All Forum Posts by: James Bynum

@Brent Coombs, thanks for the reply and I'm glad you saw my other post too. I am trying to take it slow but also gain as much knowledge as I can in a short amount of time. I'm actually stuck in a rental for another 13 months anyway so buying a house for myself right now is still down the road about a year, unless I buy something and do a short term lease to rent it out until I'm ready, but I mostly wanted to scope out and see if what I'm looking at now would be something that a year from now might be a good purchase. I posted this listing because it's something that sounded like it could have been a great investment but there are also a lot of unknowns with it which could cause a huge headache very quickly. So I wanted to get some opinions to see if my suspicions were correct and anything I can do to check these out before even thinking about buying it.

The maid part I figure if tenants are sharing a bathroom I would need to hire a maid weekly to clean the bathroom and common areas that most buildings would normally not need. Or I could just come in and do it myself.

I am brand new in this field and am just getting ready to start investing in properties. Now there is this seemingly great deal close to me, but I'm starting to wonder some things. It's been on the market for over 60 days, they are asking $179,500 for a 6 unit building, which appears to be a big old home converted to an apartment of sorts. It's 3,788 square feet, 3 floors including what appears to be 2 basement apartments, and 3 bathroom. 

It's not listed as such so I'm not sure but it appears to be almost dorm like as in each floor would share bathrooms. It's a 2 minute walk to a very nice all female college. It's in one of the nicest areas in the city where some homes next to it are valued at up to $500,000 with the same square footage.

Now being that it could be small studios with shared bathrooms and rental prices in the area, I'm thinking I could at minimum get $450 a unit, which would include weekly maid service to clean all the common areas like the bathrooms.

But heres the thing. The public records show it listed as a 3 Unit apartment not a 6 unit place, so what kind of a headache could that cause me if I went ahead with this?

Does this sound like something to be pursued or should I be running far far away from this deal?

BTW, here is a link to the property:

http://www.trulia.com/property/3193774477-540-Glen...

Thanks for all of the advice, I really appreciate it and am greatful for this website! My only issue is, I've been doing a lot of research on this over the last 6 months and have thought about going the quad plex route but the only quads Iand tris i've seen available over this time are in really horrible neighborhoods, and the one that I found that isn't is a four home rental property that wants close to $400,000 for it. I'm even having trouble trying to find duplexes and single families that would turn even a modest profit if rented out, the ones I've seen other investors selling want $100,000 for a duplex where the rent is only $400 - $500 or so a month. That would barely cover my mortgage let alone generate even enough for upkeep and repairs.

I am planning on looking for an agent soon, so maybe they can help me solve these problems.

I was even looking at doing flip and sells, but a house I was looking at is only going for $20,000 but I'd probably need to throw $50,000 at it to bring it back to livable, but the comps are only at around $80,000 so at most is be looking at a $10,000 not inlcuding closing costs. What is wrong with this town?!?!

I recently received about $300,000 in inheritance money and am looking to start buying rental properties. Homes are pretty cheap in my area (Spartanburg, SC), most decent homes are going for around $80,000. My question is, I currently do not own a home myself, so I was thinking about paying cash for a home for myself, and then use the rest of the money for down payments on loans for rental properties. I'm currently working a $40,000 a year job and I would love to own my home outright and put what I was paying in rent into a savings account for more investment. If I get a loan for my home, I feel it also would effect me getting investment loans.

What do you all think? Am I on the right track or do I have this all wrong?

Thanks!