All Forum Posts by: Joe Facenda

If Shawnee Mission KS and Shawnee KS are the same place, I have great agent for you.  Please PM me.

Thanks

Kim mentioned Park Place but I think he meant Park Ave.  Please do PM the contact.

Thanks

Thank you @Kim Meredith Hampton and @Chris Claflin.  I have a few months left on my current contract and not looking forward to a fight and argument to get out.  I just  want to prepare so I am ready when it is time to switch.  Kim, do you use Park Place?  

I purchased a rental property in Charlotte early this year and live outside the market.  I am currently with a property management company that is, well, not doing what they said they would do and not communicating.  

I have properties in 4 other markets and have never seriously entertained switching companies.  I know everybody gets upset about something with a property management company at some point but I have been loyal to the other 4 and plan to stay with them.  This one though....

I want to switch companies as soon as possible.  Who do you recommend?  To me a percentage point here or there is not critical.  Service is.

This is a single family home renting for just under $1000 per month and is tenant occupied.  My issue is with communication, repair response and telling me things are done when they are not done.

I am not here to bash any company so they will remain nameless on the public part of the forum but if you PM I will give you more details. 

Thank you.

@Antoine Martel.  You are either very lucky,  a great interviewer or both. 

I have a website that connects investors with investor friendly Realtors around the country.  (I can't mention the name or my post will be deleted but look at my tag line.) I can not tell you how hard it is to find them.  I struggle to find great agents in most markets. (If you have any suggestions of folks I should call, please PM me.  I would love to reach out.)

Everyone has different standards as to what they mean by investor friendly.  Some just want agents who will send foreclosure or distress property lists and write tons of offers.  Any agent can do that.  Others want a bit more.

My standard tey must be both licensed and investing for a number of years and no way you get that from a simple Zillow list.  There are many markets I've tried to research where I came up empty attacking the puzzle from many different angles. That is not to say there are not investor friendly Realtors in those markets.  Maybe I should have just called Zillow agents.

If you are blindly calling, certain companies, RE/MAX being one, allows you to screen agents based on specialty.  Investing is one such screen.  

But know anyone can call themselves an investor friendly agent.  They do not need to have the experience to back it up.

Many agents on BP respond to posts and say they are investor friendly.  I look up many of them and have added a few to my site but several - too many - I find out have been licensed 6 minutes.  They may know investments but they don't know the ins and outs of selling a home and where the minefields are. 

Again, bottom line, ask the agent how long they have been licensed and if they personally invest.  If both are positive answers, go deeper but if either one is the wrong answer, move on no matter how much you like them.

It depends on your experience. A private sale could be fine. Since you are getting a loan, and using VA you will have an appraisal which will offer some protection. Make sure you agree now on the logistics if the appraisal comes in low or the appraiser requires repairs to made - not uncommon on VA appraisals. .

Make sure you get a home inspection and again, agree how you will handle any issues that surface.

There are a host of other things to watch out for but those are the two big ones. 

Also, know that in VA, the settlement company attorney is NOT an advocate for either party. If you want an attorney representing you, you will need to hire someone different than the title attorney.

Agree with @Jonathan Greene.  You need an agent who is both experienced as a Realtor AND as an investor.  It doesn't matter if you are buy and hold and they are fix and flip or vice versa.  If they are in the game, they will serve you better than a more traditional Realtor.

Look, I am a Realtor and one thing we have to do day in, day out, is sell ourselves.  So if you start to call agents on Zillow, you will run into tons of folks who can sell you on why they should be your agent. 

FYI I do have a great investor friendly Realtor I know in the Indy area who meets the above criteria.  PM me for more info.

@danbernstein A quad in Falls Church and duplexes in Arlington?  I have never come across these in over. 2 decades in the business.  Kudos to you. I certainly have sold duplexes where you only own 1 side but not seen any where the title includes both sides.  If you can share privately, I would be curious as to your Falls Church address and any neighborhoods you know of where you can buy both sides. 

Sorry for the delayed response.  I have been out of town and staying away from electronics except for urgent business matters.

Anyway, if it were me and I had a choice of using a VA loan with no down payment or putting $20,000 down, I would go no money down.

Your calculations are a bit off, $20,000 will save you a little less than $100 per month.  I'd rather have the $20,000 in my pocket for investing or emergencies. (FYI, I use a quick ballpark estimate of $5/month for each $1000 borrowed so 20x5 = $100.  Actually at 4.5% it is $5 a month. At 4% it is $4.67 and 3.5% is 4.33 but I can't do non-round numbers in my head) 

Hope that helps.

I am a Northern Virignia Realtor and investor both here and other markets including the Hampton and Newport News - a great investment area for cash flow.

You will not find quads or even duplexes (where you own both sides) in close in Northern Virgina. Can't speak to D.C. And MD as I am not licensed there.

For $350,000 in Centreville other areas about that far or further from D.C. you certainly can find a nice sized town home and you can rent out the secondary bedrooms and/or a basement.

If you say you qualify for $350,000 know that most traditional lenders will not do a rental offset on your first rental property.  So if you buy your personal residence and then want to buy a rental, you may need to be able to carry the full amount of both loans within your debt ratio limits.

However, whenever someone speaks of loan program requirements, they are talking in broad strokes.  There may be alternative programs or ways around loan roadblocks.

But for now, I would get the personal situation settled first and then plan for investing down the road. 

Not real estate related but sounds as though things in your personal life are changing rapidly and my advice to folks in that situation whether it be marriage, new child, divorce, separation or death is to let things settle before making too many major decisions.  We all need a roof over our heads so that is a decision that must be made sooner than later but investing can wait until everything else falls into place and there is more room in the brain to think things through.