All Forum Posts by: Evan Hutchins

@Fedor Volkov

Im a Masonry contractor in Maine, from those pictures I wouldnt be concerned, they are hairline cracks that arent largely opened up. Alot of time buildings shift or settle which would cause this as masonry is quite rigid. There could be more to this, a larger underlying issue, but from those pictures alone I would say repoint the cracks to prevent water infiltration and dont worry any more about it.

Like @Ed Emmons Im also in Maine and there are definately pros and cons to all seasons. Im a contractor and do all my own renovations ect and we find that we get better deals on labor in the winter when the building season is slow because contracting work slows down a bit and people are hungry for work.

We just poured a foundation yesterday to build a duplex over the winter to be ready for rent in spring when its easy to rent. We secured a framing crew for about 60% of the cost that that same crew would charge during august or September when work is plentiful.

@Nick Wilson, Because you are essentially paying cash for the property, you could do a delayed finance, which like you mentioned is sooner than 6 months but only for the amount on the HUD statement from closing. In order to get all your money back...you can escrow the repair costs at closing which means the amount listed on you HUD closing statement is the purchase price plus your repairs. The funds for the rehab would then be dispursed from escrow as the repairs are completed. I hope that made sense! Im in the same boat right now on a property that I wish I had escrowed the repairs and didnt so I will end up leaving my repair in the deal in order to refi quickly

@Lynnette E.

My wife and I bought a house off auction.com last summer. We 'won' the auction 3 different times before they actually signed a contract to sell with us. The auction haf not met the reserve and they simply put the auction back on the following week and we bid again, we didnt raise out max bid but it appeared that the bank lowered their reserve as the weeks went by. It can be a frustrating experience but keep it non emotional and stick to your numbers! It doesnt always work out but if your patient it may!

@Ryan Schumacher This winter the new england weather has been a total headache! Too much rain, freeze, thaw freeze thaw. I would rather have all snow until spring!

@Ryan Schumacher I am not super familiar with the area you are in but Im in Mid Coast Maine, Im a Masonry and Roofing contractor, as well as rental investor. Those numbers dont seem outrageous, just alot of money to front when you were not expecting to. Is it more than if it were June and it was a planned job? Probably yes but it costs more to operate during the winter months.

As far a which option, not sure which is better, depends on condition of the roof. Again it sucks to get hit with the expense but it doesnt seem like an unreasonable quote.

@Nicholas Henry. I agree with the other that have said to leverage your money, but for us we were able to flip the property and get it rented and refinanced with a portfolio lender all within 6 months, getting all our cash back and only paying loan closing fees one time, leaving no $ in the deal and on this last project, getting a check for $8k more than we had in the deal at loan closing. So it all depends on your projected timeframe to your final result.

@Nicholas Henry, My wife and I just finished doing this with a property that we also were not sure if we would BRRR and or flip. In my opinion if you can do it with your own cash, do that and then Refi once rented and get your $ back. This makes your offer of cash more appealing and you then only pay financing charges to the bank one time upon your refi.

Either way, obviously be sure of your ARV amount, our bank was able to loan 70% LTV, and be willing to leave some of your money in the deal if rehab goes over or if ARV comes back lower than expected.

We got all our money back plus a small payday a month ago, (and a cashflowing rental) and we are now looking to do it all over again!

@Angeline Walker, My wife and I just did a very similar thing here in Maine. We went to a small local bank (5 bank branches total) and their policy was thay all rental properties fall under commercial rules. We had a residencial option for a loan at a different bank but chose to go with the commercial loan. Yes this loan had a slightly higher interest rate, but like yourself we are diving into doing this again and building the relationship with this bank was worth it for us in this case. This isnt really a solution to your situation but thought I would share our experience. Since we had also done most of the work ourselves we actually took out more with this loan than we had in the purchase plus renovation (got a payday and all our money back) and still have a property with about $300 per month cash flow!

Im going to meet again with him next week to go over some more numbers and see if we can make it work for both of us.  He is offering almost all seller financing.  Im looking at 1.7M being the value I place on the park,  and hoping he would be open to a 1 year interest only period where we can fix things up to run smoothly.