All Forum Posts by: Chris Christensen

Hi James, I don't mind at all. The seller wasn't motivated to do seller financing and thought he could sell for more than my offer, but the property hasn't sold yet so I will probably go back to him this week and see if he is willing to reconsider my offers. I will post the outcome.

I have been looking for multi family properties, but the hunt continues. I might start pursuing off market deals.

Thank you for your response Neal. The option to cash out the note would be on my side, rather than the sellers. If within one year I increased the equity enough to sell for a gain that would pay off the seller at $270,000 and give me a return, I have the option to call the note due in full. 

This is my first attempt at a seller financing offer. I understand that in today's market the seller has very little incentive to accept the offer, but on the off-chance they do, I want the deal to make sense for both of us. 

Have you had any positive, or negative, experiences with seller financing deals in the past? I enjoy learning from everyone.

Thanks again. I appreciate all feedback.

That's awesome Anton! Congrats on your success

Good morning everyone, 

I am currently looking to put my first deal under contract in the Pacific NW (Portland Metro Area). So far, I have gotten a pre-approval for a $260,000 loan and started educating myself on many of the different options. I attended the FHA home owners education class and received the certificate of completion, so I am working with the lender on the 3.5% down and down payment assistance, so I have less money out of pocket and can focus more of my funds on renovation and increasing equity.

The properties I am looking at either have basements that are finished, or basements that I can finish myself to rent out separately either on a month to month basis, or as an AirBnB, or they have detached garages that are big enough to convert to a studio, or AirBnB. 

I am in need of some advice on a few things. First, I am considering doing multiple offers on a single property with different terms. The property is listed for $275,000 and is in a decent neighborhood with low to moderate crime. The house has a finished basement with an already sectioned off bedroom, bathroom, living room and a separate entrance from the rest of the house that I can rent out for around $800 per month, while living in the upstairs. It has been on the market for a little less than 30 days. My first offer, is $240,000 subject to my FHA financing going through. The second offer is, $300,000 seller financed at $1,200 per month for 250 months with a cash out option of $270,000 within the first 12 months.

I am curious which offer everyone thinks would be most beneficial for me in the end. The seller financing would save me a ton in interest payments and give me better cash flow because the FHA Loan would require payments of around $1,750 per month on a 30 year mortgage, although that would go down once I no longer require PMI. The benefits I see from the FHA loan are the ability to refinance after 1 year to help acquire more properties, and not having to deal with the previous owner on an ongoing basis. Any thoughts on benefits, or cons, of either way?

Second question, Should I go toward the top of my budget (qualified at $260,000 and currently looking at properties near that amount) at the start, or should I scale back and do a smaller property a little further away to test the waters and gain some experience with finding and managing tenants, but will allow me to easily afford the mortgage in the event of vacancy.

Any advice, or criticism, would be greatly appreciated. You guys are all awesome!

-Chris Christensen

Thank you Mindy and Justin for the warm welcomes.

Justin, I would love to join in on the monthly Portland meetups. Any information you could provide on when the next one will be taking place would be much appreciated.

Chris Christensen

Hey everyone, my name is Chris and I am new to BP and REI. I want to reach out and say thanks to Mindy for hosting the meetup in Portland, OR yesterday. It was a great turn out and I met a lot of like minded people.

A quick introduction to myself, I grew up working in a family construction business building and remodeling homes up until around 2008. After 2008, we began to focus more on commercial projects and started traveling around the West Coast building and remodeling stores. Last year (2017), I randomly stumbled across bigger pockets and a lot of the questions that were causing me to postpone investing in real estate were presented to me. Thank you BP community! 

Yesterday, I got pre-approved for my first FHA Loan and now the hunt is on. I am looking for a live-in flip property that has a finished, or un-finished, basement that I can rent out (House Hack) and reduce my mortgage expenses a little. I have found a few potential candidates and am planning to put an offer in this weekend on one, or all, of them.

Thanks again to everyone on here for all of the great information! I look forward to meeting many of you in the future.

-Chris Christensen