All Forum Posts by: James Neff

Id love to sell, and my tenant has expressed interest, but the market in that area is so bad that most people are leaving the area. On the other hand, the property itself is a great location, with a great view. If my tenant doesnt buy, the other option is to tear down the trailer and build a modular home there. im just not sure if I would be able to tear it down while I still owe on it.

The short of it is, I have a double wide trailer, approx 18 years old, on a brick foundation, with a Fannie Mae 15 year loan. The payment is 1100 a month and the rent coming in is only 650. Ive talked to several banks, and none are willing to help me refinance it.
I would like to ask your advice on creative ways to get the mortgage payment closer to what the incoming rent is.
As I know very little about financing, any accurate, or detailed descriptions are most welcome!

oops.
back to above:
One of the rentals has an auto debit to pay the mortgage, the other does not, so I write a check for one, and have to talk to the bank and change the routing number for the other so it will come out of the correct account. Which I should be doing today.
I have Allstate for my car insurance and renters insurance for the apartment complex I currently live in. I wonder if they would be willing to cover my rentals. Ill have to look into that.

I just lost my job yesterday, so Im wondering if now isnt the best time to leap headlong into real estate even though I have no clue what I am doing.
Anyone willing to mentor :)

I am not sure what I have to offer anyone else at this point, but im thinking blogs would be a good place to start for people, like myself, that haven't got a clue.

@ John - my rentals are in NC. One is a double wide trailer on foundation (as if that matters), the other is a townhouse (6 units to a building).
Currently, my doublewide has insurance through the bank that my loan is with since my insurance company stop covering me when i turned it into a rental. The bank says that thier insurance covers thier remaining interest, but im not sure if it is "rental insurance" or not. I am not even sure what coverage I have on my townhouse.
I really need to get my ducks in a row. Ive had the townhouse as a rental for 5 years, gone through 4 tenants and just got a 5th one.
After reading some good posts about forming an LLC, im beginning to wonder if Dawn and Ali's ideas are the correct path to take.
Since my last post, I have taken some small steps, but not nearly enough, and some more insight is always helpful.

My current situation is this:
-Each rental now has its own bank account that is linked to my personal account.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Greetings,
As I am sitting here reading posts, something unsettling has occured to me.

I was Planning on creating an LLC, that I would use to manage my 2 rental properties, for the purpose of seperating business from personal. However, I've seen a few mentions of a clause (which I have forgotten the name of already) that basically says my mortages would be due "now" in full if I tried to transfer them into the LLC's name. Am I reading that correctly?
Because I still have mortgages on both my rentals, I would not be able to put them into an LLC without having to pay the banks what I owe them first?
If that is the case, what do I do?
Could I create the LLC, then try to get a business loan, from a bank, for the amount that I owe on both homes and use the rents to pay it off? Is something like that even legal?

Alright then, now that I am off work, I can go into a little more detail and hopefully get some insights and advice.

Lets see, firstly, I have a $75 cash flow from my townhouse and a $450 loss on my SFH.
My biggest problem, is that the house is actually a double wide trailer on a foundation, and I can't seem to find any banks willing to help me refinance it. Any insights here would be welcome.
I'm not sure I want to purchase more properties at this time, but I would like to be able to at least break even on the two I currently have. Or figure out a way to get them to pay for themselves.
Raising rent on my house isn't really an option, even though I know it could pay for itself. The tenants I currently have are actually wanting to purchase the house from me, but medical difficulties have put that on a back burner for now.
I was thinking of taking out an equity loan from the house, since it's a 15 year loan, and using that to pay off half of what I owe on the townhouse, but I'm not sure if that is a good idea. Insights welcome.

I really am clueless about all of this, so if anyone has questions that might help prompt me in the right direction, please ask!

Thanks for the warm welcomes, and I am reading the guides now!

James

Greetings everyone,
I am, what some books I have read call, an unintentional landlord. It wasn't my goal to set out as a real estate investor, but with the bad market, I now have 2 homes that I have been unable to sell for several years. Over the course of that time, I have realized that I am in a very bad situation, legally, with the way I have been handling my "business". I've decided that I need to create an LLC to seperate business from personal, but I have no Idea where to start!
I will be posting a more indepth account of my situation elsewhere and will gladly take any help that is given!

Regards,
James Neff