All Forum Posts by: Jim D.

In 2-3 years I plan on being experienced enough to ask for other people's money to invest. The thought of losing someone's hard earned money scares the bejeebers out of me. 

To overcome the fear, I'll treat their money like it's my own and work extraordinarily hard to invest it wisely.

Everyone hates cleaning up the junk tenants sometimes leave upon moving out... but every now and then they leave something worth keeping. My best finds so far:

Ladder golf set
Hoverboard
Acrylic paint set
Full case of wine
Size 16 flip flops (tenant was an 7' fringe NBA player)
Unused gift cards
Part of their damage deposit for me cleaning up all their junk

What tax-free landlord treasures have you been gifted?

Way to go. Not a huge profit spread, but much more important is that you have one in the rear view mirror.

Splitting the ownership = splitting the decision making power. 

It's inevitable that you'll run into more conflict by trying to share ownership. It's much, much easier if one person is the owner and is calling the shots. Sounds like you're doing well as you are, so I wouldn't change it up.

Try asking the lender if the current owner gets a signed 12-month lease in place that will carry over into your ownership, if they would count that. Probably gonna have to get creative.

I think you could find a lender who will count the future rent income, but they always require you to have a signed lease to prove it. That turns it into a chicken-egg problem. You need to be under contract in order to sign a lease with a tenant, but you can't get under contract unless you're pre-approved.

I would spend an hour calling 5 different local banks and see if they think they can help you. If they can't, your other option will be to find a co-signer.

Just to clarify: with your own income you don't qualify for the loan, so you are trying to count future rental income towards it to help?

Given that it's your first house, I would not proceed with the purchase unless you have a firm dollar amount for the repairs needed. As you mentioned, those can get expensive fast. Once you have numbers on what it will cost, you can decide if it's still a good deal or if you need to walk away.

My first purchase had 60 year old galvanized pipes, and neither my realtor nor home inspector mentioned a thing about them. Had to all be replaced, luckily for only $3500.

You won't want a HML if you are planning to hold the property for more than a year... the interest will eat you alive. You need to get pre-approved for some kind of decent financing before approaching the property owner.

Show us the numbers!