All Forum Posts by: Paul Beauchemin

Ummm....keeping my wife happy :)

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-san-francisco-rent24-2009jun24,0,568083.story

Karl Marx would be proud!

about 30 years ago I was unable to sell my first home. I "sold" it using a land contract while keeping my low interest mortgage in place. Somehow the bank got wind of it. Rather than accelerating the note, they talked me into co-signing a new loan with the couple that had bought my house. Fortunately, they paid the mortgage until the house sold.

Since then, I've only bought or sold property into trusts when existing financing still exists.

I've had the messy divorce issues where one of the spouses is uncooperative. Find another house was a good piece of advice.

The second is in a very weak position if the first if foreclosing and the house is not valued way above the total of the mortgages. The second can be very flexible in that case. But not always. I had one property with 3 mortgages. The owner was current on the third but had defaulted on the first two. The third did not want to negotiate and so lost it all at the auction.

I've done all my Short sales negotiating directly with the bank. Once I tried a Realtor and she could not get the job done. Contact the loss mitigation officer for the property and find their requirements (each bank has its own required docs). If you are doing a pre foreclosure, more info from the seller is needed.

Section 8 does not always pay the full rent. I have one house that has S8 tenants - the administrator sets the total rent and then pays a portion based on the tenants income/kids, etc.

If I recall, the rules allow me to evict the tenant if they do not pay their portion

Yes, it's possible. I've used HELOC's on 2 of my NOO properties to purchase/rehab new properties. Like Rich indicated - if you have done a lot of business with a local bank and have a good relationship with them it can be done.

When I was a lot younger I was sooo anxious to get rich quick. As a result I did a lot of stupid things and threw a lot of money away.

Now I buy and use lease-options. If someone buys the house, I reinvest the profit, if not I use cash flow to accumulate money for another down payment. Slow and steady wins more races!

Some factors are out of your control, such as
-interest rates
-changes in laws (e.g. Tax law of 1986)
-acts of God
Other factors that can influence your success can be learned, like
-how to do comps
-know how and what improvements to make
-how to find bargains
-property management skills
-what strategy you use in your area

So whether or not it is a good time to sell will depend some on luck, but a lot on skills you can develop

One of my houses in Buffalo (3 br) rents for $475/mo. For $750 you can move to the burbs and get a 3 br