All Forum Posts by: Elaine Fawcett

Ditto the Dave Ramsey suggestion. I would say to listen to him on YouTube, and do it frequently (daily). It will help your mental state, give you a state of mind that you're actually able to dig out of this. That empowerment is so important when you feel helpless. It will also give you a great sense of accomplishment to start to dig out. First thing you need to do is pay off your lowest balance credit card. That's called the debt snowball. So, looks like you have a few $1k balance credit cards, begin with those. Then when the first one is paid off, you use that extra money to pay off the next one and so on, until you're snowballing into larger and faster payments... I'd also call the school loan dept and see if they can renegotiate you. They're often the most flexible of anyone. You do NOT need to be paying your kids schooling, they need public school. You've gotten yourself in a mess. You can get out again. You need a budget - and you need to stick to it... begin by listening to Dave on YouTube to psyche yourself up! Can you take on a roommate in your basement or anything like that? Cook at home, and don't be buying any steaks or lobster for the near term. :) 

Thanks Michael for your response. I'm waiting on the building dept to finish their research on the plot of land I'm interested in. They'll provide me with the beginning info I need. 

Mostly I'm looking to see if there are any investors on this forum that are from northeastern CT area that are familiar with land. It's a very odd property and it will be difficult to value it, and then to draw up those documents I want done will be another odd request... so I'm looking for anyone that has the experience to help me. Of course, I have calls out to professionals in the area, but both of these requests will require some creative thinking and knowledge, and those are not always easy to find in traditional avenues.

I've found some land that I want to purchase for a personal home. I'm closing on a multi family in 2 weeks, my first home purchase in years, and can't support another conventional loan on paper for at least a year. The land seller has agreed to do owner financing for 2 years, giving me time to lock the land up and get my ducks in a row. I'll do a build on the land if the deal goes through. 

I have no idea of what to do to put together a deal. First of all, it's a large property, half of which seems to be wetlands. The other half is buildable. It's in an area of cabins and hunting properties, no electrical or town services. I've called planning dept to ask about what is needed to investigate, and that's as far as I have gone. 

First of all, how do I go about getting someone to appraise the land to figure out what my offer should be? Secondly, how do I structure an offer to adequately protect my interests. I'm looking for advice from anyone who's done these deals before, bonus if you're in CT and can actually provide the service I'm looking for. :)

Oh, hey, you remembered. :) No, I bid 8 times and they wound up selling to a new bidder that came along last minute who bid same price as I did... very disappointed in that one. I learned a lot about the process, though. This one was straight off the MLS, unfortunately.

@Shara Jones No, I meant buy a house in general rather than rent. 

Wow! Sounds like you are the perfect tenant, why not buy?

That's all, no question... just excited that in this market where the deals are hard to come by, I'm finally back on the train. Bought my first multi family after being out of the game for a while, we close end of July. My goal was to retire by 55 with rental income. I'm 46 and took off 8 years due to personal tragedy. So if I want to make it in the next 9 years, I need to have a good plan and execute. We always see people with problems and questions, thought I'd put a nice praise testimony on here! Thanks everyone for the motivation!!

 They carry their own loans. 

@Steve Bracero BTW - my credit union, DCU, was also offering 3% down... not sure if they still are or not. But just for those out there looking for little down as possible, don't discount those credit unions.

@Steve Bracero 

If I qualified for the downpayment assistance, that would have been good. I make $50 too much LOL... go figure... unless I buy in Middlesex. Not seeing too many deals in Middlesex. I'll probably do FHA or FHA 203