All Forum Posts by: Brandon Boyer

Just wanted to post an update:

We closed last Friday on the home. Two weeks past the time, however the Finance company gives two calendar months of no payments so I Essentially get two months rent free while we switch into rehab mode.

@Joe Villeneuve

That's a great story. Probably something I'm going to deal with in the future myself if I end up liking the pre-foreclosure side of wholesaling. Unfortunately there isn't a lot motivating these people to sell quickly. They live out of state, are retired and are using this to try to sell this and another home to fund their dream home. Originally they refused to do a FHA loan, After seeing it still on the market two months later I had my realtor follow up on it again and this time they bit. I haven't spoken with them directly unfortunately, so i'm having to go directly off what my agent is telling me. I was very clear to my agent that I would be walking out on the deal if it didn't close by the 27th, so he seems a bit more motivated now.

@Teri Feeney Styers
I've spoken to several lenders about 203k loans when I was shopping around, most of them wouldn't offer them. Additionally I'm using this as a chance to handle some of the work myself to get a feel if the Fix and rent life is for me or not.

@Tony Kohnle

I'm trying to be patient for that reason. My original plan behind this was to give myself time to do some work on the kitchen before I moved in after closing. If anything this is a lesson in staying on people more aggressively from the get-go.
 
I doubt they'd be willing to budge at all on the price. They wasted the better part of three weeks trying to lowball roofers and getting no-bids returned. I think the appraisal was a bit of a shock for them.

I told my realtor yesterday that I would stick with the deal as long as we closed by the 27th, which gives them ten days to level a patio and get a stand alone garage re-roofed.

In total i'm hoping to be into the house for under 10k, including the 5k downpayment. I'm doing the bulk of the busy work myself. The biggest out of pocket for me will likely be extending the half bath into a walk in closet adjacent to it so that the house is a 2 bath.

I know that the financials become a bit convoluted with me using it as a residence, but that's a requirement of the FHA loan. Right now i'm spending $1050 a month on rent when I could be building equity and improving my credit. I'm going to have to refinance before I rent it anyway, so I'll use that as a clean break from a financial standpoint. If the numbers work out i'll rent it out, if they don't, i'll use it as a primary residence and will be paying less for my payment than I would be in rent right now, as well as getting the tax benefits of home ownership.

I'm also going to document the work I do on the house to build my personal portfolio a bit for the future when I attempt more serious projects.

That's all assuming that the homeowner isn't jerking me around.

I never said the house wouldn't cash flow. I'm only putting 3.5% down. After flooring, paint, and an overhaul of one of the bathrooms I should be be netting 400 on the house every month. I wouldn't even be looking at it if I didn't know it would cash flow. I'm treating this house as a project to work on to better understand if I can live the Buy and rehab lifestyle or if I want to look at another route. Worst case scenario I will have purchased my first home and will have a place to live in.

Need some advice.

I'm in the process of buying my first house with the intention of living there, rehabbing it, then putting tenants in there about 2-3 years from now once i've built enough equity to no longer pay PMI through a refi.

The market in my area is pretty dry. I know i'm not getting a great deal on this house, but the location is solid and will give me a pretty steady stream of tenants after I vacate.

My issue is that I am buying it through an FHA loan and they are asking for repairs to be made to the house prior to sale. The house had been on the market for close to three months when I submitted my offer. Initially the seller didn't want to deal with an FHA loan, but I made them an offer of their asking price based on the condition that they make any repairs that the FHA requires.

The appraisal came back and the lender wanted three major things repaired outside the house. The garage roof needs replaced. The back patio is heaving and needs repaired, and there is exterior paint that is badly peeling. They will not go forward with the sale unless these items are repaired.

My realtor discussed it with the listing agent and the seller agreed to the repairs. This was on the original closing date of the 12th of last month. I did not get an addendum from them until the 6th of this month, with an updated closing date of the 20th of this month. My concern is that every time I drive by the house (it's on the way home from my full-time job) is that there has been 0 work done to the exterior of the house.

I've been trying to stay patient about this deal as the sellers are elderly and they live out of state, so they are essentially having their realtor manage the rehab,but I'm starting to get frustrated at this point as the seller has had ample opportunities to bail on the deal but has continued to say they will get the repairs done. I know that the repairs will not be completed by the amended contract date and i'm debating if it's worth the hassle of putting my life on hold another month or if I should just walk away and look at other avenues.

Thank you everyone for your welcomes. I am excited to get started on this journey.

I recently purchased my first property in the form of a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath 1500 sq foot single story with a slab foundation. The property has a 1.5 car garage and .3 acre yard.

My goal with the property is to live in it for two to three years until I have enough equity to refinance so I will no longer have to pay Mortgage insurance. At that point I would like to rent it out to students from Oakland University.

The interior is dated. I have already planned on replacing the carpet with laminate flooring replacing the trim etc. I have a few questions in terms of renovations that would give me the most bang for my buck in the eyes of renters within that demographic. I have a few ideas of things I've considered doing and I would like any opinions on the subject from people who have been down this road.

1- of the three bedrooms one of them is a master bedroom with a closet. The second bedroom appears to be a den of some sort as it has two doors entering, both from the hallway and from the living room. The third bedroom is the smallest and has no closet. I had envisioned putting a closet in the smallest bedroom, and walling off the living room door to the second bedroom and to create more privacy, but I was also given the idea of turning it into a library type study room. I'm leaning towards the first idea personally but I wasn't sure if sacrificing the bedroom would be worth it.

2 - There is a large evergreen right smack in the middle of the front yard as well is multiple large shrubs against the front of the house. They basically obscure the house from the street. I am tempted to remove them but I again I am not certain how renters would feel about it.

3- Installing a privacy fence in the backyard to provide my tenants some privacy and help prevent issues with neighbors.

4- The kitchen is a galley style with dated cabinets. They could probably be painted without much issue but the kitchen would still not look modern, is a remodel worth it?

5 - Adding a small standing shower to the half bath, is it worth the headache?

Any input is greatly appreciated. I am eager to get this journey started, but I would like to temper myself with guidance from those more experienced than myself.

Keyonte, Thank you! I'm doing my best to stand my ground on my prices. I think in the meantime I may give contract assignments a shot so I can work on my network.

Hello everyone,

My name is Brandon Boyer. I'm very excited to become a member of the Bigger Pockets community.

A bit of background on myself. I'm 30 years old, I work professionally as a Welding Engineer in the Metro Detroit area. About a year ago I started to get the itch to buy a house and got Brandon Turner's book on Real Estate investing and I became hooked.

I've made it my goal this year to buy my first property by July after a year of working on improving my finances and credit. The last few weeks have been rough with the search though. My game plan has been to get a house near Oakland University in the 48307 area for about $140,000 using an FHA loan with 3.5% down. Doing this I can keep my payment at a place where I can make over-payments and get my equity to 20% within two years without having to depend on property appreciation. Unfortunately the market i've been looking at is fairly cold and my realtor and social circle are all telling me that I should just buy something for 200k and just spend 4-5 years in the house. I know it's tough time of year to be looking to buy and so I'm going to keep my ear to the ground until I can find something better.

My long term game plan is to refinance this home into a conventional loan without PMI and then rent it out to Local university students. After the two years my credit and finances should be at a point where I can get a new property every year until I have four properties, with my goal being leaving the rat race by age 45. I see too many of my automotive colleagues in their 60's having to work everyday because of piss poor planning.