All Forum Posts by: Steve Smithy

For my vacation rental the flooring around dining chairs got damaged and dinged up a lot, I was surprised at all the damage actually!  I had carpet down under the table and the areas around the carpet show the dings.  Otherwise I didn't notice any scratches elsewhere.  If I were to do it again I would just buy a larger carpet to go under the dining table!

Are there other local storage places nearby?  Call and ask them about availability for your big RV you want to store there :)

Can you post details about the lot you sold?  How much did it sell for?  How much did you buy the whole thing for (you said cash, but listed only $62k out of $95k), what were your expenses?

Well you wholesale a property after you own it, just finding a property listed at auction isn't any kind of value to an investor!  As for if you should buy it or not, is that the starting price for the auction?  You should at least try to drive by and peek into it if you can (if vacant anyway).  Get more info before jumping in!

I think that is just talking about how if they cannot get a title or title insurance they can back out of the deal even after closing.  Realistically if they cannot obtain the title after closing they would sue you for fraud anyway as you were not the legal owner.  You should have your attorney explain this to you, you do have one representing you right?

I don't think there is such a thing as a standard flip.  Each house is different, and my experience is to estimate high because something always comes up!  Most newbies LOSE MONEY on their first flip, estimate high and you'll reduce your chances of that happening to you too!

I'd walk the property with a trusted contractor to give his estimate to do the job.

What does that mean?  Every bank will want to make sure they get the loan repaid, most want to be able to sell the loan to someone else later if they have to so they will want it to conform to normal bank guidelines.

I will say that in the past I had trouble with some banks and smaller loans, they didn't want to bother with small loans (under $100k) because they didn't make much money off it.  I ended up finding a local bank to "hold the paper" themselves but they had a higher interest rate due to the small loan amount.

I think it just depends on what things you got used to in your current house vs potential inconveniences in the new smaller one.

I used to live in a 6000sqft house and downsized to a 2000sqft house.  This new house has everything I wanted though, the old one was just ridiculous and I didn't need that massive place.  For example I didn't need the 20ft ceilings or 3car garage or water fountain in front.  I now live in a normal house that still meets my needs and I freed up quite a lot of money by doing so like you are describing.

But if this new house doesn't have a 2nd bathroom and you really need one due to your kids, you will hate that and be kicking yourself later.  Or maybe you really want an attached garage and the new one doesn't have it.  The list is entirely up to you but if the new place doesn't have the things you want you'll miss your current home later.  Also the feeling of security with no mortgage can be tough to let go of for some people.  Good luck!

I sold my last property on Zillow.  I bought the domain name of the street address (123mainstreet.com for example), bought a wordpress website template called quicksale, used my drone to get aerial photos of the property as well as a 360 camera that I paid $70 for to make a 3d tour, and then posted it on zillow as a for sale by owner.  I sold it in a month that way.  Just be sure to ask if people are already pre-approved before showing the property and if they want to buy then be sure to use an attorney.

A bunch of realtors called to ask if I wanted to list with them so I put a "NO I DON'T WANT TO LIST WITH A REALTOR" in the ad at some point which helped a bit. These days zillow gets something like 80% of the traffic for real estate! The MLS is dying and real estate agents everywhere are scrambling.

I think the "greater or equal value" part wouldn't work for you.  The new property isn't more expensive than the current property.  I don't think equity is enough either, like if you put all the equity from the 1st property into the 2nd it still doesn't work.