All Forum Posts by: Jeff Bisgier

@Linda S. That's super helpful! I'll make sure that I put in my ads that there will be a credit and background check, so that they know what they are getting into. Thank you so much!

@Linda S. Great information, Linda. Thank you so much!! Let's say you have an available rental and 4 perspective tenants respond to your ad. How do you handle that? Do you charge each of them for a report and then decide based on the report information? If so, are the other 3 perspective tenants just out of luck on the cost of the report? Do you have them send you a check to cover the report cost before you get the report? Sorry for so many questions!!

@Account Closed Thank you, Meghan! I'm trying to relax but the first one is scary. Do you know which forum category is the proper one to ask about GC referrals?

I just took a quick look at your post that you linked to. It looks SO informative! I will be reading that over a few times. Thanks for help!!!

@William Jenkins I'm hoping I found that rare good deal. When I was looking for flips a few months ago, I probably saw around 25 houses, and spotted so many issues with each house. This house was different right off the bat. No sagging floors, no water stains on basement walls or floor moldings, no water stains on ceilings or walls, no mold or mildew, updated electrical panel, newer windows, etc. For the price I paid, it looks really good. Yes, it's easier watching from the stands though!

@Linda S. Thank you! Yes, the auction certainly put the pressure on me, but I feel like I got a really good deal. Thank you for all of the information about the appraisal and the screening company. I will look them up. Do you have the perspective tenant pay for the background check? I have no idea about how that is done or how much it costs. Thanks again!

Thank you everyone for your input!!!! It's great to get some knowledge and input from you folks. I appreciate everyone taking the time to write. I'm taking a few notes from each post.

@JD Martin The house does need some rehab, so I'll follow what you said and get the marketing and forms going approx 4-6 weeks before it's finished.

@Carl C. As soon as I have the keys, I'll go through the house and write down every project and try to come up with a budget. That part will be very new to me. Any tips on how you do that in your properties? And I totally agree with you about making it nice enough for rental. No travertine floor tiles or granite counters, although we are thinking about quartz or some type of solid surface countertops that will be fairly indestructible. I will reach out to you and appreciate the offer to talk to you about the reno work. Thanks!

@Lynn McGeein Quote "The only difference between fear and excitement is your attitude about it". Great quote!!! Thank you!

@Luc Boiron Yes, I think I got it for a really good price. We are thinking long term, which is why we want to keep the house as a rental property rather than flipping it. The house is listed at 1201sq ft in the county records, but I found something else in my searches that say the main floor is 858sq ft. It does have a finished attic (finished walls and ceiling and carpeted floor), and the basement has finished walls and ceilings with concrete floor. It sounds like they are adding in the attic space to the total square footage. Thanks for the reply!

@Jay Hinrichs Based on what I've seen in researching comps, I'd estimate the ARV to be around $180k. I have to admit that I feel dumb that I never asked my realtor what he thought it would be. I knew we planned on keeping the house for a long time, but I still should have asked what the ARV would be right now. Besides being so close to transportation, the house is 3 blocks from Main Street in the village, which is about to begin a huge revitalization program. That should help the property value in the future.

@Michael Boyer Thanks! Yes, a deep breath and maybe some meditation will help me! LOL I mentioned to Carl Carlson above that I just needed to make it nice enough. Clean and comfortable is what I'm after. I agree with you about not needing an HGTV dream home!  As far as the money, this is a big chunk of cash for me, so I definitely would like to replace it asap. Then maybe I can do this again if I survive this one!

Thanks, Mike Reynolds. I think (and hope!) that is was a good deal. Zillow (I take their numbers with a grain of salt), estimates the value at $215k. I figure if I can refi approx $100k in 6 months, my monthly expenses for loan, taxes & insurance should come to approx $800/mth. With a rental income of $1600-1800/mth, I should have a good positive cash flow.

As far as a contractor, I don't have one yet, but need one. I've had work done on my own house and know it's not easy to find a good, reliable contractor. I did have a friend come with me on a second walk through. He's an engineer and knows a bit about construction. He said the house looked really good. Just dirty from sitting empty for so long.

Hi folks. I joined BP awhile back when my wife and I decided that we really wanted to get involved in real estate investing, namely flipping. I've tried to educate myself and have looked at a bunch of properties but never found the right one and didn't feel we were totally prepared anyway. I kind of laid off my search over the past few months.

Fast forward to last month when my agent sent me a listing for a foreclosure property about a mile from my home. It's a 2bd/1bth, detached single family, 1201sq ft, 1 car garage. Listing price was $125k. Property taxes are approx $4200/year, which is low for this area. Got a showing and the house seems very solid. Needs updating, but no signs of water damage anywhere, no mold that we could see, finished basement was totally dry, newer windows. Just needs a good cleaning, a kitchen and bath update and some cosmetic work. We may opt to put in new floorsThe house is a 4 minute walk to the train station and a 2 minute drive to 2 major highways, so an amazing commuter house. Great rental potential. My agent and I checked rental comps and it appears that $1600 - 1800/month is a solid number. We told my agent that we wanted to submit an offer. He got back to me the following day that the house was going to be auctioned off online.

To make a long story short, I signed up for the auction site. The opening bid was $52k and there was a reserve (plus this had to be an all cash sale). I wasn't super keen on buying this way as I had no experience, so I decided I would only go as high as $80k, figuring that I'd either get outbid or the reserve wouldn't be met. In the last minutes of the auction, there was some steady bidding action. When the price got to $77k, I submitted what was going to be my final bid of $79.5k. To my surprise, I won the auction but the reserve wasn't met. About 30 minutes later, I got notified that the seller decided to take my offer, even though it was less than the reserve price. That was 3 days ago and myself and the seller have already signed the contracts and earnest money has been sent to the title company.

So why am I panicking? I feel totally unprepared. I had to act so fast because of the auction and now I kind of don't know where to start. Even though I read so much months ago, I never really read anything about being a landlord. I also didn't know much about doing all cash purchases. I'm going to try to search for as much information as I can on my own, but if anyone has any advice or links to helpful posts or websites, I'd truly appreciate it!! Here are a few of my big concerns:

1. I'm laying out a lot of cash. I'm planning on getting an equity loan from my bank after 6 months to replace my bank account. Any advice on this?

2. Any good sites on what order to do rehab work in the house? Not sure where to start.

3. Where can I find the best info on being a landlord? I see there is a lot right here on BP that I'll read through, but anything else? Also, what about lease forms, etc.

4. How do I do background and credit checks for potential tenants? Am I better off listing with a real estate agent rather than placing ads?

Sorry for the long winded post, but I'll be grateful for any advice. Thanks!!!!!

@Ayodeji Kuponiyi Thanks again for the pointers!!

@Daniel Sisto Rehabbing and selling is where I plan on starting as well. Just having a lot of difficulty finding a good property. I read about the 70% rule on BP, which saved me from making a big mistake on a property that I had submitted an offer on. I rescinded my offer quickly after reading about that! Hope I can find something soon!

@Ayodeji Kuponiyi

Hi Ayodeji! Thanks for the welcome!! There is so much information on this site that I feel I could spend 200 hours on here and only read half of it lol!!