough to find.  Maybe the house is $45k, but the repairs needed might put you in the $80-$90k range or more.

The reason i say that, just about anyone would snatch a house that should lease for $1100 at a lot more than $45k (assuming that is a 'all in' price),,,maybe you found some hidden treasure of under priced houses (if you do run out and buy as many as you can),,but the market will generally keep that from happening,,

As far as HELOC's go, I don't know that you can use the equity in a rental property for a HELOC (I'm not saying you can't, but I don't believe you can). You can get a mortgage for 75% of the appraised value, so go that route

The answer is NO, as you thought,,can you cheat, yes, you can also shoplift today when your shopping, but I don't advise doing either, they are against the law, and mortgage fraud is a lot more serious than shoplifting