All Forum Posts by: Sharad M.

So I am going to make an offer on this house with no real estate agent or attorney involved from either side. As people on this forum suggested that I can use a title company to send the earnest money check to, I am planning to call couple of title companies to find out how to go about doing this.

1) What's my due diligence when it comes to choosing a title company to work with?
2) Does the title company I choose to work with simply acts as an independent third party, or since I am choosing them, they will tend to be slightly bias towards me?
3) There's also no bank involved in the transaction, so how do I make sure that there are no issues with the title?
4) Is it worth calling an agent and offering the agent couple of hundred dollars to help with the contract. I have already found the property and negotiated with the seller, I just need guidance with the remainder of the transaction.
5) Any thing else I need to be aware of with this transaction, since it is just buyer and seller involved?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

Adrian-

Thanks for the post. I feel like I don't need a mentor. I think I have learned a lot from this forum and reading various books. I have created a very comprehensive checklist for myself that I go through for each property.

Having said that, it would be very nice to have a mentor to guide me through, but I am not paying someone that kind of money.

Hi Phil-

What your end goal with this property? Are you trying to rent it out? If yes, have you read more about the 50% and 2% rule? Does the property meet those criteria?

If you are looking to flip the property, I don't see any value in it if you are buying it at the market value.

"The house next door is another property they flipped and they claim it sold for 128k (its only 1100sqft)"

I would do my own due diligence than believe their "claim".

You will receive more helpful replies if you post more information on the property.

Thanks!

Couple of things I should have added to my last post are that the $15k will be paid out of the profits of the deal. If I don't make any profit, he doesn't get paid.

And also, I will NOT get anyone at that cost as a mentor. The money just seemed absurdly high, so wanted to discuss with you guys.

Hello guys,

Thank you so much for your wonderful responses. A follow up question to this one. How do you know the mentor is worth the cost he is asking for? For example, I was talking to a real estate expert and he said his mentoring charges are total of about $20,000 ($5,000 fee upfront and remainder $15,000 over next couple of years). That is a LOTTTTT of money IMO, but is that what a mentor would normally charge?

Another question, what sort of things I should expect from a mentor? If I am paying a mentor, should I expect him to go see every place with me? Or once I like the place, the mentor will just do the analysis for me?

Thanks!

Sam, please don't apologize for anything. One of the main reasons why I am here is because I want people to scrutinize my deals. I am a newbie investor and few years from today I want to be an experienced investor who owns multiple properties and not someone who gave real estate investing a shot, failed at it and now thinks he has a better plan the second time around. I appreciate all the replies.

Thanks Brian, that's exactly what I was hoping to find out. I just wanted to have some info on the insurance before I spoke with an insurance agent. That helps a lot.

Hello all,

I am trying to find out how much and what kind of insurance you guys get on your rental properties? Sorry, if its a rather silly question, but I am a newbie investor trying to understand as much as I possibly can about each aspect of investing.

Thanks in advance for replies.

Just wanted to thank you guys for great responses.

Sam-The property would still cash flow atleast $125/mo/unit even if I took care of all the expenses except the drain. Drain could end up being a HUGE issue.

Peter-I completely agree with you. At this point, the only thing I am concerned about is the drain line. I have asked the seller to have a licensed contractor look at it. I absolutely am putting 10% money towards a "reserve fund". I really appreciate your detailed response.

Steve-My initial offer was 30k on the asking price of 60k, and we agreed at 37.5k.

The property will still be a great deal even if the seller doesn't agree to anything except the drain, and I have to take care of all the deferred maintenance expenses. But since I am a newbie investor, I think I am just being a little apprehensive about taking on a big project as my first few. I need to deal with my fears, I guess. But I am truly learning a lot from you guys here.

Hi Ali-

I am a newbie investor, but I can't think of anything other than the loan being an ARM and the interest rate got adjusted. Or the taxes were assessed higher this year. May be the loan term was changed to a shorter period?

Thanks!