All Forum Posts by: Joel Owens

The property is currently in need of a light rehab in 10 of the units with carpet and paint.

Lease up after rehab will be fast as I would drop down the rate to 99 a week.

Hoping for 500k.Buy at 450k with 50k of rehab ground improvements.Property was built in 1983.

My e-mail is in my signature line if you want to talk further and have a private discussion.

You can get a bunch of employment and job growth numbers from the Federal Government of Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ga.htm

State searches are to the left. Towns that are heavily at risk are what I call ONE ECONOMY towns.

This is where one business is propping up most of the economy.If that business goes most of the other businesses will follow and the town will start dying off and people will migrate elsewhere.

Once vibrant towns 30 years ago are now all but vacant and many will eventually cycle and spring back.With one economy towns it's very important to know what that businesses plans are for staying and if they own or lease and when it's coming up for renewal.

Many investors stay only in big city cores for what they see as less risk. Suburban to rural can be great investments if you do your research and know what is going on and helps especially if the local economy has many types of trade propping it up.

This way if one leaves or fails the government can usually get something else in to cover the shortfall.There are many,many other things you can check as well that you do for planning on larger commercial projects.

For house rentals I don't think it's necessary to go real deep with it.

Try to find other areas for lower prices with better rent ratios.

Here in Atlanta you can get a property for about 15k with 550 to 600 a month in rent.

Where I live In Cherokee county that same property is about 60k.Tenant class would be about the same.

The LAST thing you want to do is saddle yourself with a high debt service and mortgage that cripples you from doing the better deals.

I see it a lot where an investor buys a house and pays to much for it.Any little problem goes wrong like eviction and tenant damage or unanticipated repairs and you are now in the red.

Many bought houses in your range when the market was hot in my area for appreciation.They didn't care if it cash flowed as the appreciation they could just refi out and make money that way.

Sometimes people will buy something just as a tax write off to show losses and other times if you break even but the old property is sitting on future commercial land or other potential develop you can make a great return that way.

If it's a house in a subdivision there is only so much you can do for an exit and return strategy.The numbers you have given I would not do the deal.

Jimmy your welcome.

Bpo agents come in many levels.If you have a newbie completing one they might look at your comps and your repair list.

Seasoned bpo brokers/agents complete sometimes 200 or more bpo's a month and barely have time to breathe.They have a mill telling them get the report back in 48 hours or we will start reducing your volume.

The last thing they want is to have to chase down an investor to gain access trying to influence them so they can make a measly 50 bucks and get on to the next orders.If they can't get access they often tell the mill to re-assign which causes the bpo to take weeks to get back.For the bpo broker/agent it's about how fast can I get out there and take pics and upload to the office.

I still do a few a month but stopped doing the volume years ago.

Used to in the hot sales market I would get 130 to do a rush 24hr exterior. Now sales for comps are few in between and the order pays 40 to 50 which is below my pay grade.

Yes there will be more renters in the market at that time but also more properties available as well.

Same with real estate agents as many have left the game and when markets get stronger you will have more sales but an influx of more agents coming in so it will be a wash.

They should give you printouts of the MLS sheets which show the info.We are required to put accurate info into the MLS as all the other brokers/agents depend on it.The signed paperwork is also sent in to the MLS for verification of data. So what you will be seeing is accurate but nothing is ever 100 percent.

When buying a property if rents in the area go for 600 to 750 I base off of 600 or lower.Get it rented fast and have the most applicants to choose from so you increase your chances of landing a good tenant.

Also make sure your lease is air tight or you will pay later in expenses that crush your cash flow.

In my area our MLS gives the brokers and agents data on rents,average concessions given,and the time it took to rent the property.Also shows expired's and with drawns and actives to show what renters will pay.

When you have a rental you have to know if the property presents badly,has no marketing exposure,is asking over priced rents or all of the above.

If you buy right you will be able to cure all problems. If you overpay you will be in a world of hurt.

Spring and the summer might go fast when you buy you need the flexibility to rent year round at great rates and still cash flow well.

You don't buy based on getting a high market rent if you turn the lease at the peak of renting season.Instead base on conservative numbers and if you rent at the peak it's a bonus.

Kathy,

Sounds like a seller that doesn't understand what as-is means or contract law.

On this board we can't see your contract and one word can change everything in a contract.If you are referring to your earnest money deposit it depends on what would be in the contract as to what your rights are.

Is the earnest money refundable or non-refundable under any circumstances.Was this not earnest money but an option fee??

Disclosure is a separate issue from earnest money but sounds like the route you want to try to get the money back.

You might benefit from a legal review of your contract by a real estate litigation attorney.

You won't find legal representation on here for free to get your 5k back.

no legal advice

Providing the lead based paint disclosure is a Federal law.

I am not in Florida but everywhere I know selling "AS-IS" doesn't give you free reign to not make proper disclosures or material facts known about the property.

"AS-IS" is saying you are presenting the property without any warranties and you will not do repairs and it's upon the buyer to inspect and conduct due diligence with the property.

If you don't disclose a known material fact or give proper disclosures required by law you can still be sued for damages and lose.

Usually banks that have foreclosed and estates have never lived in the property and cannot fill out a sellers disclosure or warranty it's condition.The seller still provides proper mold,lead paint disclosures etc. that they get the buyer to sign to protect themselves from future litigation.

no legal advice

If brokers and agents followed the bpo companies rules values would not be influenced at all.

Having said that there are brokers/agents who get kicked out of BPO companies for this very practice.

Most companies have an electronic signature form that we have to sign before submitting the finished BPO online.It says in a nutshell that we have not talked to,taken comps,relied upon ANY investor,contact,seller information etc. to influence our value and that we have inspected the property and pulled the comps ourselves.

BPO companies (mills) are really tightening down the standards as they are competing against other mills for large institutional orders.

The local to regional banks use brokers/agents more on a direct basis than the national banks that farm most bpo's out.

So you are just selling off a note for one trailer??

Do you own the land as well?

If it's just an old trailer they have very little to no value and are very expensive to move.

More details.Thanks