All Forum Posts by: Lynn Z

never call lenders for "ideas" on mortgage rates. Even if you tell them "I don't want my credit pulled" low and behold it shows up as an inquiry. On one occasion with a Florida lender, they shopped my request out and that placed 3 inquiries from those lenders plus the original. Wrote the firms, the credit bureaus, commented on my record.. and had to wind up waiting out a year to get them off. Also, beware those "credit application" costs that are never refunded even when they have no intention of going through with the investor loan. Go with someone somebody reliable knows and go meet them in person. Tell them not to pull you credit just to talk. Bank lenders tend to be alot more careful about credit pulls

Make sure utilities are transferred from landlord to tenants immediately or have the cutoff date set early on. If the local utilities messes up you'll get a bill a year later for $300-$400 for water and the tenant is gone.

Furnish sliders for the feet of their furniture and make sure they're in the threshold when they move in their furniture. No excuses.

Provide quarterly pest spray and meet the exterminator so that you can walk through the apartment and change the filters....because no tenant is going to do it for you....even if you furnish 12 months of filters.

Get the rent ASAP. ON the evening of the fifth of the month, call them and warn about the late fee. I give some tenants deposit slips and they deposit the rent in a timely manner. Learned that from a section 8 landlord. Not a problem.

Take digitals of the apartment prior to rental and after they leave prior to your cleaning up after them. Make sure the accounting of the deposit takes place ASAP with invoices of funds spent. Next year I'm thinking of making professional maid service a requirement because no tenant will clean an apartment. There should be upfront agreement on this.

Try to get longer than one year's lease. It's too difficult to trade out tenants over one year and many break their lease and leave in dirty anyhow. They do lie, you know.

Charge more for short term (less than a year) leases.

Tell em where they can park and designate the landlord as the definitive
authority of what goes on the front porch.

We take dogs and require an interview of the dog. Has worked for a long time in alot of circumstances. Students and pets NO. Evict if found.

my daughter is a realtor that has made $12000 a year and $200,000 a year. In watching her operate over the years, I realize she's as appreciative of my poor friends looking for a cheap in town condo as wealthy customers. She still has month's she has no closings as do all agents. She works 7/24 to make good money. Other agents she refers clients to in other towns don't bother to pay her the agreed on referral fee when the closings occur. She has to run them down and press for the money. That' 's the awful truth...is how they treat each other. Also, if a realtor tells you they have a great deal on a house.. they really mean they think it will sell. They're not concerned with figuring your spread after fix up etc. or whether it's a good deal for you. They are "SALES PEOPLE" after all. Few of them have invested in real estate for the long haul themselves...just quick flips.

I've been selling two FSBO's in town that have excellent location and in purr fect condition. Sent my flyer across the internet to agents I know and offered 3% commission if they had someone looking. One I know well, made an appointment to see the house and didn't show. They didn't bother to call, ask about the house nor send someone to the open house. One of the houses sold for cash in 14 days at a top of the market price. They won't get out of bed for 3% even if it means 12-15K. They're not thinking about the collective business in the future.

Although we have an overload of experienced and newbie realtors, few help the newbies and few have anything to do with investors. They can't appreciate the long haul and what you need to know to sell to investors. It isn't the same as courting the parents of an out of town/state student looking for a house to buy, is it? Negotiation can take time and patience. Many are just lazy. They don't scour ads placed by owners on Sundays anymore looking for listings. Life has been too easy the last few years with agents mopping up the best listings for themselves and flipping.

Any agent that shows interest in what I'm selling can make 3% and get constant emails with digitals about everything coming up. I'm happy to pay 3% to them. Problem is, they have to split with their broker and wind up with 1/2 of that 3% and that doesn't seem productive to them...but they'll do referrals between agents all day long for less money.

I could have gotten another lender to pay off the ARM but the closing costs and possible points/rate (non owner occupied) would have been pricey. The conversion clause allows for the conversion for $250 which was a deal. The rate was 6.625% while the funds rate they used the date of their letter posted at 6.0% so ....they make a little. Also, what's great is the fixed loan picks up years where the other one left off....so you don't restart the years like you would if you went to another lender to refi. The straight conversion letter was sent also and that would have been 6.3% initially but after a year would go up with the index etc. etc. I'm convinced fixed is better for anyone due to the scrutiny of the lender.

has anyone had experience of converting an ARM to a fixed rate? Number 1, there were questions as to my new address (which I had updated at their prompting when I drafted my mortgage payment); whether or not I still "lived" in the house (I rent it now but lived there three years) as the mortgage language can state "if the loan conditions change" --
a loophole which gives the mortgage company an out for converting a loan if it has become non owner occupied property. Number 2, the market rate that the fixed is converted to was the rate on the date of the letter they wrote me offering the option (after I called and asked when they were going to put it in writing). Number 3 they only charged $250 to do the conversion but there was at least .5 pt. added to the market Treasury rate. When I tracked back to my banker who did the original loan, he seemed to be aware of all of the above...he added that when you do a conversion option you actually are rewriting the terms of the mortgage and the lender has more control than just rolling it into a new rate. Investors must be alert to this practice by lenders because they are told they can refi out of these ARMS up the road and they may not be able to. The incentive is to not convert to fixed but get that higher rate every year. Sounds like "universal default" language from credit card companies doesn't it?

two summers back, countrywide had 5.5% investor $$$. I did two loans and another landlord 4 or 5. Quick processing, great service. Still have them. Recently Bank of America is better than CW - points are high and the last conversation I asked about a straight 30 year fixed and the phone CW contact stated " those loans aren't our bread and butter loans" Pushing ARMS, etc. They are hot and cold like all investor loan sources. You are limited to 4 or 5 loans with them.

My sister bought in the 70's and I have invested off and on. When my daughter got out of college with too much debt I told her real estate is the ONLY way she can retire this debt. I helped her buy a great bungalow for $110K, she took a roommate and made the mortgage payment...a year later sold it for $135k and bought something bigger in a better block.

She spent a fortune rehabbing/living in that one..and after 5 years took on the financing. She's building a large house on the coast right now because she learned from the small investments that really aren't small anymore.

She's been in real estate for 8 years now and the triplex will be her only retirement plus there's the cash flow. It's great to help your kid learn early on about real estate. Gives them something $$$ can't buy.

Refis where lenders jacked the points up on closing day. $$$ which I never felt like I recouped.

Not reinvesting profits.

Bought a duplex with a cottage in the back yard which turned out made the financing very unconventional causing me to have to search for a lender who would do the cottage as a portfolio loan and bear another closing for the duplex. Two attorney's closing fees, etc. etc. Forced bad judgement.

Buying a triplex 6 months later and not checking to see if the grandfather certificate was in the file allowing continuous occupancy in the triplex. Neighbor complaint forced research of former owners/affadavits of continuous occupancy since 1970 to satisfy local zoning folks....plus lawyer fees to make the necessary calls. Everyone buying a multifamily property should make sure that grandfather certificate is produced or obtained before signing a contract. Won't make these mistakes again.

anxious to learn how to make $$$ in 2006-7