All Forum Posts by: Dorian Guin

@Robert Goldman before I became a licensed realtor I benefitted by seeing this, it’s a ton of this going on in Detroit. People take risk and life happens and they assume they can catch up, or luck will favor them, then next thing you know your two, three years behind. Just because the properties are free and clear doesn’t mean there isn’t other obligations that’s killing them financially. These are excellent opportunities to help them folks. There’s always money in solutions.

@Tom B. To be exact as to the extent of how it will impact your credit I can’t say. But keep in mind it does function like a credit card so depending on how much of the credit is being utilized will impact your credit. For example I had a 10k credit card I used just over half to buy material for a rehab. Since that was a substantial amount of my total available credit my credit utilization was above 30% causing my score to go from roughly 722 to 670’s until that credit was paid down. Hope this is helpful

@Peter LaBreck I can definitely hold out longer and manage the cost associated with the upkeep as of now. But the original strategy was to acquire the properties cash and self finance the rehabs with a commercial cleaning company I own. But this is my third year in commercial cleaning and trying to scale the business I’ve made some mistakes and let employees take on things I should’ve continued to manage myself and those mistakes cost me contracts, and being overwhelmed with my family structure between work, husband, father of three, realtor and investor mentally I wasn’t prepared for it all and it took a toll on my mental health, so I scaled back on business til I had a better structure meanwhile properties sat. And self financing is limited with lost business contracts.

@Peter LaBreck what do you mean by leveraging them to an extent? The cash out refi sounds great considering what the properties appraised for is more than twice my all in budget on the home. But it’s intimidating as that’s more than I need at the time and I’m still working on my self discipline for myself and family wants and needs. Having that much excess of capital with no clear direction, I’m not certain I’m prepared for that. Credit cards I have previously used in moderation to fund a rehab and successfully paid the balance off.

@Steve Vaughan I’m currently prepping to move into another home (first mortgage property). And afterwards I was considering this for a property that’s in a developing area in the inner city of Detroit where home values are still relatively low but allows for a investor or home buyer to get some instant equity. If I require them to put roughly 7,500k which is half my investment into the property and make payments on this home over the next two years. IF they default on payments what’s the process and time frame for me to cancel or foreclose the contract terms?

@John Warren thanks. The HELOC sounds like the better option. As my intentions isn't to hold the debt over an extended period of time, and there's not a clear blueprint of every dollar those funds would be directed toward. So the ability to have access to those funds like a credit card sounds like it appeal to my needs better.

@Jay Hinrichs thanks for your insight. What do you mean by owner financing? I have multiple properties that’s free and clear but aren’t in conditions to be habitable right now. That’s kind of the purpose to leverage my existing occupied properties. All my properties are free and clear, but with the unoccupied homes sitting and not bringing in cash flow, but also how the maintenance cost and taxes and insurance on multiple properties. It adds up fairly quickly and keep my income on a wheel of coming in and going out

I'm a relatively new investor, debating which strategy would work in leveraging some properties I own free and clear. But with recent changes in the markets I'd love to move in moderation. Options I'm considering is, would I be better off taking out HELOC options on the properties. Or taking out a mortgage on current properties that is already tenant occupied? Thanks in advance for all insight available.

@Russell Gronsky thanks for the heads up, and yeah I've seen information they provided on last major repairs and also there expenses throughout the year, and with me being conservative calculating those average expenses as well as the PITI I would have on the property I'd still have a cash flow of roughly 1,300 a month prior to the other units getting occupied. And I'd still have about 35k in reserves for renovations and whatever unforeseen expenses pop up.

@Michael Ealy thanks so much I needed that inspiration. Read it multiple times to make sure I didn’t miss anything. As exciting as the end result paid off for you, that journey of the adversities and overcoming them as well is the real pay.