All Forum Posts by: Josh C.

Yes. It's very common. Lots of the landlords I deal never even get leases signed. Especially in lower income areas. Go off property condition, market rent rates, current rent rates, and current tenant quality. I bought a place earlier this year with the same story. They owned the place for 25 years and hadn't raised rent in 10 years. No security deposit and didn't even know their phone number. They said in 25 years they had never signed a lease. I double the rents and had them all sign leases. They both stayed and things are going well 5 months in. Trust your gut. Good luck!

there are lots of threads on here about that topic. You can usually do the criminal check for free. 

Good luck!

Thanks a lot Jerry. You are right about this being my first seller finance deal. The goal is to have at least 25 equity in 3 years. 

@Jerry W. 

We filed the mortgage and a sales disclosure with the state. The owner does still have a mortgage on it. My mortgage has a 3 three ballon payment on it, which I think is lots of time, and we'll know in three years if that was a good decision. My PITI payments are $1225. Current rent is $1950, but that is a little low for the area, but I am still happy as it's sits. I did a title search and only his mortgage showed up, but I was under the impression I couldn't get title insurance until I formally close in 3 years? I would also like 20 more of these. I think anyway :)

This is an old historic area that's turing into hipster village, and half of a duplex fixed up is selling for more than I paid for the whole thing, so I feel good about the future. 

Thanks

just an update, I bought the place. Land contract 4.5% rate and $1k down. Should be a great investment. 

Thanks for your advise @Jerry W.  It was really helpful. 

The only legal thing I need to do is record the mortgage?

@Shaun Lapsley @Richard Rockwood 

Cash out refi is a great dream, however in my experience you are going to have an extremely hard if not impossible time finding a lender to give you 70% arv in less than 12 months. I have done a couple similar deals and the best I've been offered in 65% of what I had in it. If you know of lenders I'd be very interested. 

Your numbers sound great though!

there's tons of of other factors, what's the neighborhood like, expected vacancy, deferred maintence, etc. 

but on the surface a 1.5% deal seems good. 

Those all sound great. I strongly recommend a degree that companies want to hire. General business is great base level, but my friends didn't really get the jobs they were wanting. I got an engineering degree, average student, and had tons of options. My wife is a nurse and same thing, everywhere we moved we both got jobs immediately.  I'm no college expert or anything, but all my buddies who got general, non specific degrees (like management) and weren't at the top of their class weren't happy about making 30k less than me. Accounting, engineering, CS, law and other more narrow fields make you more marketable in my opinion anyway. However, you still need to be happy. 

Good luck!

Yo Seth, quit tugging on super man's cape. It's not going to work out well for you. You clearly haven't been on this site very long. J scott is the Walmart of flippers, so he will care about cash on cash returns a lot more than the guy doing 2 or 3 flips a year who only cares what total dollar amount he made. What's important is always relative to the person asking.

I second the vinyl floor vs the laminate. I put carpet in bedrooms and the vinyl plank floor everywhere else, even bathrooms. It's waterproof and looks like hardwood. Total cost installed and materials is $2.25/sqft. If laminate gets wet it blows up like a balloon. Good luck!