All Forum Posts by: Ann Watkins

If you want to do it yourself, find the price per square foot and use that to make adjustments to your subject property. It's easier if you have enough comps from the MLS or a similar reliable database.

You may want find some realtors willing to work with you. I help my investors with this all the time.

Mubasher Riaz You might go on your MLS and look for other homes in that neighborhood with the same square footage and or builder.

If it's not local for you to drive by look at your property vs others in the area on google and hopefully you will find the same style. That may give you some idea if those properties were ever listed on the MLS.

J. Johnson Hi there. Not sure how involved you want to be in getting it ready for market but here is my story. I bought a pre-forclosure ocean front property in 2011. The owners were losing this property and a couple of other ones.

I ran the comps and realized the other ocean front condos were still selling for at top price but this one the owner was willing to let go for his balance owed, almost .50 on the dollar. I know right...an urban legend. I bought it the same day it hit the MLS and he was just happy to get it under contract.

I went to the bank that held the remaining loan because I figured that would be the easiest way to get the financing pushed through. It worked, they fast tracked it.

While I waited for the property to close I interviewed folks to get my team together. By the time we closed I had my carpenter, plumber, electrical, flooring folks all in place and ready to go.

Then I drove the island to determine what I could purchase from there vs. what I needed to get from Houston. Some things like mattresses I ordered online, some items I got from the Habitat store and some from the local stores there.

I semi-lived in the property during a lot of the renovation. My mom had just passed and the remodel and waking up every morning looking at the ocean was quite healing for me.

I initially hired a management company to handle my bookings but wound up firing them after 6 months. You really have to do your work here. Try to stay away from companies who manage competition or actually own the competition.

Because my property was remodeled in a way that made it "high end" I found that the company was using pictures of my property for advertising then placing the guests in other properties. I also found out the owners of the company had not paid the hotel tax.

I had the property on Flipkey and was getting up to 10 inquiries a day. I would simply forward these inquiries to the management company and those were the only bookings I was getting. However, the owner's property stayed full.

That said, I didn't use accountants or attorney's and haven't really needed to. The company I have it with now keeps it booked and my revenues will have this property paid off next year.

Good luck and Brightest Blessings!

Hi George and welcome, and yes while Steve was being funny I have to admit I did chuckle...thinking back to me ordering Carlton Cheats "proven" real estate system. It proved to be very profitable for him. And believe it or not I just threw those tapes away this weekend.

I don't know about automated but I started out at a school here in Houston called Leisure Learning University. They have classes in real estate investing-wholesaling. Some of it works some doesn't, over the years I've tried to fill in the blanks with those who have proven themselves to be successful and willing to share that knowledge.

You'll find a lot of those folks here. Brightest Blessings!

To your question, I'm at a lost. NINJA loans or not...and I don't even know what that is...lol but where would someone making only $25k a year qualify for a $500k property regardless of the type of financing?

I've heard of some creative financing but that to me would only work if it was a cash deal where they were only financing a balance well within their $25k income, credit and DTI. And I doubt $25k a year would be sufficient to handle the upkeep and maintenance on half a milly in house.

If the market supported a $500k value based on recent sales then something or someone is supporting that market. It cannot be someone grossing $13/hr. Assuming you're not referring to outright mortgage fraud.

As an investor I'm always looking at neighborhoods to find a good deal in, as a realtor I use other realtors, my existing investors, anyone underwater in a current property, delinquent taxes, the MLS, etc to make this happen. In other words, again...I don't rely on any one thing to make a buying decision.

You all have been around a lot longer than me, I'm willing to listen to anyone who's willing to fill in the blanks for me. So enlighten me...no snark intended, I'm truly here to learn and grow.

Robert Steele No, I'm not actually I'm in agreement with him. He makes the point that "the numbers could look good but it could still be a terrible deal" I don't deny that.

I'm simply stating in the two examples he gave I didn't consider either of those to be good comps which were reliable. And to my point I start with reliable comps and use that as a basis to go forward or not.

I think we all agree that we all use numbers and ultimately comparables of some sort. All comps are not the same nor are the sources who provide them.

Yep if you pretty much post it anywhere they will come. Some of my properties I have S8 tenants, but most do not. However, all of them when open have tenants who call asking if I will accept S8.

Here in Houston you can post your property on the S8 office board, as well as the gosection8 site. I don't care to see who looked at the ad (which is what you get with a paid subscription) I just evaluate those who actually contact me. So for me the free version works just as well.

Because I'm a realtor I usually get the tenants from the MLS. I don't mind paying the 1/2 the rental to another agent because I typically get better tenants that way. All my units rent from $1300 -$1500 but I find with a S8 voucher I usually get anywhere from $90-$200 above that because I only buy 4-2s.

I will tell you one other thing I'm a stickler about. If I'm talking to someone who seems like a good prospect (they have their full deposit and voucher ready to go, background and credit history have been checked) I go to their current residence and see how their living.

Any signs of yard dogs, especially pits, it's no go. If the driveway looks like a small mechanic shop, it's a no go. And yes I knock on the door and ask for the applicant. I did this once and the people who answered...without pause...told me not only does the applicant not live there, they live across the street and are moving because they were getting kicked out for the grandson's drug dealing.

None of this would have shown up on the criminal history of the sweet little grandmother who gave me the application. Oh and I do this for all my rentals not just S8, sometimes those can be my best tenants.

What I really like about S8 is you always get your rent on time and the tenants have to keep your property up or they can lose their voucher.

Thanks Karen Margrave due to "doing well"...lol I've had to change my business model from finding gems to lease out using bank financing to taking the cash I would be required to put down (now 30%) to the auctions. I'm not complaining... I just see it as growing pains.

Karen Margrave Agreed. Comps are but one of many tools to be used to determine whether or not to proceed. It's where I start because if there are "good and reliable" numbers it gives me a basis for which direction I proceed.

For me as an investor I primarily purchase SFR 4-2 foreclosures, in great working class neighborhoods. I've always started by running the numbers. I buy to hold so it doesn't matter so much to me the solds, as much as the cash flow.

As an agent, I take the same approach. I need to know how the local neighborhood is performing before I take a listing or agree to submit a bid for a buyer. Lol...often this tells me more about what type of client I'm going to be dealing with and if I even want to do business.

It's a waste of time to list a property priced too high because a seller refuses to give weight to the comparables. Even if I lose the listing... at the end of the day I've provided an accurate depiction of what the market will bear.

And yes, of course in the situation where there are no comps or the comparables are not recent enough other factors must be considered.