All Forum Posts by: Devin Haertling

@Zane Belden

@zane belden and I have been working on a deal to buy a 4 plex.  This process started 6 months ago.  We made contact with our realtor through Zillow  and she showed us 3 properties one day and we put an offer on one of them.  The deal never went through so 5 months later we offered on the same property and still no luck.  Now the seller has contacted me through facebook and wants to sell at our asking price of 160K (list price 200K) but wants to leave realtors out of the equation.  (He doesn't want to pay the commissions).  How he is getting out of his current listing with his realtor is a whole other discussion.

In a nut shell for those out there that will ask: He is transferring the title to his daughter so the current listing contract is void with his realtor.  (I know it sounds super shady) 

We are probably going to move forward with the deal but we feel bad about snubbing our realtor after the time she put in it. but if we closed the traditional way then the cost would have been bore by the seller.

My question is this: 

If we give her $1000 in amazon gift cards or something else of equal value that she would use (so she doesn't have to claim it) would that be sufficient?  Would you appreciate a gesture like that or be upset you were left out?

Let us know what you think

Thanks for the input.  

I am currently looking in a rural area at a SFH 3 bed 1 bath. List price 75000. I can probably get 650-700 for it which runs things tight but it has a 28x40, 20x40 and 20x20 pole barns/sheds on the property. My question is has anyone ever done a situation like this and used the sheds for self storage for boats/campers/rvs for extra income?

I am going through the usual agent I use to buy my rentals and it is a listing they have.  There are two agents.  One is dealing with me and the other is dealing with the seller.

We have a signed contract in place to purchase the property.  I had an inspection done and it looked like the unfinished basement had flooded (very old home).  Recommendation was to put in a sump pump and make repairs/replace HVAC and water heater.  Est $7500.

Seller sent a knee jerk response to the inspection request and denied all repairs immediately.  I haven't done anything yet as my agent said to wait until he can actually get to the property himself and see if he agrees with what my guy found. (not sure how come he refused to fix anything so quickly without looking at things himself) So I have not responded to the denial on his part to fix anything.  I can sign the documents and continue to buy the house at the agreed upon price and be stuck footing the repairs.  We have until 5/27 to sign those documents.  My understanding was that he was going to look things over at the house and if he agreed he would pay to have them fixed or knock more off the purchase price. (this was an understanding, never in writing but we were going to address it after he was able to look at things himself)

Since that time I have found out that he has started making the repairs and installing a sump pump. He now wants to increase the purchase price agreement.  Can he do that?  If I sign the document that states we will take the house as is without repairs but he makes the repairs on his own can we hold him to that agreed upon purchase price?  Or can he get out of the contract to sell us the house at the agreed purchase price?

@Danny Ondik

In my lease it states clearly that the tenant is responsible for mowing the lawn and I hammer this point through at lease signing.  It also states that if they do not mow the lawn at least once every 2 weeks from April through October (I'm in the midwest) then I will have it done and charge them $40. It has only happened once that we had to mow the lawn.  My retired father in law mowed it and was happy to pocket the money.  

I think the two weeks is plenty of leeway to allow them to mow the lawn.  

Typically it only takes a text message reminding them of the consequences if the lawn is not mowed.  

Shiloh Lundahl What are the terms of your loans if you do t mind sharing?

Heidi Backer You would have to talk to the bank that has your current mortgage. That would probably be the only bank that would do that for you. Even then they might not want to do this type of loan structure.

Peter Bowen Great to hear your story. I am hoping as these properties pay off I will be able to take my personal property out of the equation as you have.

We currently do not have an LLC but that is something we are considering but really that discussion is outside the realm of this post. We do have liability coverage on each house for 1 million with an additional umbrella policy for another million No exit strategy. This is a long term hold plan until I guess forever. My uncle started buying rentals in our town 20 years ago. He still owns the same properties today. There have been cap ex expenditures sure but they are now paid off and he still has a vacancy rate close to 0. It might be an option for commercial financing in the future. Something I hadn't thought of. I do expect the rates to go up and I know it's possible it's over 6%. I have been thinking if that happens I will need to look into other options for financing. I touch base with my loan officer ever 6 months and so far the rate has stayed at 4.5%. I am making double payments on one property so it will pay off in 7 years so if rates go up I will have a property that I can payoff the remaining balance on and then use the rental income to cover the higher expense on my other properties. As mentioned in other posts the only risk if there is a market crash is if the bank will no longer renew my loan which is a major risk. Since my plan is a long term hold a loss in value of my current properties will only affect my ability to acquire new properties. The other caveat to this is that with the housing bubble pop of 2008-09 it really didn't affect home prices in our small town. On average we have about 1 foreclosure a year and that didn't change with the housing bubble pop. On the flip side of that there isn't much appreciation with any house you buy in our small town unless you do a full gut rehab. And there aren't many of those because the profit margins are still so thin. Most houses that get rehabbed in our town are those that are bought by the primary owner and then they live in them for the long term.

Daria B. The risk in this is the unknown in 5 years. As stated in previous posts the interest rate will most likely go up and any defaults and my personal residence is on the line.