All Forum Posts by: John Matthews

@Troy Sheets Not exactly. I'm not against it, I just haven't worked up the confidence to ask for partners, especially on my first deal.

Why, do you know anyone with some biggerpockets (bad pun...sorry)???

Haha. Final update (I think?):

The seller won't let me dig along the wall, so AFAIK there's no way for me to provide some assurance to lenders to get them to fund the deal. Unless anyone's got any suggestions for funding (I'd need roughly $100k - I'm planning on putting about $30k in myself) the deal I'm on to the next one.

Thanks for all the comments!

Ok - another question for you all out there. I've got an investor minded real estate agent, but I'd rather not waste his time making 100 offers if only 2 will get accepted - is there any way for me to put together the paperwork to make their job easier? (These are MLS listings)

Hi all,

Do you know if there's a good/easy way to set price alerts for specific properties? I'm mostly looking on trulia (my realtor has an alert set up for me on the MLS but I seem to be way faster at finding things on trulia then they are on the MLS...not sure why).

Basically there are plenty of houses that make sense at the right price, but they're far from it, so I want to get some kind of alert when it drops to a certain price...any suggestions? Can this be done on the MLS?

@Mark Esposito - Will do. My realtor doesn't think the seller will go through that (it's a power of attorney sale - the seller is 96 years old). I agree, no one will buy the house as is due to funding, but at prices like this I'm not so sure. That's part of the reason why I'll do it, because if I believe that it's an "easy" fix, I'm going to have to do it anyway, so what's the difference in paying to have it done now versus after the house is mine. 

@Steve Babiak So I'm not necessarily to the point where I think it's necessary to remove / redo the drainage pipe, but the impression that I get from the engineer is that without actually seeing the footing (AND what kind of shape that pipe is in) he can't know for sure. It kind of seems like if I need to dig around the foundation wall, I may as well just look at that drainage pipe while I'm down there.

Philly (and montco, delco, etc.) buy and hold investors - what's your best deal? 

• How did you finance it
• how did you find it
• how much did you pay 
• what's your gross rent and net rent?

@Joe Cummings - Sorry I thought I responded earlier. It's in west oak lane. 

Also, for a quick update if anyone is still reading this: I got them to knock the price down $21k to $79k. Just for some quick numbers:

• Purchase price: $79k
• ARV: $182k (from appraiser)
• Rehab costs (not including foundation/masonry work): $20k
• Expected foundation / masonry costs: up to $25k
• Anticipated gross rent - quadplex w/2 car garage - around $2600/mo (from several PM companies in the area

So total cash into deal is about $129k, or at 0% down (not what I'm doing) I could cashflow at about $700 total or $175/door.

But - the lenders won't fund the deal. Both the SE and myself (also an engineer) are pretty certain that foundation issues are within the $25k range to remediate (probably in the $15k range - due to the localization of the issue), but the lenders don't want to lend on "ifs" and "maybes" which I get completely.

I think my next step, is to see if I can get the seller to let me dig up along the problem wall, get the SE back out so he can say for sure, it's fixable, in x price range.

The one thing I'm concerned about is that I'm too close to the deal, and I'm getting attached to the numbers, but intuitively, it's a risk I'm willing to take. At least enough that I'll risk spending a couple $k digging down to the footing, and another $300 for the SE.

@Account Closed You need to be thinking about two things at this point:

Acquisition strategy and Exit strategy.

For the acquisition side of things, start talking to lenders, and see what you can get preapproved for. Age isn't so much a factor as income, credit, debt to income, etc. are - and every lending institution is different.

For the exit strategy side of things, make sure the numbers make sense first. What will the house sell for if put on the market today, how much work does it need, and what will it sell then, what is rent like, and will it cashflow (use the 50% rule - 50% of the rent goes to maintenance, insurance, capex, vacancy, taxes, etc., the rest goes to mortgage payments and income), if you can't afford it, but it would be a good deal for someone else, consider wholesaling it.

Hopefully that gives you a starting point. 

Get your own attorney.

But from experience here's what you need to be doing right now - keep track of all correspondence and attempted correspondence and keep it organized. When you do get your own attorney, give them all this information, and have them handle from there.

Depending on the contract you've already signed, you may not have much recourse, but only an attorney can tell you that.

Good luck.

@Lucas P. What price point are you talking? What's the minimum downpayment you'll be required to have, and the cash you've got on hand to invest?

Here's my thoughts (I'm guessing several won't provide sufficient funds):

• Use crowd funding sites like lendingclub or prosper to get a personal loan (up to $35k I think) to help w/down payment
• Take out a HELOC on one or more of your own properties
• Is the contractor putting any skin in? Do they have homes to tap into?
• Partner with others 
• Meet people at REIAs and pitch your deal
• Hard Money Lenders in the area
• Call more lenders in the area - maybe one portfolio lender will take this on (go prepared)
• Cash advance on credit card

Perhaps one or more of these could be used in combination to get the deal done.