All Forum Posts by: Chad Trueheart

Yes, It’s been working for me. I am still pretty new to the whole real estate business.

I have noticed a trend. If the house is 100k+ they give you a 20k price range. If the house is 50-99k they give you a 10k price range, 0-50k is 5k price range.

Another trend I have noticed is that they round the actual sell price to the nearest 5000.00 then they make the price range. For instance I bought a house for 53k. they rounded the sale to 55k and made the range 50-60k.

Go to Har.com (map search) scroll to the area you are wanting information about. In the top left hand side there is a “search criteria button”. After clicking a drop menu will appear, the first column will say “Sale, Lease, Sold” click sold and select property type. It will populate the map with all the recent sales and their details.

Mike,
This is the answer I think I am looking for. Stack as much property as I can handle as soon as I can. What are your feelings about flipping a property here and there to build cash? Or are we going down the same road as before… why flip when I can leverage?

Thanks

Jeff,
Yes the homes are increasing in value.

I buy very distressed homes. My first two are $100,000-$125,000 bought for less than 50% market value. I do 99% of the work myself, so it takes me 4-6 months to rebuild them. I have a full time job so I can only physically do 2 houses a year until I can make real estate my full time job.

Ross,
I don’t mind the risk, I just don’t have the ability to do more than 2 homes per year. Growing up I worked my summers helping a real estate investor rebuild his rent houses. Well 10 years later he offers his help in getting me started in the real estate world. He provided me the cash for basically free and lends me the big tools I don’t have to for the rebuilds (commercial paint sprayer and such).

Here is my situation:

In 2009 I bought a hurricane damaged house and rebuilt it. It has been a vacation rental since. I put the house on the market Monday so I can free up some money to reinvest.

In May of 2012 I purchased another house (long term rental) using a hard money lender. I am in the process of refinancing the house through a bank.

Here is my question: What do I do with my money?
A: Use the profit from the vacation rental (around 50K) to pay off the house I bought in May. ( there will be a balance left over on my note and it will take 1.5 years for me to own the house free and clear).

B: Take the vacation rental profit and buy another distressed property.

Other information: I can use my hard money lender (very low interest rate) to buy another house and refinance after the rebuild. Cash is a concern of mine, I don't have a lot of money to float home mortgages and rebuilds. I don't want to get in over my head in case something were to happen.

I am leaning towards my first answer. If I can own a house free and clear it will provide me 1300 a month in rent revenue (minus expenses) to reinvest in the near future. With the sell of the vacation rental it will free up my cash that I spend on the note (900 a month). All while I am rebuilding another house using hard money.

Thanks.