All Forum Posts by: Michael Baradell

Hey Guys,

I am in the process of purchasing a new primary residence. I am trying to decide if I should rent out my current home or sell it. Here are the numbers:

Owe on property- $135k

Should sell for $145k plus ( no realtor fees to pay ).

Will sell very quickly.

Current monthly note- $950 ( including taxes and insurance )

Will rent for. $1,350 a month very quickly.

Great area and house is in very good condition.

Hey Guys,

I was curious to see if anyone here has purchased or used the "We Buy Houses " marketing package? For the monthly fee, it seems pretty reasonable. Before I reached out to the company itself, I was hoping to get some feedback from actual clients or anyone familiar with what they offer. Any and all feedback is much appreciated.

@Jay Hinrichs My focus cities are Mandeville, Covington and Slidell. All are about 30 mins north of New Orleans. Most of the big dogs focus in New Orleans which is really hot right now. I am starting to research the New Orleans area now with hopes of investing there in the near future.

@Daniel Ryu thanks. For me, being able to compare my deal and numbers with other posters on here has helped me a ton.

@Jay Hinrichs these types of deals are extremely competitive in my market as well. I am not a cash buyer at this point, so since I require financing, I do miss out on quite a few deals. Being a realtor however gives me a slight advantage as I can submit an offer pretty much immediately when a property is listed. That is the only reason I was able to get my first property. It was a succession sale that came available Sunday morning. I viewed it around lunch time and had a contract on it by 3 pm. There were 4 back up offers that came through on Monday. I just picked up a Home Path property on Friday. Here are my numbers on that deal:

Purchase price- $74,000. It was listed at $99,900 for a month and then reduced to $79,900 which is when I submitted an offer.

Seller is paying $1,500 towards closing.

Rehab budget- $32,000 ( hoping to come in under $30,000 ). I am estimating a total roof replacement but I haven't gotten final word from my roofer that it will require a total replacement.

ARV is set at $130,000 but that is fairly conservative. I will list at $139,000.

My " worst case scenario " puts me all in around $114,000 with all fees, and holding costs.

Minimum profit should be close to $14,000 (before taxes) selling at $130,000.

Not a home run but its 3 mins from my house, I can rent it in less than 30 days for $1,300, and because of the type of financing I am getting, I will have less than $5,000 of my money in the deal.

@Kevin Pfeiffer Thanks!! BiggerPockets has not only provided a ton of knowledge but also has given me the confidence to trust my instincts. I am finding that a lot of potential investors I speak with never get started because they never get the full support or backing from their friends and family. For me, one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome was the negativity that came from friends and family about how risky it will be. I was afraid of the " I told you so" conversation that would take place if the deal went badly. The way I found to overcome that fear was by simply trusting the numbers and my research and just going for it. I am set to close on my first flip in about two weeks and I have just picked up another that is set to close ( initial purchase ) in about two weeks as well.

@Tom Keith the back yard holds water as well do to extra dirt and sand that was added for a pool which is no longer there. I will remove some of the dirt and most likely install a french drain to alleviate that problem as well. As for the patio, it is actually covered ( not closed in ) but has no gutters. I will install gutters around the house which will help out significantly however, If there is a driving rain, all water that does get onto the patio will eventually find its way back to the house. An initial idea that I had was to lay a thin skim coat to help increase the pitch away from the house but the previous home owner actually tried that and it did not work due to the slab being poured too high. There is not enough space to make the skim coat thick enough to make a difference.

I have a property I am looking into purchasing that has significant drainage issues. The problem is due to a concrete patio that was poured higher than it should have been and not sloped properly so that any water would run off away from the house. Instead, all water draws back to the house and has caused significant damage to the siding of the house and the patio door. I am trying to come up with a solution to fix this problem. One obvious solution is to tear up the patio and re do it the proper way, but that is obviously a significant expense. I have done some research on french drains and channel drains, but I am not sure if they would be viable fixes in this case. Does anyone have any advice or ideas as to how I can remedy this problem in the most cost effective way?

The patio is pretty large as well. Its approximately 15 x 20 with a divider that connects it to the driveway. So, if a french drain would be installed, it would have to extend the length of the driveway as well I would assume as that is the direction that the drain would have to flow. Im open to any and all ideas.

@Dean Letfus that seems like a great idea!! I will check into this a little further. For some reason Hard money lending intimidates me a little. The idea of having a bigger cushion to fall on eases my hesitation in using them.

@Mehran K. thanks for the advice. I currently own three homes but have yet to go through the refinance process. It seems as it is pretty much the same as if you were purchasing a new property. I was hoping the guidelines for refinancing would be more lenient than they are, considering I already own the property.

@Dawn Anastasi thanks for the response. I guess my question is really about refinancing. If I plan on purchasing buy and holds using hard money, will there be any restrictions when I go to refinance? Is there a max amount of properties that I will be able to refinance? Is that income based?