All Forum Posts by: David DuCille

first of "she thinks it worth 150" and you think its 135.  Well where is she coming up with her number.  Get a realtor to do a simple analysis and really get an idea.  Second, as one other person mentioned, whats your game plan for dealing with the son?  is the idea that you will buy it with the son in it?  seems like you need to make whatever deal contingent on him getting OUT of the property.  There is a high risk of him doing spiteful **** and trashing the place.  I would seek to get the property contingent on him being gone and the property maintained in the condition that you have seen it in.

 until your vacant home is vandalized and you have to spend $1200 to repair it.

To the letter of the law, you are correct.  In practice, NOBODY does it this way.  Its analogous to speeding, 1mph over the limit is breaking the law, yet everyone does it.  Again, not saying its right but its a judgment call.  Would I put an inexperienced high school kid on a roof to strip shingles off?  No.  But would I uninstall kitchen cabinets and have them carry them out to the dumpster?  Sure.

looking good!/ keep it up.  What year were these built?/ looks like early 80s. Not sure they would need a repipe. 

 Trust me, I'm well aware of the old "you get what you pay for". But let's be realistic, demo isn't skilled labor.  I wouldn't hire inexperienced high schoolers to do it on their own but if I needed more hands and I was going to be there to supervise?  Sure, why not.  

I love the HGTV shows as much as anyone but seeing them just swing sledges at everything is annoying and wasteful.  There is a time and place for that, but I try to be more precise and dismantle rather than demolish.

there is one main reason why I differ in opinion from many posted here.  It sounds great in theory to be super strict about your criteria, however, vacant properties are targets, especially in mediocre/bad neighborhoods and you call this a "C" property.  I have a rental in qhat is quite frankly an F area lol and we were holding out for highly qualified applicants and in the end we had vandalism issues.  Thankfully, most of it was covered by insurance but not all.  So if you can be reasonably assured based on pay stubs, length of time at current job, and references from prior landlords (i don't place stock in personal references, who isn't going to give a friend a good reference) then this can be something worth considering.  

In my situation, I ended up with a section 8 tenant but I had to wait for the inspection and that process.  my tenant had enough money on their own for 1 months rent.  I told them I would take the $1100 as security deposit and charge them a prorated daily rent fee for the first month until section 8 got in place and we would come up with a payment plan.  In the end, they owe me $610 for the time they resided before section 8 kicked in.  This tenant is seeking additional public assistance to pay that but has agreed to pay me $50/month extra to get caught up.  Now if she struggles to do that but keeps the place in good condition, I can afford to lose this $600 as my place is being taken care of and the guaranteed nature of section 8 rent helps me tremendously.   

This is the beauty and sometimes the trouble of landlording, we would love it if there were always hard and fast answers but sometimes you have to make on the spot decisions.  by being picky, $1000 of damage was caused to my vacant, freshly gut renovated property.  But of course, putting in the wrong tenants can also cause several 1000's of losses.  Risk vs. Reward

fyi, the homepath mortgage program was ended in October so that is no longer an option

another great BP thread!  Continually showing many ways to skin a cat.  One thing to keep in mind is that are you wanting to own 10 properties just to say you own 10?  I've never really been enamored with owning a set number of properties.  It's kind of like what the guy who said "which brick from my house do I pay the pizza guy with?"  I have monthly $$$ flow goals.

I have a property we bought for 92,500 with 20% down and 1500 closing assist from seller. We then spent $5k doing cosmetic updates to it and a lot of cleaning that easily added a ton of equity. I could sell this house right now for 120k with ease probably closer to 125-130. My PITI is $593, this property rents for $1295!!!! I'd love 10 like this! lol

dont lose sight of the end game which is ultimately making money.  I am fortunate to have bought in an area where I can get solid appreciation and great cashflow.

Frankly, I'm disgusted with banks and I need to learn more about private lending options.  We started with 750 credit score when we bought our residence as first time buyers november of 2013.  We have since bought 2 rentals, one financed as mentioned above, the other all cash.  We did varying amounts of renos to all of the properties and in the midst of that opened up a whopping 2 new credit cards in addition to the other 2 we have.  all in all, our credit scores have dropped to 680 which is still a damn good credit score, yet we cant get a cash out refi on the one we bought all cash!!!!  the plan was cash out 70% of the value and take that cash and pay off all of the credit card debt so that the credit scores go back up.  then we are free to look for another property in a better area that we can finance.  It's killing me because we are late to the game here in florida.  There are still good deals but I just know they get harder and harder to find.

Bumping this back up to the top as I jsut stumbled upon it.  It's now about a year later, curious if the OP is still out there and how this has all worked out for him.  Are you guys back on the up and up?  all good tenants?  getting  your bank accounts back in order?

 I'm biased because I'm a KW agent but I agree with this.  A lot has to do with the nature of the market you are in.  I am a new investor but my first property was bought in february for 92,500.  20% down and we spent 5k doing basic renovations.  The comps support this house selling for $125k right now.  My piti is $593 and we rent it for $1295.  If I reinvested all that cash flow I would own it free and clear in 7 years.  There aren't a lot of deals as sweet as that one but man oh man, if you only buy 1 a year and the math works that good not only can you retire after 15 years but you will be living high on the hog too!