All Forum Posts by: Jason McLendon

I am by no means an expert, but I have heard from a few people on the birmingham area that it can take as long as 6 years before you actually own a property. You are correct about the 12% on purchase price and most upgrades. Not bad return, if you don't mind having your money tied up that long...

Brian,

welcome to BP, and Birmingham! As I am sure you know, since you have been on the site for a while, but tons of great info and people here. There are a couple of REIA clubs in town. Let's connect, and I can give you the details on them.

Best of luck!!

Jason

Wow!!! To see this gives such inspiration!! Congrats to you and props to all of the great people of this community!!! Can't wait to meet many of you myself!! Ready to run through a brick wall now!!! Jason

Hey David. Good to see you here. PMI is a way for the mortgage company to protect themselves against high loan to value (LTV) exposure. They basically charge you a fee, if you do not have enough equity in the property. The fee does not protect you in any way. Once you reach the agreed LTV ratio, they will drop the PMI The other insurance is what you typically think of. Protects you in the event something happens to the house. They will pay for covered repairs after deductible. I hope this makes sense... Good luck to you!!!

Hey Clayton, welcome aboard. I am new here as well, but I live in Alabama, so if there is anything I can do for you, just let me know.

Thank you for the input, it does help a ton!!! Especially being new, I need all of the help I can get. 

Overall, the rest of the homes were actually in better shape than I expected.  Just these two for some reason are empty. I hope that's not a warning sign in itself!!! I have the other owners name and address, I am sure I could come up with a phone number.  I was just curious if first contact should be through a letter, or go ahead and call.

I guess I could go ahead and knock on some doors and see what kind of info I can get...

Thanks again!!!

Jason

Hello everyone,

  I just started looking at a deal over the weekend. I went to do a "drive by" to get an impression of the overall condition. My strategy is to buy, rehab, and rent,

   When I arrived, I noticed the house next to it is vacant as well. Windows and doors are boarded up, and looks to have been empty for a little while. My realtor got me the information on the owner, and he is local to the area.

  My question is, what is the best way to reach out to him to see if he would like to sell??

I am hoping to do two homes this year, so could be a blessing, I think, to have them next door to each other...The other side of that is that if the guy does not want to sell, and keeps it the way it is now... It will cause me problems when trying to rent the other one when I get it ready.

Any thoughts on this??

Jason

Thanks for the info... sounds like the best way to go.

Jason

Hi All!!!

Please forgive me if this has been discussed to death... 

  Do any of you offer alarm systems in your rentals? If so- do you include the monitoring in your rent, or just let the tenant set it up if they want it? If I pay it, does this open me up for legal issues????

  Also wondering the same about lawn care... I would love to leave it up to the tenant, but I would also hate to have 3 foot tall grass and shrubs over growing the house.

I know this may vary from market to market. I am in the Birmingham, Alabama area. I hope to be closing on my first SFH in the next few weeks!!!!

Thanks in advance for the input!!

Jason

Hey Seth, good to see you on here. I am new as well. I might not be a wealth of knowledge...(yet). But would be glad to help in any way I can. I live on the other side of Birmingham from you, closer to Gadsden, so anything out this way you might need, just give me a shout!!! Jason