All Forum Posts by: Anne Laurenzi

I am about to buy a house for $64K (northwest FL) to use as a rental. Long story short, the owner died and her sister wants to get rid of the house. It's in good shape and will easily rent for 800-900. I was going to offer maybe 5% down but  not sure on the interest rate (suggestions?)

I'm debating if I should get a traditional mortgage or see if the owner will finance. I know most of the pros and cons of both but I'm not sure which would be better. If I can get seller financing, why would I consider a regular bank mortgage? I know seller financing is usually used so the buyer can take a few years to build up their credit but I easily qualify for a mortgage so that's not a problem. Do investors use it more so they don't have to use as much of their own money? Any advice?

Thanks, 
Mike

Thanks for all the info. If/When this happens I will look into all these options and see what works best.

Thanks everybody for the advise. It looks like this might be an opportunity that gets away. I don't have the ability right now to get a commercial loan. It would have been really nice. I am looking at a duplex that is close to that area. Maybe that will be a good start and lead to other opportunities in the area. 

@Rich Dunne, when I say conservative, I mean worst case numbers (high expenses, low rent) so the numbers seem good.

@Ronan M., yeah, I in no way meant to disparage low income, just curious what kinds of things to look out for/expectations. I'll see if I can do the cop thing. 

@Chad Zaback, I'm emailing my agent now. :)

So, a property near me just posted a few hours ago. It's 6 units. 1 duplex that is 2bed/1bath and a 4-plex that are 1/1 each. They want $120k. At MINIMUM, I could get $600 for each duplex unit and $400 for single units. That's being very conservative. Without repairs and 20% down plus closing costs, I'd be in for $32k. This gives me about $600 cashflow and a cash-on-cash of 22%. That's if I go low on all the rents. I also went really conservative on the vacancy, repairs, and cap-ex. I drove past it and it looks like it's all rented out as of now.

Here's the catch. There are no pictures of the interiors and it is in a VERY low-income area. Obviously, I wouldn't buy anything sight unseen and would go look at all the units first. My concern is getting into way more than I can handle. Do I want to start my real estate investing career dealing with a low income property?

Here's a link to the property if you want to look at it. The street view makes it look a bit better than what it looks like now.

https://www.trulia.com/property/3275822033-6630-Applegate-St-Milton-FL-32570

Any advice/encouragement/discouragement would be really appreciated. If I get more pics or info, I'll update the post.

Thanks,

Mike

Thanks most everybody for your responses.

@Brian Varmuza, as far as the relationship goes, he's kind of a jerk to my wife so I wouldn't feel to bad about the relationship going south.

@Thomas S. If a response isn't going to be of help, why would you even bother? Don't be too quick to judge other peoples' knowledge or experience. You know what they say about people who assume things...

A friend of mine has a landlord that is wanting to retire and move away from the area. He owns 10 different rental properties and wants to sell them eventually. I haven't talked to the man or even looked at the properties yet but it's in the works. My question(s) are;

How would I go about financing 10 properties at once? Obviously a normal mortgage for all 10 won't work. 

Is my best option to find a bank that does portfolio lending? How likely are they going to loan to someone without other investments or collateral. I don't have any other properties yet, just my personal home. I have a good paying job, a good credit score, and a modest bit of savings. 

Is there a creative way to come up with the down payment(s) or a way to purchase without down payments?

Thanks in advance, 

Mike

My father-in-law is looking to move out of his house that their family has lived in since 2005. It's a 4/2, 2100sq/ft typical ranch style home in a very nice area. Zillow is showing it's value at about 200k. It needs work. It's very outdated, needs new flooring, kitchen and bathrooms need renovation, yard needs some work, probably needs new water heater. My plan is to see if he will let ME reno the house, HE sells it, and then he pockets the before work value (plus a 10-15% bonus) and I get my renovation costs back and the profit. 
My questions are;

What's the best way to value the house in the current shape that it's in? I know Zillow and the like are not the best way because they don't take into account the condition.

If I get an appraisal done, does the appraiser take into consideration the condition of everything? Would a real estate agent be a better option to value it?

Is it going to appraise at what he would get if he tried to sell it right now as-is? 

If it appraises at say 150k but needs 50k in work to clean and modernize it, will it then only appraise at 200k after the work? 

My biggest concern is how to come to a price to offer him. I'm not trying to scam the guy but I need a way to offer an amount that nets me a profit to make it worth my while. 

I know some of those questions are hard to answer specifically without seeing comps and the house or area, but in general, is this situation usually a good deal? I'm basically getting a "loan" for the house since he will just be paying his regular mortgage and I just have to pay for the renovation (which I can probably get a loan for). 

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Hi everybody. Just want to introduce myself to the BP community. I am a search and rescue/EMS helicopter pilot for the offshore oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico. My 2 weeks on/2 weeks off schedule allows me to live in the Pensacola (Milton) area with my wife. We are looking for ways to boost our income and flipping and rental properties look like a great investment. The market for my area looks to be growing due to the schools in my county (Santa Rosa) being some of the top rated in the state with a lot of people relocating out of the neighboring counties into ours. 
I have been doing a lot of research and reading (mostly on BP) and I actually have gone and looked at a few potential flip properties and am now doing my research to make it happen. 
I look forward to picking everybody's brain and soaking all the knowledge and experience that I can out of the BP community. I plan on attending some local real estate group meetings and look forward to meeting others in my area. Any and all support would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike Laurenzi