All Forum Posts by: Joe Fernandez

Micki, 

I am new to Real Estate Investing and I live between Cincinnati and Dayton.  I am always looking for opportunities to learn.  I am in the process of getting my real estate license and should have it by the end of September.  Inbox me if you have some ideas on how I could help. 

So, I keep thinking about this property that I mentioned... I really do like it and think that it is in a good location and would sell well on a flip.

The bank is wanting $73,000

At a conservative ARV of $105K and the high end of my rehab estimate $15K, do I just offer $58,500 and see if the bank bites? Does this deal look much better with these numbers? or am I still at risk on the rental side as my backup option out if the flip does not turned out as planned?

My guess is that a bank will never move this much on the price. I think someone told me they just drop the price by $500 every couple of weeks until it sells or something like that. I don't want to waste my time or my agent's time writing up and offer that does not have a chance in hell of getting excepted.

Even if I do nothing with this particular property I will watch it over the next few months for educational purposes to see what it sold for, and maybe if it comes on the market as a rental or for sale again in the next 3 to 6 months...

@paul timmins

I read J. Scotts book on Estimating ReHab Costs, excellent book, because I am a bit amateur when it comes to the contracting side. I have done some light rehab of my primary residence, but nothing major. I know a few guys in that can guide me a bit in this area.

I have also been to one REIA club meeting, it was pretty good and I learned a few things from the guest panel that was speaking that night, I plan on going to a few more soon.

I have heard the advice about dealing directly with the listing agent before, I really should, because I do a lot of research on my own before I bring a property to my Realtor so she can get me in to take a look around. I am on my 4th primary residence so I have been through the process of buying a house a few times before. I get a little nervous using a dual agent because I am new. Even though they are not supposed to be biased, I have to think they might work a little harder for the bank who feeds them several properties a month vs me who has never bought anything and is not coming to them every month with offers.. yet :) Like you said it might not hurt to call them and ask what they have that needs to move and then bring it to my Realtor after if I am not getting the warm and fuzzies.

Thanks for all of the feedback so far! @Steve Wilcox this is good advice, I just need to run the numbers and keep the emotion out of it, I think that might take some practice :) @Account Closed thanks for letting me in on a little bit of the local knowledge, I moved here 5 years ago, so I have a little disadvantage on knowing all the neighborhoods. I was looking at other places like Lockland where the price to rent ratio looks better, but when I mention that to people (non-investors) they are like, don't do it!! I am sure there is an art to finding places in a city that are still cheap to buy and are stable neighborhoods that are not declining.

Hello All,

I am new to Real Estate investing and to posting on the forum. I have been spending hours every day listening to the BP Podcasts, reading books and looking at properties. I am getting to the point where I would like acquire my first property. My realtor is sending me SFH bank owned properties off of the MLS. I am in the greater Cincinnati area and the houses I am targeting are mostly in the suburbs and in decent neighborhoods. The one I am looking at now is a bank owned foreclosure listed at around $73,000 it is 3 bed and 3 bath (one bath is in the basement).

There are two paths I can probably take with this property. 1st is to buy and hold as a rental. I think it needs about $10,000 in repairs to get it rented, and rentals in the area should support between $900 and $1050 a month.

2nd option would be a flip, The ARV would be around $105,000 on the low end and $115,000 on the high end.

In both scenarios I would be putting 20% down and paying for the repairs out of pocket. I have looked, at all the various numbers, using some of the spreadsheets available on BP, it looks like it will cash flow a couple of hundred a month, a little more if I manage it myself. Taxes are pretty steep at 2K a year and that seems to eat in to the cash flow a bit…

I know some of the rules like the 2% rule for gross rents and the 70% rule for flipping, and it is not lining up with those but most of the SFH I am looking at in these areas don't quite get there. My realtor makes it sound like there will be multiple bids from investors on these properties and that I am in a weak position because I am not a cash buyer so offering less than the bank's asking price will probably not get me the property and even an offer at the asking price might not get it done in this market. I don't want to make the mistake of paying too much. I am a bit on the conservative side, I would hate lose money on my first property, although I understand that is a risk one has to take. I know that this property is not knocking it out of the park on ROI, but guess I am looking for opinions if this is actually really risky or a bad investment based on these numbers? Given these wide dollar ranges on the ARV and Rent that I am stating, is that part of my problem that I should be more confident on those numbers? Any other advice or opinions on this deal? Also let me know if you need any other data about the property.