All Forum Posts by: Colby Easterling

Investment Info:

Other buy & hold investment in Ozark.

Purchase price: $15,000
Cash invested: $15,000

Motivated Seller- 3 Lots total: (1) Commercial Building, (2) 1 Bed room Rental houses, plus an extra lot

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

It was not on the MLS, due to an error.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

On a random local website. Offered 8, got it for 15.

How did you finance this deal?

cash

How did you add value to the deal?

Got a Good deal.

I followed your advice. Just invested in different property with the same partner. Thanks for being real man.

http://www.harmonhomes.com/real-estate/details/commercial/721-723-bermuda-street-ozark-alabama-36360/104548278

So, this  property came with a whole lot of goodies, but this was just one other thing. We are considering selling the machines because we plan on using the store front for other things. 

(quick run down of property: 3 lots: 2 SF houses, 1 Store front, 1 empty lot for 15 grand cash. Can post more about it if you're interested)

Anyways, although we may sell them, I have had brief convos with my wife about coin laundry and card laundry and she likes the idea. Now that I, by chance, own some. My mind is racing with the opportunity of opening the first local "card laundry" around my are. Told one of my buddies that lives in another state, he said if I decide to jump on the idea he will join me. 

So my question: does anyone have any experience with coin/card laundry? And I can't find card laundry machines for sale to feed my interest. Anything will help, I'd love to pick your brain, thanks!

I've been bombarding my buddies I work with real estate for the past couple months on the job. Basically ever since I joined BP. Well, it paid off, my boss/friend sent me a facebook market place link to a SF home for 6,500 bucks and said "want to go half?". I immediately called him to confirm he was serious. Ran it through the BP calculators (worse case scenario it cash flows 125 bucks with 30% maintenance, and 10% manager fee and no improvements to the property), found the sellers number on FB and called him. He's an agent, but it's his personal property, he has an attorney that can do all the closing paperwork, and he'll pay closing cost. (reason: he wants to free up cash for a different deal)

The property is 100% in the ghetto, I know the area. Owner was renting for 375/mo. My partner and I want to try and get the property to meet section 8 standards, and rent on the govs dime. 

6,500 split down the middle works for me, I don't even know if I will haggle him down because I may call on this guy again as an investor.

Comps: there are 3 or 4 similar houses that recently sold for 30-35k, and there is 1 house in a little bit of a rougher condition that sold for 1k. So a cash in cash out deal may not be my best strategy. Thoughts?

Lastly, Myself and My partner are going to look at the property with the owner on Friday morning, if we like it we may shake his hand there and head to his attorney's office.

Alright BP, do what you do best! What am I missing here!?

@Bill Schrimpf thank you sir. I don’t have pets of my own. But I never thought about charging a little extra as a “just in case”. And a plus, I get to love on their pets! 😂

Will definitely apply locks, and I’m going to talk to my agent about local laws. And I’m currently taking an RE course, so I’ll probably double tap as I go through. 

Thanks for the help!

@Krista Billiter thanks Krista! I’m excited to move in!

Alright, so the one obstacle was myself. I didn't know people rented by the room(w/ SF home) besides friends with friends, but I see a few listed in my area on a couple different websites. So I finally realized it's possible. Then I had to get my wife on board (which was my second excuse) but she was all about it, she just wants to do a background check obviously. 

So, here we are and I'm excited. Its a is a 2 bedroom 2 1/2 bath. Bedrooms are upstairs and both have full baths. The half bath is also where the laundry machines are. Buying it with a VA loan for 88,000. I'll post pics!!

Alrighty, so here's where the request for advice comes in (i'm gonna buy house hacking book on bp, which might help me out.) But should I talk to my agent about helping me with a lease contract? Should I put some sort of key lock/bolt lock on both bedroom doors? ....basically just asking for those little tips that I might not be thinking of.

@Joseph High thanks for the wisdom, I took your advice and googled around for what course had the highest pass rate around here. It came down to Real Estate Express, Oncourselearning, and the CE shop. I ended up settling with Real Estate Express, for a few reason. Mainly the money back guarantee and the post course being included in a package together. Starting my first class tonight! Super excited! Thanks for the tip, spent about an hour looking through reviews from varies sites. Once I made my decision I spent another hour trying to find a discount code because I'm a cheapskate. 

Alright, so I am in the southern Alabama area, I want to get my real estate license. As of right now I was thinking online after work. I have looked into mckissock, it offers the 60 hour course but you have to pay for a "premium" bundle to get the 30 hour post course.  It'll bring me to about 380 with a 30% discount my agent gave me (not including test cost). I am currently searching other options, but I figured i'd use the wealth of knowledge here on bigger pockets before diving in. 

Also, if there are local real estate agents that want to hit me with pros and cons to being an agent, feel free. I mainly want the knowledge the course offers, but I was planning on pursing the job itself as a second job. 

Final conclusion: “Not all loan officers are created equal” and credit unions (due to volume) are hit or miss.

Update: the loan processing officer seems a lot more available, and they apologized for the lack of communication from the other office.

All in all. I think I got my answer. I’m going to keep pushing with navy fed for this house and chock it up to a “live and learn”.

Thanks for all the wisdom guys! I figured I just got a bad/busy apple 😂