All Forum Posts by: Edward Barnes

They'll send an appraiser out, which Brandon will probably pay $350-500 for. The appraiser will tell the bank & Brandon how much the property is worth and then bank will refi up 80%. The extra 20% is just a cushion for the bank to minimize risk, in case values go down or if they have to foreclose. Brandon doesn't have to cough up the 20%. It just sits there, untapped. It's Brandon's equity. Theoretically (if the appraiser's correct) he could sell the house for $141K and minus closing costs, etc. walk with the profit (his equity) after paying off the mortgage.

Good thread. These are just my thoughts. I am in no way an experienced investor, just lived down here for some years. Best rental populations seem to be military and college kids. Would try to buy near colleges or bases. Everybody else does too though. School's are generally bad, beyond York County, Williamsburg, parts of VA Beach, and rural areas. These seem to be flip areas anyway. Violent crime's bad here too. Flood maps are definitely a big deal. @Devon Shewmaker brought up Poquoson. Not sure what the threshold is, but if you're over a certain amount spent for rehabbing a property you're required to raise the house if you're in the flood zone, which most of Poquoson is unless you're in the far western part. We've been hearing Norfolk's supposedly sinking into the ocean forever. Had a guy working on my foundation, said there's plenty of areas where if you were doing push piers for fixing a foundation you would never hit bedrock, no matter how many you used, just mud. Not trying to be alarmist, just what it is. I'd also look at property taxes. Rural areas, like Isle of Wight Co, Suffolk, Chesapeake, or York Co are more expensive, but it's somewhat offset as property taxes can be a lot less and properties more desirable. Plus if you look at say Portsmouth, not only are the rates high, but so are the assessments in my opinion. Now that I bashed Portsmouth, it's kind of interesting because they are adding all those jobs at the shipyard. Think @Tommy Johnson said 9000, well that's probably 10% of Portsmouth's population. Seems like a huge number. However, Portsmouth has such a crappy reputation and schools along with an extremely unpopular mayor and city leadership. But if you're contrarian, looking long-term, and you don't buy in the hood, maybe it would turn out well...? Will definitely cash flow in the mean time. Oust the mayor and get an influx of middle class ppl in there.

much bigger down payment for your commercial loan (20-35%) for 5+ unit

TRIG is the bigger one on the southside, older, more established, not sure if there's a fee attached or not. PREIA's on the peninsula, smaller and less formal, meets at the Peking Chinese restaurant off Hampton Rds Center Parkway once a month. Cost is just the meal.

Like Thomara said, they're both on meetup.com.

Got an HVAC estimate for a fourplex - 2 up/2 dn, 2 bd/1 ba 770 sq ft units. Spacious empty attic with flooring. $31,650 for four separate units and ductwork, previously had window units. Seem reasonable?

More than likely they fat fingered it. Listed on Nov 3 for $384K and reduced a $100K on Nov 4. Looking at previous selling prices, they probably meant $284K.

You're talking about "wholesaling". You can do it yourself for the most part, there's tons of threads here about it. Do some searching and you'll find what you're looking for.

No legal advice, but I've seen this come up in other forums in regard to Virginia. Accepting rent "with reservations", think you have to serve them with written notice within 5 days of accepting the payment, that though you're accepting their partial payment you're not paid in full and you're not waiving your right to evict them.

Ryan's correct. You can finance the cost of the first few payments while the property's being rehabbed.

Yeah, NOVA and Maryland are going to be flipping areas, not buy-and-hold areas. You're not gonna find any cash flow up there.