All Forum Posts by: Brenda Whittaker

Mr. Turker why do you feel the need to insult me?  I may be stuck and may not be very professional but I have been investing in real estate for 20 years and that's how I make my living.  So dont tell me Im not an investor, that was rude and uncalled for.  Im not leaving my god damned home!  Your advice is no advice at all.

Thank you John Thedford.  Ok, maybe a financial planner.  I do need professional advice.  As for my home, it makes no sense to leave it, I have to live somewhere.  Like I mentioned earlier, Im not willing to live in my car!  With both loans against it, I owe about $20K more than it's worth.  But its worth everything to me.  I dont need to be homeless!  I need to find a way to pay off the mortgages!  No I cant lease it for the amount of payments, plus I already do lease out 2 bedrooms which pay for one of the mortgages.  Sure I could just walk away from it all and live in a ditch without a mortgage, but I would lose my will to live.

Like if I could borrow money out of a rental to buy a few fixer projects (I love rehab), that would be the ultimate solution as far as I can see.  But without a W-2 job I cant get conventional financing.  I know I could just sell a rental and pay off one of my home mortgages.  But I would be getting rid of a $777 mortgage or a $679 (mo.) mortgage (I have 2) but losing $800 month.  See the dilemma?  I would not be better off by selling a rental and paying off a mortgage.  Except for the risk.  That would improve greatly.

Hi Greg H. The house that is my least favorite is in Bonham. It's 20 minutes east of Sherman, near the OK border. It's a 3 bed. 1 bath occupied, needs siding as the old aspetesos is falling off, and may need foundation stabilization. In good shape its worth about $60K. It's nice inside and gets $650 mo. income. To get it in tip top shape, needs about $5K - $10K in repairs. If I could sell Bonham as-is, I could pay down the second HELOC on my own house before the balloon comes due in March, making the payments more affordable. But it's not going down $650 so that doesnt make sense. The other 2 are in Adkins, near San Antonio, an area I love. 2 manufactured homes each on an acre. Those are in good shape, occupied, and worth just over $100,000. I wanted to keep those, however, if I sold one I could pay off one of my own home mortgages and have some to fix up the one in Bonham. But if I sold one of the Adkins properties, what makes sense is to use the cash to do enough fix and flips to pay off the mortgage and still have the capital. Thats what I really should do. Im looking for a way to use the equity I have in those rentals to create enough cash to pay off the home mortgages without using/losing the cash.

Question, can you guys tell me what kind of business entity people usually set up for real estate? LLC? Can an LLC be one person only, because I dont have any partners.

Thanks Steve Vaughn.  Well, true on battening down the hatches.  It's complicated though, first, as for selling my least favorite, that one needs about $10K in repairs in order to sell to an end buyer.  It's a very small \ poor Texas rural town and no investors have shown any interest, so I have not been able to sell as-is.  It's harder to sell while occupied, but I cant kick out the tenants because I need the income, and they've been good tenants and dont want to move.  As for my own house, there is no way I would ever move.  It would kill me.  I did stop making payments once and was hoping the lender would reduce interest or that I could get into one of those programs you hear about like hamp, but they refused me for everything.  They did restructure by adding years onto the end and jacked up the principle to include fees, costs, legal expenses, more fees and more costs, so I now owe more than I did before, erasing about 10 years of progress in paying it down.  What I need is to pay off those mortgages, or at least one of them, and stabilize.  Im trying to find a way to reduce expenses and reduce the bleeding, a way to turn the assets I have into a stabilization plan.  Thats what I need help with.  How do I juggle three rentals and an underwater home, without selling the rentals to pay off the mortgage.  What is the best way to use the assets to stabilize my situation.  I dont need to leave my home.  I have to live somewhere!  What good is three rentals if Im living in my car?  

Well I have a good cpa but she does not seem real estate minded, I mean she knows taxes but she's not an investor.  I can run it by her but Im sure she wont have any answers as to how to make the most out of my equities.  She does not invest in real estate.  I was hoping to talk to other investors.

Oh thank you for your reply! Specifically, I love rehab real estate. I managed to buy three properties a few years ago, partly by borrowing against my home. My home is under water now. I love my home, been loving it for 25 years and intend to live out my life in it. The three rentals I have held for 7 years, but I do not make enough to buy insurance on them, or maintain them. They are also wide open for danger, in my own name and not in any entity - no legal protection. All of my income comes from them, I depend on every penny of those rents just to make ends meet. I am maintaining, but not thriving. I dont' work, due to age and injury and the legal system. Now, in March I have a balloon due on my home of $89,000. If I cant cough it up, I will have a payment of $777 month, which I cannot afford. I have been trying to pay it down, but since the feds raised interest, the payment only increased, even with my putting in every extra dollar I can come up with. It's like a giant monster that is never satisfied. I just keep feeding it. Now, if I sell a rental to pay it off, I will lose money because the rent I get is more than the mortgage increased payment. Plus, if I sell a rental, Im sure it would be a good idea to use the cash to invest, maybe flip and earn the $89K that way, instead of using it all for mortgage payoff. (its a 2nd mortgage. I still have a 1st.) I also just got hit with a $25,000 lawsuit that I lost, for a debt I already paid but a nasty judge refused to hear my case. So that creditor can steal my rental homes to pay that off. I cannot pay the lawsuit, the new $777 2nd mortgage payment (actually a HELOC), and survive. I already cant maintain the rentals. I would really be happy if I could hang on to the rentals, but one is in pretty bad shape, needs about 10K in repairs. I have been such a failure before, lost at least a million, so Im terrified to make a move, and the time is ticking away. I have failed every money making endeavor I have ever tried. Everything is on line, and I cant learn anything without humans to ask questions of, and I seem to be growing more and more foggy with overwhelm. Thanks for listening.

Looking for guidance.  I have done some investing, but am a miserable failure.  Banging my head against walls (literally), I still cant figure out what to do.  Nothing works.  I am in financial distress, but have some equities and cash I dont know what to do with for the best outcome. Looking for guidance here.