All Forum Posts by: Dave Howland

Realtor tells me this office building is : '4A'. What does that mean? 

Can someone remind me? Once he's reached 20% equity in the house can't he eliminate the PMI? Or, with more work, but worth it, refinance and leave PMI out?

If that's true that number is not your forever number. Keep that in mind when calculating some costs will shift. 

Congrats on that success. Two comments - as someone else pointed out if you started in 2008 then you've had the wind at your back since you began. Replicating that success seems impossible because of the second comment - there's like nothing available in Cambridge / Somerville now. Supply is so dry that overpaying is inevitable.  But in 2008/2009 the complete opposite was true. 

Not sure why this is biggerpockets but I'm sure there's some context I don't know.

As a computer person I recognize what you're asking for : a solution to the travelling salesman problem. How does a sales man visit 100 addresses in one day? If he takes the wrong order, he takes a long time. Right order - or best order - half a day. 

But what does this have to do with real estate investing? 

house looks nice, would you be interested in partnering?

Hello all, 

I'd love to get some advice on a potential flip I'm thinking about. It will be my first. 

I have a friend who has a neighbor that passed away, and her house is being sold in the next few weeks. They've offered it to us steeply discounted(260,000) before it hits the market. ARV for houses on that street go for 300,000 to 340,000 - they're mostly single level small houses. This is in NJ. The house is being sold as is and I'm assuming a complete kitchen and single bathroom gut.

Last year a house just like this one - three doors down - was renovated and a second floor was added  - yielding a purchase price of 500,000. It was very nicely done and there was a lot of interest I happen to know. 

My question is about potentially flipping this house either 

a- rehabbing it straight as is. 260,000 + 40000 =  300,000.
Sell for 350,000 = 50,000, then subtract out closing costs, etc = 40,000. 

b- adding a second floor to it. 
This is the direction I'd rather go. 260,000 + 130,000(second floor addition)  + 40,000 (kitchen + bathroom) = 430,000 all in. A 525,000 asking price doesn't sound unreasonable - leaving 95,000 minus closing costs = 80,000. 

I'm lining up to get the same builders that did the house down the street to do my house. In a way I have a perfect template of what it's going to look like and how the deal could be done with the other house. 

One additional note is that I would need to blend some money from a Self Directed IRA with money from PML or the like - as the renovations plus the cost of the house would be tough.

I sense some opportunity here and would really appreciate some of the wisdom BP doles out every day. 

Thanks, Dave

Take that car to the car wash and clean it top to bottom. Make it shine. Then get it onto craigslist and ebay. Specify local pickup. Stay firm at $27,000 or $28,000. Sell it and cover the difference yourself. Beg borrow or steal it if you can. 

Holding onto that car is a mistake. You have to ask yourself about how much your losing. 

Every month you shell out $500 - but you're losing another 3 or 4 hundred dollars every month in dropping value. 

Hi Darren Sager, 

The sentence "That being said i've often used a higher price on a property as a method to purchase a property for my clients with it in the end based upon the appraisal as part of the contract" is a little confusing to me. Are you saying that you submitted the higher price when going for the mortgage? My apologies, I just want to understand I know what you mean here. 

Darren Sager, 

Thanks - how common is it for a buyer to decide it's okay to waive the appraisal?  Won't many of them think "If the bank doesn't think it's not worth that much: maybe I'm paying too much?". 

My target to would be to make it house most people wouldn't want to leave (cause they love it) ... I guess I'll see how that works out :)

Thanks again. 

David

Hey all, 

New to rehabbing and wanted to see what folks thought about sources for rehabs. In the north central New Jersey area: are there any good deals to be had? I've looked on MLS, auctions and used realtors, and it seems everything is evenly priced. I guess the danger is that if you price to high, not only will you not get buyers, but banks wont appraise. Is the hardest part of this finding new deals?

Thanks, Dave