All Forum Posts by: Anna Milligan

@Sean Dawson - Nope. :( We're still working on getting it rented. We have lots of interest from our Trulia/Zillow listings (like 55 inquiries), but have trouble getting people to actually show up to the property! We listed before Thanksgiving, but now we're in the midst of the dreaded December renting funk and had no inquiries for three days. Why do you ask? Are you thinking that my suggestion that BRRRR might work in Columbus carries little weight since we've not successfully completed one?

We're in the midst of a BRRRR in the 43229 area. We bought it for $65k with ~$20k reno (cash transaction) and it is expected to rent for about $1000/mo. We'll be getting it financed soon and then it will be cash-flowing generously. We THINK it can be done because we're trying to do it ourselves!

I agree with @James Cooley - Driving around to get a sense of the areas is critical.  "Working class" neighborhoods could have very different meanings for different people.

The fact that we are novice in this business will shine through in this post. We purchased our first investment property as a foreclosure on 9/2/16. The idea was a BRRR approach. On top of the $65k price tag, we put $22k into renovation and repairs. We paid cash with the idea that we would get a mortgage on the property when the improvements were complete. Now, here we are with $85k in this thing. We think it will appraise at about $110k. Based on comparable sized homes for rent in the area, it should rent for about $1000/mo. Sounds decent, right? Well, we can't get the darn thing rented. We've had it on the rental sites (Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, and Craigslist) for 3 and a half weeks. We've had a total of 44 inquiries. When the flood of inquiries started coming in, we thought "This will be easier than we thought!" So wrong. Of the 44 inquiries, we have made about 12 appointments to show the place. Of the 12 appointments, only 6 have actually showed up! After two no-shows, we started sending appointment confirmation texts. Still, no luck in getting people to actually show! What do we do? We are solidly into the "holiday season" now and I feel like we're going to have even more trouble renting the place. Do we lower the rent? Do we eliminate the $35 application fee (FABCO check) and cover that ourselves? Do we just grit our teeth and wait it out? So far, the only comments we've gotten are that the floors aren't in good condition (they are hardwood and could use refinishing but we are TOTALLY out of money to do that... We're lucky to be able to give our kids Christmas this year!). 

We are nearing completion of our first rehab on what will be a rental property.  We paid cash for the transaction and financed the reno with cash.  Now, we need to cash-out so we can do it again!  We are in Columbus, Ohio and we're looking for recommendations on banks/lenders to check out for this type of mortgage product.  We need a 30 year fixed loan and can leave 25% down.  Any suggestions?  I have gotten conflicting information regarding this process.  Some people told us that we must wait a 6-month seasoning period.  Others say 4 months.  Still others say that since we paid cash there is NO seasoning period.  Any insight on that?

@Nathan Click - We plan on pulling cash out of our rental. We will pay 'cash' for the transaction by using the HELOC on our primary home. We would like to pay the HELOC back by getting a mortgage on the rental property after we do the repairs.

So, there's this property.... 

We are new to REI and have been searching several months for our first rental. We have put offers on two properties to no avail. Now, we have our eyes on a third. There are bowing basement walls and a wet basement. I'm a structural engineer and have seen way worse, so this doesn't scare us off since I know it is repairable. Unfortunately, it does scare off banks! I have little hope that we can get financing. So, we'd like to do a cash offer. Our plan is to pay cash for the purchase, pay cash for the fixes and then do a cash-out refinance.

Questions:

1) How long do we have to wait to do a cash-out refi?

2) What sort of loan-to-value ratio can we get for a cash-out refi?  Someone told me that we could only get a loan of 65% of the total purchase price plus repair cost.  That baffles me.  Why wouldn't the bank just look at the property's current value instead of what we paid to buy and fix it?

3) Are there any other creative purchase solutions that we should consider?

Thanks for any guidance you can give!

We are itching to get our first rental.We have financing lined up as people, not an LLC.However, we have created the LLC with the State of Ohio and we have an EIN number.We are preapproved by a bank for a traditional mortgage (as individuals) and we have a prequalification by a hard-money lender (as individuals).When analyzing rentals, we are looking at financing with the traditional 30-year mortgage, but we just learned that we cannot do that as an LLC.So, how do we get the liability protection of an LLC and the advantages of a 30 year fixed mortgage?What options do we have?While we're still looking for our first, our business goal is to acquire 10 rental units within the next 5 years.Ideally, we finance the down payment for each new rental with flips that we do between rental purchases.The flips use the hard money lender.Do we try to attain these goals as people or do we have to take special steps to make the LLC the owner/buyer of all these properties?

My husband and I are starting out in the biz, but have goals to move forward quickly in real estate investing.  When does it make sense to get a real estate license?  What kind of investment (time and money) is involved?  If I get a license, it would be only for me to represent our business (I don't want to make that my profession exclusively).  Thanks for any words of advice!

We’ve been enthusiastically searching for our first property to buy and hold. Our focus has been finding a distressed property that we can put some money into renovating and then rent long term. We were surprised to have so much trouble finding a general contractor interested in a whole-house renovation project which is what we are looking at for many of the potential properties we’ve found. It seems that many investors prefer to keep their good GC’s in their back pocket for when they need them. I get that, but I’m at a loss as to how to find GC’s who have a good reputation without asking people for recommendations. So, I’ll keep trying! :) If you have a GC that you’ve enjoyed working with, please let me know!

Thanks!

@Mark Vejnar - Interesting idea with the new build on vacant lot option.  That is certainly something I had not considered.  We would consider multifamily, but our focus right now is on single family homes.  The idea being that they are more versatile - rent, rent-to-own, or fix and sell.

@Ed W. - Our four kids range in age from 2 to 8 years old.  I work part time as a structural engineer (three days a week) and can potentially put 16 hours a week toward the business.  My husband can put more like 8 hours per week into it.  Collectively, that's 24 hours a week which I think is a solid start.   Thank you for the heads up about the landlord group meeting tomorrow!  I think it would be worth it to figure out a way to get to that meeting.  As for wholesaling, I haven't done too much research on that niche.  It seems like one that it pays to have a ton of connections and/or leads via direct mail or otherwise.  Neither of those are something we have right now, but I like the idea of working that in.  More research is needed! 

@Thomas S. Thanks for commenting and thanks for the well wishes as we embark on this new phase in our lives and careers!