All Forum Posts by: Casey S.

My brother is a builder in Temple.

If I were in Temple I know what I would do. There are a TON of VA foreclosures in Killeen due to Ft Hood. If a house is a VA foreclosure they will sell it to anyone with their vendee financing which only requires 5% down for investors. Furthermore once you have investment experience they will allow you to use 75% of the PREDICTED rental income to qualify for the subject property that you are buying. Go to www.va.reotrans.com and take a look at the vendee financing. You can also look at the homes that are available there.

Regardless of your plans to buy you need to find a Real Estate Agent that will sign you up on the MLS email update list so you can start learning your local markets. AND start watching craigslist and the local papers like a hawk, calling numbers on signs, etc to learn the rental market. You can also go on the military website for rentals to see what the market is like. www.ahrn.com. This site is a great place to list your rentals once you own them also. Start spending some money driving the areas to learn what is where. Without knowing your local markets you wont know if a deal is good or not. You can look at all of the local properties for tax appraisal and cost on www.bellcad.org. You will also need to figure out what insurance will run you.

I have family that have made a killing renting to military in other towns very similar to your area.

A lot of banks count 75% of the rent towards your income. If 75% of the rent comes out above your total monthly cost of tax, insurance, and note then you will show income in the banks eyes.

You wont get as good of financing with a smaller bank doing in house loans but you may be able to build a relationship with a small bank that will allow them to bend their own rules some on requirements. They will do things like use equity in your current properties for down payments towards your next purchase without doing a full high cost refinance. They also often dont care about where your down payment comes from as long as they get it and they may take "the deal" or property into consideration on if they will lend. They are also usually much easier to deal with when it comes to getting a sale closed.

What town are you in? Im in College Station.

Availability and responsiveness are number one. I can get an email MLS update at 9:00am, call her, see the property at lunch, meet her later that afternoon to sign an offer. If a realtor is holding back the buying process they are potentially costing you a good buy.

Dependability. If she says something will be done or she will make a call it gets done.

Thoroughness. Make sure Is are dotted and any potential snag is IDed ahead of time.

Support. If I need something done like showing a rental because I am busy at work she doesn't mind helping out. She has even gone as far as covering a $1000 cost for me until I could get back to town.

Comps are on the bottom of my list. I live in a small market <150,000 and I pretty much know every neighborhood in town and the details of any listing in my price range in the last year. To me the number one rule of investing in anything is know thy market. I don't really trust anyone else to do that. She does pull comps but they always tell me what i already know.

We ended up with each other as a result of me calling a number on a sign when I was just getting started. Lots of agents shun those calls but she has gotten three sales in under a year and an active listing as a result.

Paint and caulk have to be the best bang for the buck if you are doing it yourself.

New outlet and switch plate covers are probably the next best bang for the buck if they are showing age.

I personally like upgrading light fixtures to a matching style. You can get contractor packs of booby lights that will spruce a place up for not much money and they are easy to put up. Best thing about them is they will still look nice in five or ten years since they dont show physical signs of use.

Updated and matching bathroom hardware is fairly cheap and easy to do.

New door knobs are easy, cheap, and will go nice with a fresh coat of paint.

Tile floors are another place that if you can do them yourself will pay dividends with time.

I stay away from ceiling fans, microwaves, garbage disposals, etc because its just one more thing for them to call and complain about.

Option 1 and fishing.

Its pretty much why I am here.

google- TAR 2007 guarantor.

I agree with Jeff. I would only do it if it has good numbers AND its in a location that is likely to have a turnaround. You are basically looking for the up and coming hood before it is up and coming. This is usually proximity to something that will have a longterm draw. Think universitys, downtowns, historic districts, water bodies, etc.

I dont have much fix and flip experience but are things selling in that area? My area has been one of the most solid in the country price wise but things have really slowed for time on market. I did my first fix and flip about 6 months back. There were only three homes in the entire neighborhood for sale and I was stoked to know that I was going to come out below them in asking price and it would be in much better shape. I got done and listed it and no action, waited two weeks and dropped price and one showing, another week and dropped price and one more showing. The entire time foks were beating my door down wanting to know if I would rent it. I rented it for $140 a month more than I thought I would be able to get and figured I was best to save the sale for another day. Those same three houses are still for sale too.

I would take a hard look at location before selling it. Maybe it isn't returning the profit that the others are but maybe its in a better location resulting in greater long term appreciation. If you made a bad buy and you can go down the street and make your numbers better then sell it.

I personally have properties that gross anywhere from 1.1%-3% of purchase price. The 3% does great for current income but it may never go up in value. The 1.1% is in an EXCELLENT location for long-term appreciation and it was completely remodeled just before buying. Totally different properties that are both good investments. I personally like the diversification of different types of property.

I don't do them. I dig in the attic, closets, under sinks, breaker boxes, everywhere there is to look before I make my first offer. 90% chance that if I am showing up to look at a house I am prepared to make an offer I'm just deciding on how low to go. Part of my offer is that I will take it as is with no inspections or BS negotiating after a price is agreed on. I feel like it has helped to get better prices on the purchase because every seller hates home inspections these days. So far I have saved a lot more than I have spent. Sure I have missed a few things but the money saved has more than made up for it.