All Forum Posts by: Joe M.

6 Unit - 2 BR each

Rents are $450, $475 & 495.

Asking: Price is $149,000

Owner says the building is completely rehabbed:

New plumbing & water heaters

new separate electric

new furnaces

new windows

newer roof

new lighting

new kitchens

new bathrooms

new back decks

new carport

This is all the information available to me right now, other than a few pictures.

I've not done any multi-family deals yet, but I hope to do at least one this year. Just curious how you guys would rate this deal based on the information available. Is it worth looking into further?

I found a listing with a price that is obviously a typo. It's listed $100K below where it should be.

Not the real numbers, but let's say it is listed at $32,500 but really the house should be listed around $132,500.

I'm just curious how you would approach a situation like this. It is an REO property.

Indeed.

As far as the question about why not invest in REIT's or some other venture such as becoming a hard money lender.

The answer is simple. Nobody will ever care as much about your money as you. I like being the "master of my domain" so to speak.

Good example. I was in the stock market fairly heavy for a few years. I could do all my research on a company, read all the trends and make a solid value buy. Then out of nowhere something would happen to negatively impact the value of that stock. The CEO gets caught up in a scandle. A company in a similar sector falls on hard times and pulls your company down with it. Any number of things could happen completely beyond my control to predict and I could be out thousands of dollars in just a few short minutes.

I got out of that train wreck. If my business fails, it will be because I made a bad decision somewhere along the line.

Good discussion.

Thought I'd provide a quick update. I did bid on the 3/1 house. My bid was rejected and countered at full asking price. I told them to go pound salt and didn't offer up a counter of my own. (there's to many deals out there to deal with a jerk face full asking price counter).

One week later they sent another counter at full asking price.....I told them to go pound salt again.

House is still sitting on the market.

My understanding of FHA 203K loans are that they are not available for non-owner occupants.

Assuming this is correct why do I consistently see multi-family dwellings listed on the hud website as being 203K eligble?

I guess it would be required to be an owner occupant?

Very interesting article.

The 23% further decline to reach the mean is based on 10 housing markets.

It just so happens that according to the article those 10 markets used in the index are also the markets that experienced the worst of the bubble.

Hence markets outside of those areas were/are a bit more stable and didn't experience the run-up in prices and subsequent fall.

How are you guys approaching the 2BR/1BA and 3BR/1BA single family homes.

In my area I'm seeing some real value buys for these particular homes, especially for a buy/hold investor like me.

I know generally most folks would like to buy 3/2 and I'm no exception. However I'm seeing some opportunity with these particular homes, perhaps because investors traditionally shy away from them?

A good example is a house I'm considering bidding on today. It's a 3/1 brick bungalow in a nice working class neighborhood. I could own this house for around 12K and it needs about 8K in rehab. ARV is around 50K and will rent for $650/mo.

To me it seems like a no brainer, but maybe I'm missing something?

I do in all my rentals. Just the standard kitchen fire extinguisher. I usually try to mount it somewhere near the stove if possible.

and Lowes

http://www.lowes.com/pd_161219-319-LX-00400_0__?productId=1038705&Ntt=zip+it&pl=1¤tURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dzip%2Bit

ditto for me. gas furnace/water heater and everything else electric.

I have a no open flame policy for all my rentals.......