All Forum Posts by: Jim Murphy

Just wondering if there are any investors on here from the Cobleskill, NY area?

Last year I purchased a 3 family building my first multifamily , 2 2b/r units and 1 1b/r I rented the 2 2 b/r units no problem [after I Rehabbed all three. I had 2 great tenants, for some reason I was unable to rent the 1 b/r I was recomended to a property management company who told me that they had a waiting list of qualified tenants. In November they had the 1 b/r rented guy paid 1 months rent plus 1 and a half months security great I thought, now my contract required that the company got 10% management fee for all three units , again no problem ,Well Jan 15th was the last rent check I got from the 1 b/r unit and apparently the other two tenants were complaining to the management company about this tenant but never alerted me , The company began eviction procedures and after delay upon delay he left july 30th , 6 months with no rent from him plus I lost the other 2 tenants I advertised the apartments on my own and then recieved a letter from their lawyer telling me that I was under contract until November 1st and that any rents recieved would be subject to a 10% management fee. The cost of suing them is large compared to the amount lost .Anyway I have learned a very important lesson to really check my property managers out first . This happened in New York state where the rights of landlords fall into second place after the tenants. So it was expensive and stupid on my part I am leaving the units empty until November. Has anyone had similar experiences.

What I was able to do was borrow against the equity in the first house , $60,000 then paid cash for the second house $10,000 renovate the second house for $30,000 put $ 20,000 into my savings account and rent that house out I then went back to the same bank and applied and recieved a Home Equity loan of $ 50,000 , with the cash from that loan I bought a third SFH about 30 miles away in Schenectady,NY for 27,000 I fixed it up for an additional $19,000 and rented it out for $ 725 now I want to keep doing this , the loan officer did mention that if I were to form a corporation and put the 3 properties into it that they may lend to the corporation has anyone had any experience with transfering ownership ?

Credit is definitely a factor however each house was owned free and clear so that bank had lent me the money as a heloc based on the equity plus the fact that there was a tenent. I am trying other banks too .

Okay , So I bought a short sale for all cash and fixed it up and rented it out, went to a local bank had it appraised for 90,000 they gave me a loan of $ 60,000 [ by the way because I was in a nasty divorce my credit is poor] I bought a secont house for $10000 again fixed it up with $30,000 and rented it out, I put $20,000 in my saving account. I then bought another house in Schenectady that I borrowed $ 50,000 from the same bank on my second house I fixed up the third house and have since rented it out.
However now my bank says they can't lend me on the third house as collateral all three are rented net monthly rents are $ 2075.00 two mortgages are less that $400.00 per month
They gave two reasons 1] the 3rd property was out of their area . 2] they have introduced new lending standards and the fact that my credit has been bad inside the last two years means they cannot lend to me.
Has anyone run into issues like this? Does anyone have any ideas , I have approached hard money lenders and they charge a higher rate One actually wanted 9% but I would have to flip the house because he wanted the loan repaid in one year.

Hi there Sorry I havent answered previous questions.....there are no websites that carry the short sale list for my area that I know of the best thing is to read the add whether it is in the mls or newspaper or on craigslist when you see the term "Subject to lender approval" that for me is the giveaway of a shortsale, also now they come right out and say short sale approved . There are articles all over the web telling you what the banks % loss is Bank of America were in several cases that I looked at willing to cut 30-40% off the outstanding first mortgage however sometimes they are just servicing the mortgage meaning that they sold the loan to someone in the past and they just collect the mortgage and pay the taxes etc but someone else owns the loan so in a case like that it is harder to buy.
To answer the last question about financing I just picked up a 3 bed 2 bath home in need of work from a distressed homeowner for $10,000 I gave hime $2000 cash down and he is holding the note for $8000 at 5% interest I have to keep loan for one year at least before I can pay it off.
The cost of reovating the house is $ 27500 and the ARV IS $70,000 . The rental income will be $750 per month .I am using owner financing more and more because getting financing is way to hard.

Time for you to get a new agent and I wouldn't be quick to let him or her off of the hook,If your agent agreed to take you as a client knowing that you were going for a H.U.D house they should have read everything .

Sarah with a short sale they will have a price on it , and usually they will have a line on the advert like subject to bank approval. So if the people originally listed it for say 140,000 you can find that out on zillow. Say now its listed for $70,000 now I would take a guess that that is close to the mortgage amount you should make your offer based on the 2% rule say that this house would rent for $800 pm so your offer should be $40,000 unless you want that house to live in .

Actually I am planning to sell one house and get cash for a few flips.

usually i just google the county mls list many brokers website also have access however the broker i use gets alot more info than i do for instance on one deal that fell thru she knew it was a divorce that left them taking short sale offers however there were two mortgages the first okayed the short sale the second BOA pulled out three days before closing.
Also here on biggerpockets there are links to many bank and government foreclosure lists.
As for the second question the deed had it I was actually able to look online at the original deed when the house was purchased and how much it was purchased for , however I dont know where to get the info as to how much the mortgage amounts are. I would not be afraid to ask. how I make my offers has little or nothing to do with how much their mortgages are. I look first at what is the ARV the after repair value , then calculate the cost of the repairs , then what are the comps in that area selling for and renting for.