All Forum Posts by: Joseph Weisenbloom

@Michael Seeker It didn't bother me at all to be honest my initial reaction was laughter because I couldn't imagine anyone in there right mind buying the house at that price. Maybe if the house didn't have all the needed repairs it would be a reasonable price but not in the condition it was in.

This one gave me a chuckle. Made an offer on a VA foreclosure that needed some work. The owner had passed away so its not like anyone had an emotional connection to the house.

Surprisingly the house was in good cosmetic condition considering it was vacant but all the mechanicals were old. This place needed a new roof, new furnace, new AC unit, fridge, stove and there was a flood in one of the bathrooms that had created some mold. I estimated 25k-30k in work and made an offer accordingly.

My realtor calls me back today and tells me I ticked off the listing agent hahaha. Am I off base here or does this kind of thing happen all the time? Why do people take this personally?

Share your story of a time you ruffled a few feathers in your pursuit of real estate!

@Rocky V. Doing a market rental analysis is the hardest thing ive found to do with these properties. The reason being if you look on realtor.com or craigslist you cant find a comparable rental even close to the property. The same goes with rentometer all the comparable properties are in the city. How do you comp rents for these rural properties? Do they rent even close to as much as properties in the city?

Recently I have been looking at rural properties. I am talking 3/2 SFHs on 1-3 acres out in rural areas 5 or less miles from a city. While I would personally find this appealing as a personal residence I am not sure how they would perform as a rental. The downsides I anticipate are lower demand, lower rents, less liquidity/harder to sell, difficulty getting contractors and handymen out there. Anyone have any experience with these kind of properties?

First I would verify all the numbers that the seller is giving to you. Often times a seller or agent can overestimate rent or underestimate repair costs to get you to buy the house.

I don't know the exact numbers in your situation but it doesn't look like a high cashflow property. Do you know who is paying for utilities like water, electric and gas? Given the general information you have provided I calculated $294 per month in cashflow. This is using the general 50% rule. $2450/2 = $1225 - 931 = $294/mo cashflow.

$294*12 = $3528 yearly return. Your money invested is estimated at $43400 for the down payment and the other $8500 for repairs for a total of $51900. At those numbers you are pulling in a 6.7% CoC return which is even worse than the stock market.

All the numbers provided above are the best case scenario if you are paying 50% of expenses. For a house that old and with the water bill most likely being paid by the owner your expenses will be much higher. Most likely closer to 60% expenses.

I would pass on this one.

@Chris Stromdahl There werent as many maps as I could find for ohio schools but I did find this one http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011... which covers Columbus.

Just found this https://www.k12.wa.us/maps/Download.aspx after searching Washington school district maps on google images. Hopefuly this is the level of detail you are looking for.

I prospect for school districts for my day job so I have a big map of all the school districts in north Texas and Oklahoma on my wall.

Yea if you live on the property you can get a loan with a lower down payment. If you get conventional financing the minimum is 5% down for SFHs and duplexes. You can also get an FHA loan with 3.5% down for multis up to 4 units. On the downside FHA loans include more red tape and high PMI.

Rates may vary depending on credit. I am not a mortgage broker so definitely talk to a professional.

@Rajib Miah I plan on using 20% to 25% for the first 4 properties then I assume it will become more difficult to get conventional financing. No plan to finance properties after that but I'm thinking a portfolio lender. Either that or start buying cheap houses for cash and fixing them up.

I am currently living in a duplex that I put 5% down on. Once I have lived here for a year I will use the owner occupied loan for another duplex.

At then end of the day I am a good saver so I know I can get at least 40k per year of savings from my day job. At this point I am just taking it one house at a time. This plan is not set in stone. Depending how things go I may just buy a fourplex instead of 4 single family houses. Whatever opportunity comes my way.

@Alex Silang Alex I see you live in Allston which is a very nice but expensive area. I used to live in Westford. You wont find vacant houses in those high end areas. If I were investing in Massachusettts I would look in areas like Worcester, Lowell and Lawrence. Areas that could use some rehabbed houses.