All Forum Posts by: Connie Brzowski

When dh and I were married, we were taught to avoid debt like the plague-- no distinction was made between good and bad debt. When we started our business and our debt ratio increased, there was a tremendous amount of conflict between our old programing and our new financial plan :crying:

No idea if you might fall in the same catagory, but if so there is a remedy :D Run your numbers again, keep a large enough reserve so you can sleep at night and *keep moving forward.*

Mike is right on-- as your inventory of positive cash-flow properties increases, your risk decreases. And the more you learn about investing and real estate, the more comfortable you'll be with your decisions.

On side note: Personally, I've found that my old programming has slowed us down at times-- tend to be a tad too conservative :roll: That's okay, just something to keep in mind :mrgreen:

Frustration is just part of the process--

---along with elation, despair, wild-eyed enthusiasm, anxiety, etc. :D

Frustration means you're bumping up against something you don't understand quite yet... keep studying, learning and doing your homework and one day it'll click into place. Honest~ 8)

Wow... this is tricky...

Some thoughts that are probably not going to help much...

As I see it:

#1 took out a loan for his part, which was paid back by 'rent'... He didn't actually take 150K out of his pocket (where he would've lost potential interest income.)

#2 Took out $75K from a HELOC which meant he's been paying monthly payments... did this come from his pocket or from the 'rent' ? That would make a difference.

#3 Took out $25K which is essentially 1/3 what #2 borrowed, but he also had to make payments from somewhere. From the rent or out of pocket?

Maintenance, improvements and rental property management is very broad... did #1 and #3 keep records? Receipts? And about the 'rent'... did #1 just make the minimum payment to cover the $150K or did he make payments on the HELOCs also?

You'd have to get all the cards on the table to figure this correctly and someone still may not be happy. Also, if you're close family members and everyone wants to stay that way, then upfront you should probably agree together that noone is going to be 100% happy with the split and shake hands on staying close--- blood's thicker than water and all that :wink:

Good for you~!

:clap:

Honestly, if my first exposure to flipping had been one of those icky shows, I'd have run the other way.... :crazed:

I haven't met a single person here that's been influenced positively. Perhaps because our area hasn't had the mega-appreciation of other areas ? Dunno...:cap:

I'm only comfortable with about 30% of net for our personal residence.

Any more than that and I break out in hives :goofy:

This exact thing happened to us with the first house we bought. We clearly asked our broker to find us the best rate on an investment loan that she could. Our broker set it up as owner/occupant and told us to just 'keep quiet' at the closing. We told her that if someone asked, we would tell them the truth and to start over because we intend to be in this business a long time.

BTW, we found another broker for our next deal :D

I'm afraid this may very well bite you down the road. When you go looking for other loans for future investments, will they be able to tell that you bought an out-of-state duplex with owner/occupant financing and also see that you didn't live there? When they check rental income from the duplex, will they see that you've rented out both sides right from the beginning? With the mortgage environment tightening up the way it is, will you be turned down for suspicion of fraud, even if you're never actually charged with it.? :cry:

Also, the fact that Wells Fargo is asking you to sign a legal document is troubling. I'd *really* think about it from every angle before proceeding.

I don't see this as your fault-- but I think you are the one who will pay the consequences if it goes wrong :crying:

Craigslist doesn't work for us-- too far away from the big city I guess :roll:

Our local paper puts ads both online and in print. The phone rings off the hook. Once, the ad went in the paper but the ad department forgot to put it online and we didn't get a single call-- pretty obvious which one folks are looking at :type:

Signs in the yard have mixed success depending on the neighborhood, but we always try that first, as soon as we know a vacancy is upcoming as it's the least expensive option :wink:

We have units in both high rent and lower rent areas... some get ceramic tile flooring, pedestal sinks, bead board, central a/h and two tone paint. Others get peel-n- stick tile, a thorough cleaning, new ac window unit and a fresh coat of semi-gloss white on woodwork and walls :-)

Like others have already said... it really depends on the local market and what other landlords are offering at each price point. We try to make ours just a little nicer than the competition--anything more would be a waste of profit 8)

In general? Paint is cheap and always makes things look fresh... cabinets, walls, ceilings. We do semi-gloss in all rentals. Two tone paint is more labor intensive but is a nice upgrade that doesn't cost much. New hardware on kitchen and bathroom cabinets is also cost effective and looks great. New light fixtures can be quick and fairly inexpensive. Ceiling fans are great in our area-- we buy them at Wally World for about $40 each and install ourselves.

Personally, I *hate* carpet in rentals... hate cleaning it, double hate replacing it-- so we get rid of it asap in all our units-- ceramic tile if the rents will support it, refinish hardwoods if they're hiding underneath old carpet, sometimes even laminate (not the cheapest stuff... doesn't hold up to water). We're about to try some peel-n-stick vinyl plank flooring that runs about $1 a square foot and looks really nice. We'll see how it holds up :D

Well put :D

Having a cushion of operating funds is important. In our case, we had excellent credit and that was about it. But it helped us get a line of credit for overages... and there are *always* overages~! ... just no way to forsee everything.

Also, during those 3 years, one of the things studied was the art of landlording and property management. Honestly, I wasn't real sure if I had what it takes and the very idea gave me the shivers :shock: But by learning from others via books and online forums, we were able to put systems in place before the first lease was signed... can't tell you how much that has saved us over the years-- both in money and aggravation :wink: