All Forum Posts by: Ryan B.

Athens State Bank. Very local to central Illinois, only has branches in two towns (each with only about 2500 people), doubt they would lend up your way.

I do all our banking with them, business, personal, kids, cd's etc.

100% financing is possible with small local banks. My bank is giving me 100% of purchase price (including rehab money if the property is not ready to rent). Not a dime out of my pocket. All I have to do is keep it under 85% ARV since they are keeping the loans.

D-bag or sucker wacker come to mind.

If that was my listing agent, I would give them a swift kick in the *** and fire them. If it was a buyer's agent, all I would probably still give them swift in the *** for putting it out on the patio.

Uwe, I do the same as Rick and put the exact same materials in all rentals. I use the cheapest laminate wood ($0.69 sq/ft), and put the cheap padding ($0.25 sq/ft) under it to get rid of the hollow sound.

WOW!?!?

Denise, don't be afraid to ask questions. I think the purpose of BiggerPockets is to help educate people about real estate. If you have a question about something don't be afraid to post it, there are probably other people that may have the same questions.

I feel your pain. I fired a contractor on my current rehab because he was slow and sloppy. So he comes back, breaks a window, steals some lumber and cuts the copper lines to the a/c. The only witness is the crazy lady across the street. (I am talking CRAZY, like call the phone company so much that they finally came out and "tested" her line to make sure someone was not tapping it like she thinks). So in other words good luck getting the guy prosecuted. Good contractors are hard to find.

I am purchasing sfr's that need rehabbed and then keeping them for long term rentals. Here is what I did. Found an investor friendly, small, local bank. Moved all of my deposit accounts to them to sweeten the relationship.

In the beginning they were giving me construction loans based off the ARV. As long as I was going to be all in for under 75% ARV, I would not have a down payment or anything. Then I would refinance to a conventional mortgage once the rehab was completed.

They will not go over 4 fixed rate loans so I now have to go with balloon loans that they keep in house. But since I have built a great relationship with them, I am now allowed to just keep it under 85% ARV. I also don't have to do the construction loans and then refinance anymore. I now just give them my estimate for rehab and they cut me a check for it at closing.

Tenants that are morons
"Professional" contractors
Crazy neighbors
Pencil necks at the city ordinance department
Real estate agents that think rent minus PITI equals cashflow

I know sometimes the manufacturer's name is embossed somewhere on the back of the planks. If you can figure out the manufacturer then I would start calling Lowes, Home Depot, etc and see if the carry that manufacturer. Then try to match the finish from there.

Or pull the flooring out of another room that matches and just put a different flooring in the donor room.