All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Newsome

Long story short, I was just casually talking to a work associate about my previous investing experiences and my future plans. Just nerding out after a meeting. He unexpectedly offered to partner with me on a multi family deal ($1million+). I'm excited but not quite sure how to move for forward with the transaction. He will be providing money only (likely we will purchase a property outright, no loan). I'll put in a much smaller amount of money, but also find the property, negotiate price, manage the property management, manage any necessary upgrades, etc. How do I evaluate/price my value to this sort of deal?

A note about leasing in a college town... I like my leases to begin/end around the same time the fall semester begins. Although I typically go for a 1 year lease, I have had a tenant move out inexpectedly in January, and the unit say vacant for a month or so because all the students already had their housing. In that situation, we found an interested tenant who could move in March 1. I gave them the option to sign a 5 month lease and then renew again in August for a year so I could get the unit back on the same cycle as the school year.

For summers, if the student is leaving town, it's their responsibility to continue paying the lease or to find someone to assume the lease for them. Usually they will know someone who needs short term summer housing, so this is not a tough problem to solve.

I have a rental in a college town. My advice would be to invest in a unit that would attract a more mature student or perhaps a young grad student or college staff member. In my experience they take great care of the unit and often have referrals at the end of their lease, making it easy to find potential new tenants.

If you're not doing this already, when a potential lender declines due to the low loan amount, ask them if they know anyone who might make that sort of loan. Don't just say "thanks" and hang up. I recently did something similar and spoke to over 15 institutions before being referred to a bank that would make the loan. 

Sounds like time is of the essence, so you may want to have someone else help make the calls while you're working. Texas is a big state. Lots of options. If they get a hold of a lender who will consider the deal, they can send you that lender's contact info. Just a thought.

The best place to start is by talking to real estate agents and property managers in the area you want to invest in. They know the pulse of the area and may know of homes that meet your criteria.

I've seen others do this. Two risks to be mindful of are

-the bank could call the note before you pay off the HELOC

-if you are taking out the HELOC against your personal residence you are tying your personal home to the performance of the investment property. So vacancies or repairs could impact your ability to repay the HELOC.

If you have enough income and/or from elsewhere to mitigate those two risks, you should be okay. I personally would only use a HELOC as a short term solution, but if you've got the money to cover the payments, you should be fine.

Hey Scott! I own a condo in SW Gainesvile. Good to see other investors in that area. What type of property do you currently own? Single family, condo, duplexes etc...? The undergrad and professional student population there makes it really easy to find tenants.

Thanks for the replies. I'll go ahead and leave them up for now. If the tenant has an issue, then I'll have them removed!

Hello!

I am moving out of town and will be renting out my current home. The home is 2 years and in a B+ neighborhood. 

In the living room, I mounted my 50" tv on a very nice full motion wall mount. In one bedroom, I used a standard mount for a smaller TV (both were professionally installed). I was about to take them down when I realized the new tenant will likely just end up mounting their own TV.

For that reason, would it be a good idea to leave one or both of these installed?

I own a condo free and clear in my old college town in florida. It's small, probably worth around 50k. I would like to pull some equity out to fund a new venture, but I'm having a problem getting any of the "big banks" to lend against this property.

One reason is that they typically only make loans $50k and above. The other reason is that my condo is "unwarranted" (which I did not even think to check until recently).

Has anyone found success getting loans against this type of property? I've read some advice here and there, but I'm told that the lending practices regarding condos changes pretty regularly, so if anyone has any current words of wisdom, I'd be happy to hear it!

Thanks!