All Forum Posts by: Jesse Stephenson

I heard they have ghost bidders on auction.com to drive the bid up to the desired price.  I thought i read or heard that here on BP. That the company even so much as admitted it to the investor when he approached them as a seller and asked them how he could be sure he would get the price he needed.

@Account Closed its called closing costs...4% to a buyers agent, plus I paid 3k of buyers costs..then you Have misc other costs.. Don't forget to factor these in when calculating potential profits in the real estate game.  And actually I wound up with a 12,300 check at the end of the day, plus a refund of about 600 from escrow account on loan.  

Congrats BP and Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner keep up the good work.

I'm looking to do the BRRR strategy but I need some private funding to get the ball rolling. I know some higher net worth individuals. What is the best way for me to approach them to ask them for a loan. What interest rates should I offer? I'd like to keep all the equity and just pay them interest to keep things simple. Also what's the best way to get the money when I need it to close a deal but not before then so I'm not paying interest for it just sitting in an account before I close a deal.

I agree with those who said it may not be a red flag or scam. I run a property management company in a military town and have rented to soldiers sight unseen several times. But some have had a friend come check it out for them. I only got burned once (in the beginning) when a lady backed out of a beautiful house simply saying it was too big for her family. The house was listed as being 4100 sqft I was pissed but winded up renting to someone else within a week anyways and they have been great tenants. So what I do now with sight unseen deals is Explain to them that their security deposit of one months rent will be a non refundable deposit until they get here and see the house and move in. At that point it converts to a refundable deposit. Problem solved.

I'd consider getting your real estate license after you graduate, good way to learn the market you are in and to learn from selling homes to other and make those commissions to save up towards your purchases.  Also you can try to buy homes using little to no money down strategies like lease options and subject-to.  Try to only put like 1-3k down and then hold the rest of your money as reserves to make mortgage payments when the homes are vacant or for repairs..

I am just about to complete the sale of my first Subject-to deal.  It wasn't a grand slam but when you consider the cash on cash returns it was pretty darn good I think..  Here are the details.  I got the seller who was an older gentleman that called me to sell his house as a Realtor (I'm a broker and property manager by day) to agree to sell me the house subject to his existing mortgage once we realized that he had little equity and realtor fees and time on market might eat up most of his equity and he just wanted to move out of state where his daughter lived.  

First off the house was a small 3/2 on a 1 acre lot worth about 92,000 when we did this deal in Feb of 2013. He owed about 84,000 on a 30 year mortgage with about 25 years or so left on it at 6.375% but really low taxes since he is a Senior his taxes were only $450 a year! So his PITI was $675 a month.

I offered him $1,000 for moving expenses and to take over the mortgage with a promise to have it paid off within 5 years and he signed a deed giving me title to the house.  I bought a house for 1,000 bucks!! with 8k in equity!  OH and I didn't even mention that he threw in the riding lawn mower and a shed full of power tools worth probably 1,000 bucks or more..

I had a renter in the house the day after he moved out for $875/month for the first year, then when they renewed the next year I raised the rent to $925 then after 10 months they moved out to another one of my rentals as they had a kid and needed a bigger house.  I had a new tenant in at $950 a month within 1 week of them moving out and they winded being late payers but always paid and then broke the lease after about 7 months but didnt do any real damage and left only owing me about half a months rent.  when they moved out I did some cap ex.spending about 3,000 on new carpet and new vinyl floors new kitchen counters and painting. After 5 weeks of vacancy while doing repairs I had a new tenant in at $975/month.  (so now I was cash flowing 300 a month before repairs and vacancy). 4 months in to new tenant I had to replace water heater at a cost of about 550.  Then two months later (Sept 1st 2016) they split up and broke the lease but they left the place clean, yard mowed, and paid sept rent even though they were out by Sept 5th.  

So I decided to test the market and try and sell the house since now I owed 75,000 on it versus the 84,000 when I took it over about 3 years ago.   I listed it for 98,000 and had 3 showings and one offer in 3 days on the market.  I am a broker so I didnt have to pay myself but I offered a 4% commission to buyers agents.  I accepted an offer of 96,000 which should close on Oct 12th.  

At closing I should get a check for around 11k give or take 1k.

In summary I bought a house subject to for 1,000 and immediately was getting 200 a month in cash flow, by the third year that was up to 300/month in cash flow, along the way I spent about 4,000 total in repairs and cap ex, but also got tax write offs for depreciation etc..and now I am getting a check for 11k three years later and the older gentleman's credit was helped by my on time payments and now he is debt free 3 years later..sounds like a win-win to me..

How did I do guys?  

FYI.  the only reason I sold was to clear the mortgage from his name and because it was in a iffy neighborhood that I dont expect to see any real appreciation in the long term...also the roof and hvac were over 12 years old..

Andrew Johnson actually anyone can use ahrn these days as it is no longer officially affiliated with the services. But I have found that my leads have dropped way off since about 2 years ago. I rarely get tenants off ahrn anymore.

You can offer all kinds of creative solutions to your problem, but they will only work if he thinks it is is problem.  In other words if he wants to just keep staying there and thinks he can get caught up  on rent you will only have one choice.  Eviction

I manage about 80 rentals in Columbia, SC and about 60 of them are rented to Soldiers at Ft Jackson.  I find soldiers to be better than your average tenant.  They almost always pay on time several pay by auto draft, and they usually are pretty responsible people in general.  And they are used to having to leave the place spotless from on base house standards.