All Forum Posts by: Chris L.

I have heard of it and even have seen people trying to sell a course on it but never once have encountered anyone who received money back from the government for overbids. Go figure. lol.

Would love to hear someone with a success story in this venue. You could be a millionaire in Baltimore if it really worked. :-)

Hello Kristine,

My thinking is stick to the vacation rentals if that is what you know, have had success and are making money from especially if you are finding a hard time finding good deals in your area. I love to go on vacation to visit my rental properties :-) Crappy parts of town usually mean crappy investments! I know a bunch of people on here will take exception with that because they have section 8 rentals and low income properties that cash flow. The problem is when improvements need to made you are usually dumping your money down the toilet. Most crappy parts of town do not see appreciation, bring tenant headaches and you usually end up putting any cash flow you have made back into the property when the current tenant skips on you three months behind and you have a trashed property. As a lender I have seen many nightmares investing in crappy collateral hoping to make money from the cash flow. Most of the real money made in buying and holding real estate is made in the appreciation of property value not cash flow so aim for areas that are stable with the opportunity to appreciate as the market continues to gain strength. Hope that helps! Cheers!

Some cards/ loans will cross over and some won't. You must clarify that with whichever company you plan to deal with. I have had it both ways and when your not expecting it, it can screw you up. I bought a business vehicle under business name and credit. While in the process of purchasing the vehicle I repeatedly told the finance manager at the dealership I didn't want the loan if it was going to show up on my personal credit because it is a business transaction. He swore up and down it wouldn't and 30 days later guess what showed up on my credit report. Fortunately I was able to get the dealership to remove the loan from my personal credit report but I also have had borrowers that have not been so lucky! Double check with lender on their policies before proceeding with any loan request. Some you find won't report at all, some report only if the loan goes bad and others report no matter what. Hope that helps! Cheers!

Welcome Gregory, 

Smart move looking for a mentor if you are just starting out. Find a local REI (Real Estate Investors Club) in your area and get involved. You should be able to find a mentor, deals and marketing ideas on best practices for your area. Driving around and familiarizing yourself with where you intend to invest will also allow you to see whats going on and find properties that may be becoming available. The best deals are always found before they hit the market!

If you try to buy a single family home and rent out the rooms on an individual basis the bank will not allow you to count that additional income to qualify for the loan. You must qualify for the purchase based on your income and credit history. You can't get a loan based off the income of another loan so the only income I would assume you have is your waiting job? Is that correct? And the debt of your student loans will be considered in your debt to income ratio depending on when the loans need to start being paid back. You haven't mentioned if you have money to put down? The main issue I see is you need income to qualify for the loan. In order to jump that hurdle you need to find a property that is legally zoned as multi-unit meaning it has other legally separated apartments that can be rented out to generate income to cover the debt service. I would stay with a 4 unit and under as that will allow you to stay in the residential world of highly leveraged gov't back products. If you go over 4 units you get into the world of commercial lending which is a totally different animal.

To show you how the numbers should work in a best case scenario. (Again I don't have any idea about prices in your market so I am just using this as a general example of what you are trying to accomplish)

Say you purchase a 4 unit for $150,000 and your monthly mortgage is $800 per month. Each unit rents for $400. You will live in one unit so that will give you $1,200 per month from the other 3 units to cover the debt service and expenses on the property. You will need a down payment  and some reserves if you want to do it right. You must be prepared to fix things that wear out or your tenants break and pay for tenant turnovers and improvements to the property as they are necessary. 

Again I see your biggest hurdle as qualifying for a loan so it may be best to look for owner financed property where you can show them the existing income you have from your loan and your waiting job. You may find one that is willing to work with you because of these income sources more then ever hoping to qualifying for a bank loan using these income sources on the application. Also remember most banks will only credit 75% of rental income to over all income no matter what the property is actually doing. I hope that helps! Cheers!

Zillow by no means is an accurate gauge for anything and their zestimates should be taken with a grain of salt. You need to double check the comps that were used in the appraisal and make sure there are not any others that may be more appropriate or favorable. Appraisers are on the side of protecting the bank but are supposed to render honest and fair opinions. If you have doubts about the appraisal, interview a couple listing agents and get their opinions on value and market conditions. If you have no intention on listing the house instead of wasting an agents time with a fake listing appointment you could hire a realtor to do a BPO (Broker Price Opinion) which should only cost about $50 and should provide you with enough information to see if the appraiser was way off. If you find substantial evidence to the contrary you could try to present it to the bank but I have rarely ever seen an appraiser make adjustments. You could try a different lender and see if you get a different appraisal amount also. Numbers don't lie. It should be very easy for a competent Realtor to give you all the data necessary to render your own opinion but it will not change how much the bank is willing to lend :-) Hope that helps! Cheers!

As a lender I love to put together awesome opportunities! We see a lot of great deals come and go because investors do not know or understand how to put larger out side the box deals together. 

When we see a great opportunity we step in and make it happen! Here is the deal. Do you love craft beer? If you do then you know supplying craft brewers with locally grown hops can be quite a lucrative business. You may ask what does that have to do with real estate?  A lot! Niche farms can be great hands off investments to create huge cash flows and equity growth opportunities all while your investment is secured by real estate. Secured investment, great returns and unlimited business growth opportunity is why you need to keep reading!

We are looking for investors to participate in the purchase of a local farm to re-position as a hop farm. Once the hop crop is planted we will move towards securing the permits and zoning necessary to build a small farm brewery capable of producing 15,000 barrels a year under current zoning laws. The property has been identified and over $900,000 in current funding has been secured for purchase and start up cost. We are looking for interested investors to raise an additional $550,000 to complete the funding cycle. This opportunity is open to all investors and investment shares will be offered in $1,000 increments allowing even the most conservative investor a chance to get involved at virtually no risk and possible free beer for life! lol. 

If you ever wanted to be part of a cool real estate investment with a great upside PM me for more details. Cheers!

I don't know the exact time frames but there are definitely rules about dealing with vulnerable homeowners in foreclosure and penalties can be quite severe if you step outside the lines. What is your intention? To purchase house? To catch them up? Negotiate with their mortgage company for short sale? What deal are you hoping to workout with homeowners? That will determine which laws you need to abide by. 

Not sure how it works in California but in Maryland agents must place their license with a broker if they are going to practice. It does not sound like you want to work as a Realtor so instead of paying to become agent just to access MLS why don't you just find a Realtor to work with. Truth be told most good deals are found before they ever hit the MLS. In Maryland the MLS database is renamed Homedatabase.com for consumers. It offers the same exact inventory as seen by agents on MLS in real time and doesn't cost a penny. If your goal is to find good deals for yourself and other investors I would start studying how to market to set up a property funnel to find off market properties where motivated investors and sellers are reaching out to you! Good luck! Cheers!

Good luck and keep us posted! Wish you great success! Cheers!