All Forum Posts by: Gary Harrell

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $58,500
Cash invested: $11,700

2/1 across the street from a rental I already own, and two blocks from the first investment I purchased.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This single family home I picked up because I had a former tenant that really needed a place to live. She was a good tenant and I wanted to help her out. My cash flow on the property will be minimal in year 1, but she agreed to bumps in rent in both year two and three to get up to market rate. This is my first single family home.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I found this deal on Zillow and I used an agent from the area. The seller had it priced at $78,500, so I put in an offer of $58,500 and they accepted. It appraised at $63,500 without doing anything to it.

How did you finance this deal?

I have a small credit union that allows me to run properties thru my LLC on DSCR loans.

How did you add value to the deal?

I have done a few minor, very minor updates on the inside.

What was the outcome?

Happy as can be!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

There are additional repairs and upgrades I'd like to make, but the tenant really needed to get in so I presented what I had to her and she was thrilled to get it the way it already was.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Tiffany Hester was my agent. She works out of Richmond, IN, (almost in OH). She did great work for me, and I'll continue to use her in that region of the state.

Hello Ajna, I'm a local Indy person, and I don't mind having properties spread out. I would definitely be interested in running some numbers on these properties and seeing if they would fit with my goals and objectives for LTR's. Send me what you've got and I'll look things over during the day tomorrow. Thanks much! Looking forward to hearing from you!

I’ve got a deal in the works on a smaller house on an acre of land in an area that is exploding with growth. Larger houses on similar lots are listed for $140K more than my target.

Would you:

A. Try to flip the little house on the prairie?

B. Pop the top and expand upward?

C. Expand the LHotP laterally out from its original foundation, like maybe add a master suite (BR and BA).

Anyone have experience with both pop-tops AND additions that could tell me which is more cost effective?

Thanks in advance!

I had the winning bid on Auction.com. It's my first acquisition. After the auction closed, I started the process with a hard money lender. They want the sales contract. Auction.com wants a statement of some kind from the lender stating there are no contingencies on granting me the loan, or something like that before they'll send me the contract. Inexperience is causing me a lot of anxiety here. How can both sides be waiting on the other side?

Hey Guys, 

Fairly new around here, as far as activity goes. New to real estate investing as well. Curious about something. I see all these posts on the Marketplace and wonder to myself why aren't they put into the BP calculators and shared that way? The only thing the seller wouldn't know would be the buyers financing figures, which the buyer could then take her/his financing figures, drop them in, and quickly be able to figure out if the deal makes sense for his or her goals. 

There's so much talk about analyzing deals, so much talk about how important it is to get the numbers right so you don't get in over your head. I'm sure the marketplace is flooded with newbies trying to look for a deal and learn, and seeing what real numbers look like would be so educational. I've analyzed more than 100 deals to date, but I don't know if any of them really even make sense, which is why I have yet to make my first investment. I can plug whatever numbers I can dream up about my target purchase. Doesn't mean I won't bankrupt myself. 

Is there something to hide? Is it an attempt to take advantage of non-experienced newbies trying their best to make it? I mean no disrespect, and I apologize if I've offended you with those questions. I'm just really curious. It seems like most in this community are so willing to help fellow investors out. I would think if the seller put the numbers into the calculators, they might sell what they're trying to sell quicker, unless it's just a bad deal. Chalk my post up to inexperience, but I'd really like to hear what everyone has to say on the topic!

Thanks all!

I’ve analyzed the hell out of properties, all over the country, in my backyard, a neighboring state, places where thearea is listed as one of the fastest growing populations in the country, and numerous others. Some might say I’m suffering from paralysis by analysis. I may be a bit, I know I should dig in with both feet and buy something, just lacking a little confidence in using these tools right. I am rather ambitious, wanting to get into this thing called real estate investing running on both feet, not tripping, stumbling, and crawling to the bank.

