All Forum Posts by: Brant Richardson

One thing you left out is the current market value of the houses or more importantly the amount of equity you have in them.  Maybe you bought them way below value or they have appreciated a lot, in which case you could tap into that equity to help fund your next purchase.  You have some nice rates though, I don't think I would mess with the current financing.  If you are cash flowing at $100/mo you probably should not pull any money out now that I think about it.

Scrimp and save every dollar you can to fund the next purchase.  Learn how to do home repairs so you can save on maintenance and make your next purchase a rehab project.

I'm moving forward with more purchases in KCMO. Similar price range, ARV 80-100k. I plan on holding longer than 5-7 years though. It would be nice to have some cash on hand to use if we did have another crash but I am not ready to sit on the side lines waiting.

  Having longer paybacks on all your loans gives you more flexibility than if some were quicker payback.  If you want to use your cash flow to pay one off in 15 years you can.  If you want to save the cash flow for another down payment you can.  Also, with lower required payments your debt to income ratio looks better to qualify for further loans.

Or 20 other opinions. It depends on what you mean by your DTI being maxed out. If you almost have a good enough DTI and 70% of the cash flow you get from your rental would get you the rest of the way there, then you can find a lender. There are lenders in the BP forums who have said they could count my rental income in less than a year.

Research how to "wholesale" real estate.  Basically you negotiate a price with the seller and have them sign a contract for that price.   Then you find a buyer for a higher price.  You will have a certain amount of time to complete the deal and you usually give the seller some earnest money.  This is not an area of real estate I have ever done or am trying to get into so I can't give you the details.

I think I would move on.  I see a high risk for frustration with very little reward.  Maybe I'm missing something but your house on their website shouldn't affect you as long as they don't book it, it might be a problem for them and their customers who ask about it.

Is this an investment or your personal home which you have fallen in love with?  Do you have to have this place?

When you say "it is worth 355k",  does that mean the full market value minus the cost of repairs would be 355k?  Or does that mean 355k is still well below market value.

1. I want investments well below market value. 2. The bank already accepted a much, MUCH lower offer.  3.  If you give them 310k they get all of their money.  So to me the answer is to offer 310k, unless this is your dream home or the 355k is still well below market value.

Here's my idea for starting a turnkey company, very biased by my personal buy and hold strategy.  It may be much smaller scale than what you are planning.   Basically build a buy and hold portfolio and offer them for sale.  You only buy properties that are in great areas you would want in your personal portfolio.  They have to be good enough bargains that you would add them to your personal portfolio.  You rehab them to your standards (assuming your standards are high).  Then you rent them out, hold them and enjoy the passive income.  Build a website and offer your properties for sale at a price that makes you want to sell.  If they sell great, more cash for acquistiions.  If they don't sell, great you have excellent buy and holds.  Sold properties can be transferred to a management company with your excellent tenants in place.  The quality of neighborhood, rehab and tenants is top notch, good enough for you personally should be good enough for a passive investor.

@Ian Fisher 

   William Robison is my current property manager for about a year now.  I am very happy with his work.  Repairs are taken care of immediately, often the same day the client calls.  I have met my tenants and have seen the good raport he has with them.  He has put in extra effort finding used or blemished appliances to keep down costs.  He even installed a water heater himself with no labor charge so the tenant would have hot water over the weedend.  There has been several times he has offered to fix things free because they randomly broke shortly after we rehabbed a project, like a used dish washer and garbage disposal.  There has been a few I refused to let him do free because they were in no way his fault.  He carries around a can of wasp killer in his truck and will blast nests if he sees one forming, no fee from a exterminator, I wouldn't even know about that except I spent a day driving around with him and saw him in action.  I'm sure there is others I haven't seen.

   Proactive example - I just got an email asking if I want the gutters cleaned.  He got a good deal with a guy for the high volume and sent emails to all the property owners about the service.  William gets the gutters cleaned a little later in the season to make sure all the leaves have fallen.  Getting the leaves out keeps the gutter from rotting and more importantly keeps the water moving fast and away from the foundation which can lead to very expensive foundation damage or flood damage to the tenants property.

  I'd be happy to talk with you more about my experience.  Just send me a private message.

@Vonetta Booker ,  I actually met William Robison here on Bigger Pockets.  He wrote a blog on investing in better neighborhoods even though lesser neighborhoods often look better when analyzed on paper.  I already knew which market I wanted to enter and was looking for the right person to work with.  After talking with him I decided the fit was right and he had a lot of policies in place that give a out of state investor some confidence that they are not being taken advantage of.