All Forum Posts by: Dustin S.

I will ask if cash would make a difference not ideal for me but I'm sure I can get someone to give me a bridge loan and make it work. If needed I could come up with 50% of purchase price and repairs.

@Kenneth Reimer so my contact with the owner has been fairly limited. She seemed somewhat candid on the phone so I didn't want to pry to much into her personal life. I also don't want to bug her too much. I know I hate when I have someone calling me all the time. I think meeting her business manager in person helped establish some report with him. I may try and rely on that  and keep up some on going communication with him. I will still send the owner another letter but will give it a couple of weeks. It just bugs me that that home is empty and could be rented out for $2200 or $2300/ month.     

@Billy Mclachlan I've been looking. I have done big mailing campaigns in the past and have had very poor luck with them. What does work well for me is very targeted mailing basically is see a house that looks like it needs some work and pull tax records on it. If its non owner occupied I send a letter right away and in a lot of cases try and look up their phone number and call.  I have gotten very good response rates this way and feel its a much better use of my time.

@Abi Wegman so I did not present my financing proposal in person and not even to her I taped a letter to the door for the business manager. Who I know did read it and left me a voice mail thanking me for some of the contacts for different trades he asked about when I did speak with him in person. When I do send her another letter I will include another proposal.

@Anthony Gayden @Jason Dale so as far as coming in with all cash with the help of a hard money lender that is an option I just don't think that would persuade her not to mention hard money lenders are expensive and I'm not looking to flip this. If I did go that rout I'd have to put permeate financing on it as soon as I completed my rehab

@Billy Mclachlan I actually have sent her a hand written letter but I do like the way you think. I do think I could expand on the letter I sent her and may wait a couple of week and send her another one.

@Kenneth Reimer I do see your point and I have talked to the owner she doesn't have any problems at least in her mind other than maybe an empty house. From what I can tell she is wealthy, doesn't need money she owns the house free and clear. Here are what I see as potential problems is

 1. she is older 80ish and at some point will pass on the property to her heirs that may not want a property, might not be good at handling finances or may have multiple heirs that may squabble over her assets.

2. Headaches from what I can tell she doesn't employ a professional property manager just a business manager not sure how hands on she is. The home is empty got to worry about uninvited guests. Lack of income no being a real problem for her.

3. Contractors/Handymen in order to get it rented she has to fix the place up the business manager showed me around and the place is basically gutted and there's a big hole in the wall where a drunk driver hit the place.

both the business manager and owner live about 30 minutes away

Hi Guys looking for some advice here. I have found the perfect house for me its a serious fixer in my neighborhood that has been vacant now for 4 or 5 months. The lady who owns it is older (80ish) and has a business manager running things for her. So far there is little to no work going on at the place and this house needs everything its basically gutted it's killing me seeing this house sit like this. If I could buy it. I'd have it fixed up and a tenant in there in 6 weeks or less. I have talked to both the business manager and owner and told them I'd love to buy and have shown them a seller financing scenario that I think would be perfect for the owner. No tenants trash or termites and she would be getting a steady monthly income. I would love to hear how you would approach this situation. How you would structure the sale to suit the owners needs.

Most lenders will do FHA or VA loans on residential properties that's 4 units or less, you must plan to live in the property for both VA and FHA. Most will even allow you to use the income on the other units not occupied by you to help you qualify for the loan.

@Michael Bettencourt 

So I did 10 years in the Navy and ended up here in Port Hueneme. I've just got a couple things for you to think about.

1st if you keep your CA Properties The California Franchise Tax Board may require your property manager to withhold a percentage of your rents.

Do you know where you want to end up when you do get out of the Navy? If you want to come back to CA it might make sense to keep your CA properties if you want to end up somewhere else what does the market there look like right now?

If you don't have any idea where you'll end up when your out. Do you have a place you travel to often? Maybe where your parents of some family members live, What does that market look like?

If you do end up selling your CA properties You'll end up doing pretty pretty well. Be careful with large chunks of cash.

I like the idea of both of you taking a side of the duplex as long as you are lowering your living expenses. Be sure to include the cost of maintaining the property as part of your living expenses as well. Living in the property gives you several advantages tax wise and getting a loan on the property an owner occupied loan program is going to allow a higher % LTV in the case of FHA 97% so you can get into a property with less money. All that being said when you buy, it has to work as a rental, as in renting out both sides. At some point down the road you will not want to live in a duplex with your brother anymore you can buy a personal residence and turn the duplex into a rental. I did something very similar with the first property I bought I lived in it for several years with roommates then move out and turned it into a rental I thought of it as paying my self rent when I lived there.