I've located a multiple SFH portfolio in a solid area for rentals. One owner passed away and his wife wants out. I've been talking with the agent, and I am really interested in buying the whole portfolio. The properties number in the teens.

The agent tells me about half of them are in good shape with recent updates, but the other slightly more than half needs TLC, and she made it seem like a lot of TLC. She mentioned a couple roofs. But she also said all the properties rent as they are. Right now they are all renting below market with long-time tenants. She mentioned after said TLC that I could raise rents $150-$200 a month, of course, I would be very likely to lose my potential current tenants.

Some of my concerns include the fact that these properties were all bought back in the 90’s. My thought is that the owners have just been milking these places for all they could and letting Rome crumble around them. I would love to solve this woman’s problem and take the entire portfolio off her hands in one deal. I’ve run numbers after numbers, playing around with money down, finance rates, rents, reserves, etc. I feel like I have come to a number I am comfortable with, without even seeing the properties, other than through pictures, but I only have outside pictures in hand. I’ll be calling the real estate agent back tomorrow to discuss my thoughts. Do I ask this agent for enough time to tell me about all properties individually (remember, the number of properties is in the teens)? Do I get her to video a walkthrough of all of them? I’m nearly 1,000 miles from where these are located. I can’t get there to see them myself. How do you out-of-state guys do it?

These properties are scattered through small towns about an hour from a major city. The agent offered to manage them for me for a price of course, which is fine, I’ve baked that in. She also mentioned a need for a handyman, again, baked in and obvious. Tips on finding a handyman in a small, small town would be appreciated.

I'm thinking of going in with an offer at about 65% of retail, no higher than 70%, after I've seen the inside somehow. That would give me the CF and the COC ROI I'm looking for. I'm hopeful old momma bear really wants to just get rid of these things and take it. Am I trying to bite off too much at the start? Am I too aggressive? Have I lost my mind? Given the words of the agent, going with your gut feel would I be offering too high?

Answer what you will. I appreciate all feedback.

I’m a newbie, no experience, gaining theoretical knowledge by reading books and living on BiggerPockets, itching to pull the trigger on my first deal and really start learning, money burning a hole in my pocket, and I am trying to minimize my risk. Last thing I want to do is sink myself out of the gate, so I’m looking for help.

I picked a city on the map, and I started looking around for what I would consider a one-stop shop: either they can find the deal or I can, if it needs rehab they take over and run, then because I’m not local to this city, I would need them to manage the property, and I collect the cash. I’m not looking for crucifixion over that last sentence, I know I’m going to have to work at this as well. My point is won’t be doing the rehab work, because I don’t have that comfort level yet.

Anyway, I reach out to this firm, great website, lots of information, pictures, videos of transformations, referrals, etc. I get a very prompt response, lots of questions to me. I answer them and fire back with my own questions. Then this happens:

Me: I notice there are a really high number of foreclosure properties in your city. What is driving that?

Them: They happen in other cities too.

Me: But what is driving the number of foreclosures in your city?

Them: I think foreclosures happen in every city.

All this has been through email communication, because I am at my desk and I should be doing my real 9-5 job, but I’d rather be doing real estate deals (thanks for that, BP! :-P). I was impressed by the website, I mean really impressed. Did I just run into a recent hire of theirs, or would you guess I am trying too hard to make something work when I should keep looking? Do I have “shiny penny syndrome?”

I’m thinking to myself, if I were that person, and I didn’t know the answer, I certainly wouldn’t give answers like the above, and I would offer back to do what I could to find an answer. I asked another question to which she simply responded, “I don’t know anything about that,” and she said nothing else. Again, this was via email, she could have taken any amount of time to get back to me, but didn't. Would it be worth my time for a phone call to hopefully connect with someone besides this person?

Thanks in advance!

Dammit, sorry Jason, I missed that little folder at the top :(. Thanks again!

Hi Colby, I'd love to see the deep dive info on this package. Would you mind sending to me as well? Thanks much!

Hello Jason, would you mind sending some photos of the inside please? Thanks much!