All Forum Posts by: Brent Bowers

If anyone is looking for good inexpensive painters let me know. I bought a house in Colorado Springs and these guys came and painted it all in one weekend. They did a great job and it cost very little. They are looking for more work in the Colorado Springs area.

I am down! Wednesday nights work for me.

This is good to know because I am headed to the Springs market from Melbourne Florida and the Melbourne market has been hot as well. I bought a Bank owned property next to Florida Tech at $108,000. My rehab cost was $12,000 and now it's appraising at $169,000. $49,000 instant equity. I have done all this with No money down because I used some of my VA loan and I had 2 roommates the entire time I lived in this 1,900 square foot house and that covered the mortgage and the utilities. I lived there for free. Now it's fully occupied by 2 college students and a young professional.

Colin Smith I'm moving to Colorado Springs area and have been searching the MLS and haven't seemed to find anything of interest. I will arrive Thursday 15 OCTOBER. Please contact me if possible. Brent 863-801-6959

I just bought The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down: Real Life Strategies for Investing in Real Estate Using Other People's Money

by Brandon Turner on Audible. I'm excited to start listening.

Thanks for sharing!

Does anyone recommend an open source software or a legitimate way to send tenants a late fee for paying rent after grace period? I seem to be having this challenge lately.

@Steve Vaughan Thanks!

I would recommend getting a Contractor out for a second opinion. I own a property that was gushing water in my laundry room. The ceiling was about to cave in due to the roof leak. This was all solved by a can of Bull (Black Tar, Wet or Dry) that stopped the leak. It was a valley in my roof that was not sealed correctly and water was all running to this area. Sometimes people pass over the simple things. If a contractor figures it will take $5,000 to replace the roof, go ahead and figure in $10,000 just in case and put the offer in anyways. The worst that can happen is they reject your offer.

I had a contract on a unit in Cocoa Florida at $13,500. A friend was going to loan me 100% of the purchase price at 6% with no points. There was no rehab needed besides a good cleaning. It would have rented anywhere from $500-650 a month. It is less than 1/2 a mile from Eastern Florida State College and would pay for itself in less than 5 years. During my due diligence I could not get the on site management company to call me back. I decided to start calling local management companies in the immediate area and they told me how difficult it is to get through the HOA, application process, parking and a few other things. It seemed like it would be a nightmare to get a tenant into the unit. This is when I decided to back out of the deal. I'm not willing to be an absente owner and have the place sit vacant. If I lived closer I could possibly do the management myself and get it rented. I am very happy I called the management companies and feel that they are the people who are in the know and can be a vital asset to what is going on in the community. Also, they can tell you what something will rent for and how hard/easy it would be to get it rented. I'll definitely follow up with a thank you note to these people. If anyone is curious the apartment is located at 1711 Dixon Blvd. Unit 209 Cocoa Fl. 32922