All Forum Posts by: Payton L.

@Neil Patel for reference: 

We recently purchased a HUD home (owner occupied). Our offer was contingent on an inspection, and we were required to put down earnest money. During the inspection we found what looked to be some potentially serious electrical issues, and asked if we could get a reduction on price. The seller's agent said the seller would be willing to reopen negotiations and return our earnest money, but there would be no guarantee that we would get the home for a reduction, or even that our current offer would be accepted upon resubmission. Considering that we were already getting a great deal on the property we got a second opinion on the electrical work and allowed the deal to go through. (One of those times that being the first offer paid off. Checked out the house during the Christmas holidays while the weather was about 10 degrees. We were certain after the holidays, the seller got much higher offers than ours, but by then ours had already been accepted)

Hope this helps! 

@Ian Kurela Approaching it from a risk standpoint is something I hadn't considered. Great feedback, thank you! 

Hi I haven't read through all the comments (and I'm still pretty new!) but I wanted to add my experience. 

My husband mentioned getting into REI and I was mildly interested but he was already neck deep in podcasts, had read 10 investment books, etc etc when he approached me. So I wasn't at the same level of understanding as he was. There was no reason for me to be! And when he mentioned buying a house I immediately had expectations of what MY HOME would be like. Not MY INVESTMENT. (We also lived in our first rental) I wanted the granite counters, the stainless steel appliances, the walk in showers. While those make sense in a dream home they may not make sense for a MFU you're house hacking. So getting out of that mindset alone was an adjustment. Him explaining wasn't enough, and to be honest id get so bored with his podcast suggestions and articles he would send that it was only being half retained, maybe. But, bless my husband, he put me in charge of the whole thing. Since I was "in charge" it made me feel like I had more control of the situation. And since I had so much responsibility I started to immerse myself in our "project". Of course final purchase had to be agreed on by both of us, but I did pretty much everything else. I don't think he expected for me to find an amazing home so soon, or to have my spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and numbers ready and waiting. We purchased our first home in February, and now are working on purchasing our third and I am still pretty much running the show. I'm happy, husband is happy.

So maybe she is confusing her home with her investment, and of course shes behind in her REI knowledge. First, I would ask if she wants to be involved! You may both be happier if she isn't and that's totally okay! Secondly, I would make investing personal to her and give her some responsibility. Third and Last, I wouldn't go in with any preconceived notions. It may be the smallest thing that pushes her into being a gungho BP member. Let her figure out her own motivations.

Good luck!! 

Hello BP! I am pretty much brand new to real estate investing, so I'm full of questions but this is the one I am currently debating. 

Is it better to buy in one area, or multiple areas? (if the math makes sense of course) Also, is there any advantage to owning a large volume of property in a small area? 

For example, we have purchased 2 homes so far in a very nice 3 college town. It's hard to find homes that meet our criteria of 1% housing. There is a lot of competition and many that the math works on, need some work. For example, our first but we got for $85K put 25K in and are currently renting it for $1200. The second buy we paid 80K and are putting 5-6K in it. We bought it already occupied paying $900 on a M2M. After repairs we are going to move up the rent to $925. 

My realtor, who I have been very fortunate to find, has found a duplex in another area that is more rural but I am very familiar with. We are about to put in an offer on a duplex for 100K that needs maybe 5-7K worth of work that is currently renting for $800 per side (though utilities are included). Once I started looking there were a few other homes that would meet our 1% criteria. Most going for around 75-80K and renting for 750-800 monthly. 

I guess I'm just wondering mainly if there's a benefit to owning most of the properties in a consolidated area. Like if we ended up owning 50-60% of all the rentals in the area. This may be a silly question but since I've been crunching the numbers on this offer it's been on my mind. 

I'll appreciate any feedback! TIA