All Forum Posts by: Grant Patmon

You can use student loans to help with or cover the down payment of a house for you to live in and can rent out the rooms to friends.

Bargaining for advantage. By G. Richard Shell. It is all about win win negotiations as well as making the person you are negotiating with feel as if they won even if you are actually the one coming out on top.

Having a realtor on your team will be super beneficial but John is right, deals on the MLS are hard to find and practically impossible if you don't have cash. Banks are also letting the REO's in town sit on the market until they get the offer they want so low balls don't work well. I have had success on the MLS but it was with all cash offers, quick closing, and motivated private sellers. Maybe look into off market deals with owner financing... Good luck!

Hey Fellow Ohioan welcome to BP!

I am in Columbus so not too far.

If you want to manage it yourself then you should find a tenant screening company.  I suggest FABCO that is what I use here in columbus.  Its $25 a year.  Or find a property manager if you want to go that route.  If you decide to manage it yourself FABCO has a lease that you can use. I use theirs but have added quite a bit to make it my own.  What ever screening service you use just tell them that you are a Newb and they will walk you through what the heck you are looking at once you get a potential tenants results back.  They also have available to you tenant applications and all of that kind of stuff.  As far as marketing goes, use craigslist because it is free.  You can also market for free on Zillow, and Realtor .com.  Also check out Hotpads.com.  Most of my luck has come from a sign in the yard but I try to get as many applicants as possible so I can choose the best one.  When it comes to your insurance, Just call your insurance agent and tell them that you are converting the home to a rental it is an easy process.  

With homepath, homesteps, and HUD you can only buy as an owner occupant every two years but you can sell or rent it after a year. Some lenders don't mind if you switch a home into an LLC once you convert it to a rental. I would suggest opening a dialogue with prospective lenders and see what your options are. I have used the owner occupant/1 year rental conversion method a couple times in the past and it has proven to be very useful. The benefits of lower interest rates as well as less MLS competition are great! I have not converted mine into an LLC but do have a good umbrella insurance policy which is almost as good. Also keep in mind that after you do a couple of these the bank will get hip to what you are doing and may decide to no longer lend to you as an owner occupant. I have maintained a good relationship with my lender and as of yet he has not cut me off from using owner occupant loans.

That rent sounds low considering the purchase price but very possible depending on the area.  I would call around to confirm that $770 is all you can get.  I have found that many rental income estimate calculators like zillow can be way off.  You may be pleasantly surprised with what rents in that area are going for.  Good luck and welcome to Columbus!

Many people just avoid debt.  Often they don’t fully understand the benefits of leverage and see debt as something to be feared.  Verify that they are who they say they are and you should be fine.  Also call their references!  You can easily get the most important information from employers and previous landlords.But also verify that their references are also real.  If they say they work at Walmart, call that Walmart and ask to speak with their supervisor.  Some sneaky prospective tenants will claim a reference as an employer or previous land lord but it will actually be a close friend willing to lie.

It sounds like she might be a motivated seller…Someone should jump on the opportunity . HAHAHAGood luck :)

Hey everybody-

Thanks for welcoming me in.  It makes a new guy feel right at home!