All Forum Posts by: Hoang P.

That part, I knew ... what confused me is my wife score went up instead of down like mine.

Maybe some expert in here can tell me what's going on?
In the last 3 weeks, me and my wife went to 3 different banks and tried to obtain a loan. Fifth Third pulled our credit score on the spot from Trans Union on Mar 11th, my score was 739, my wife score was 794 (didn't go through with the application). Second week, went to US Bank, applied for commercial loan and still waiting to hear back from them. We were told that it takes 4-6 weeks for them to do whatever they needed to do, I don't know if they pulled our credit score yet or not. This week, we went to another bank applied for different type of commercial loan, got approved in 3 days and they pulled our credit score today (also from Trans Union). My score of today is 720 (down 19 points), my wife score is 814 (up 20 points). I'm confused, how come my score went down and my wife score went up ? Any explanation is appreciated.

Jon, I just went through eviction process 2 weeks ago. My attorney advised me through the whole thing. He told me to mail the notice using USPS register mail, that way, we have a record of it. It does not matter if the tenant at home to sign for it or not. In my case, the tenant ignore little notice left by mailman and didn't bother go to Post office to pick it up. The notice was returned to me after 3 weeks. I gave it to my attorney along with the receipt that I sent it. I also posted (taped) a copy of the notice to the door.... guess what, the tenant claimed that she never saw that notice. Doesn't matter though, I sent 1 by register mail and have proof.

From what I understand, they have the option to pay you within the 14 day period (7 days where I'm at). After the 14 days you can file for eviction and no longer under any obligation to accept their late payment unless you want to. So next time send the 14 day notice as soon as they're late. Each time I sent notice such as that, I use register mail and charge the tenant $15.00 for the notice sent on top of the late fees ($6.00 for the postage service, $9.00 for my gas & time)

I thought about it alot. Part of me wanted to get rid of her for all the lies and excuses over last 10 months I had to put up with and try to sell the house because I invested about $100K cash into it. Other part of me felt bad for her because if she got evicted, she will loose all her section8 benefit. I never evicted anyone before, so I gave her 1 last chance. Hopefully that she had learned the lesson and not mistaken my kindness for weakness. I guess I just have to wait and see.

I had go through same thing with 1 section8 tennant. She's late everymonth for the last 10 months and always had excuses. She will eventually pay rent and late fees, but not before I have to make a dozen trips comming over to hunt her down (she had her phone cut off so there was no way for me to call) In Jan, I told her that I will no longer put up with her lies and excuses and she needs to start paying rent on time. Feb came, she late as usual so on Feb 5, I sent her a 7 day to Pay or Quit notice. On Feb 15, I had my attorney filed for eviction. We had court scheduled on Mar 11. She showed up in court with a little piece of paper and told the judge she's been in jail for a week. The judge didn't care and asked her if she paid Feb rent. She said no, the judge said she got 7 days to move out which is Friday March 18th. On March 16th, she called me and asked if we can work something out. I said I will give her one last chance if she paid Feb & March rent + all court cost, attorney fees, late fees and my gas expenses + half of April rent in advance. So instead of paying $489/month ($978 for Feb & Mar), she had to pay me $1800 :roll: ($200 partial rent for April in advance).

Thank you Ann for the kind words, I'm not ready to give up just yet. If unable to obtain loans, I can always save up and do 1 property per year using the money save up on rental income. In the mean time, I've been searching for small local banks and will try to talk to them. Quitting my job at UPS actually based on 2 reasons: 1- I used to be a Team Leader at Ford Motor Truck Plant, making $29/hour for 12 years. Going to work at UPS everyday making $10/hour, I was depressed the whole time. 2- Paying that guy everyday for doing nothing is just pushed me over the edge. That's why I decided to quit and do the works myself.
I'd love to be able to do what you said "full time investor", but don't have the knowledge or the money to do that just yet. The idea of buying properties, have someone fix them up and sell it for profit is absolutely appealing. But until I can afford to pay, I have no choice but do most of the works myself.
The reason for me not having my rentals in LLC is that I've been reading this forum and there are some comments such as it is harder to obtain loan for SFR rentals if they are in LLC. Some also said about taking the properties out of LLC and put in their personal name to refinance. I know it is a good idea to have LLC for my rentals for my own protection, but not sure if it would be harder for me while I'm trying to get loans. That is why I'm not sure if I should form LLC now or wait until after I'm able to obtain a loan first, then form an LLC. Again, thank you everyone for the time and inputs.
Also, I want to apologize in advance for my bad English/grammar. I do not wish to offend anyone here and trying to do my best when writing. English is my second language. Like I said before, I'm a newbie in real estate investing and trying to learn from the pros. Any help/info is greatly appreciated.

Hello again everyone, and thank you all for the inputs.
To answer David, my credit score as of yesterday (3-7-2011) is 739, my wife credit score is 794. This was done by Fifth Third Bank. We went to talk to them about our needs to borrow more money/refinance on the rental properties. The answer we got is: they do not deal with SFR rental properties. However, they offered us to increase our Home Equity Line of Credit from $97K to $160K (80% LTV) of our primary resident at a rate of 5% (variable rate). I really hate to loose our current HELOC at 2.74% but again, if this is the only way to get more money, I might take up their offer.
After speaking with Fifth Third Bank, I took David recommendation, went to First Capital Bank main location and talk to Assistant Manager (James John) about my situation. He said he could do a line of credit of 60% LTV for the 5 properties, but he need to talk to the commercial department first. 3 hours later, he called me back and said that they had some bad experiences on loans for SFR rental properties in the last couple of years and got stuck with properties that they do not want. Therefor, they're no longer offer loans on SFR rentals.
My wife is an account payable at a local company downtown. She been working there going on 11 years. David, I realized that you're also from Louisville, KY. How is your real estate business doing lately ? Again, I do appreciate your time and inputs very much. Love to hear from you again.

Hi David, as I mentioned above, I do not have any mortgages. Only loan I have right now is the Home Equity Line of Credit I took out on my primary resident, which is $90K at interest rate of 2.74% (20 years term). My current minimum payment on this loan right now is $190/month. I don't like to pay interest on credit cards so I always paid my balance off every month. As for the 401K and Roth, I sold them all and that's how I paid for the first 3 properties. I spent pretty much all the money I had when I bought the last property back in Jan, so right now my liquid reserve is about $15K ($10K from Feb, March rent).
My current monthly obligations are $190 (HELOC) + utilities bills + gas + groceries

My goal is to have 10 rental properties. I made a mistake with my first property by buying it at $60K and spent 40K to rehab it. After that I tried to stay in the range of 60K or less for each property total. The last house I just bought back in Jan for $53K. Fannie Mae already painted the whole house and replaced all carpet. I spent $4K on appliances, fixing and updating electrical, plumbing. Total was right at $57K and I rented it out 3 days after closing for $950/month. That is the range I'm comfortable with.