All Forum Posts by: Lino B.

House was found to have asbestos removed and termite damage. The flipper is willing to give me a $2k credit based on inspection report, that's laughable. I am anticipating about 10k worth of immediate improvements needed. I am backing out.... Cost me about $800 in home inspection but it was worth the educational process.

Thanks for revitalizing this post guys. I just conducted the home inspection and may very well back out. While the house was a flip and it has many updates, based on the input here and based on some of the analysis of the inspection I think backing out may be prudent. I anticipate another 10k of costs and my realtor is suggesting the seller is going to push back on concessions because they had multiple buyers lined up, bs? Who knows or cares. I believe the property can appreciate up to 400k clearly based on Eric's analysis that's still not enough.

Ibrahim Hughes based on yours and previous post that's my biggest concern right now. I'm going to call the tax office on Monday. I have a feeling these taxes are pre ARV. BTW this is a SF not a condo.

Robert McNamara My hopes of this post was just that to be challenged by people who understand and have been there. I have enough skeptics. I want and appreciate that candidates, This is helpful. By no means do I believe this is a slam dunk but wanted to engage in dialogue that would give me a better idea of the details of the deal and the potential hidden costs and guidelines. Ultimately I may still jump in to learn the hard way in hopes things go well. This area is truly hard to find the numbers and maybe I jumped in hoping.

I am still in attorney review and I have still have the potential to back out if I want to.

@Robert G. I should've been more clear in that I am absolutely speculating on appreciation in this town. There is significant growth and there is a bunch of townhomes being constructed as rental only properties with one family residences are being rented about the numbers I state below. Additionally, I am investigating the possibility of either living there in the future or further renovations (dormer) and then resell.

Thank you for the feedback, the numbers at a more granular level is what i wanted some opinions on. Frankly, I believe 2200/mo is the floor. I believe 2500/mo is very obtainable and not ceiling but I want to be conservative. The reason I bring up the fact that this is a flip with all new appliances, plumbing, electrical is because that would certainly cut back on immediate future repairs? aren't the numbers @Marci Stein suggest guidelines? 

with a buy and hold strategy, even breaking even with the appreciation i expect wouldn't that be a feasible strategy for building equity?

@Robert McNamara for someone in SJC area you can certainly understand the position I am in with this inflated markets. I am not comfortable looking at and dealing with foreclosures and short sales at this stage of the game. any other ideas?

@Marci Stein my monthly includes taxes (PITI)

@Bryan N. this is certainly part of my plan of flexibility. I am in the positive on my current townhouse and could rent it for $400/monthly cashflow and this includes HOV.

I live in northern new jersey where most work in nyc (like myself) and deal with insane taxes. I currently live in a townhome community which is nice. i have some cash from stocks that i wanted to use to buy a place and try my hand in real estate. my strategy is to buy and hold a few properties with postive cash flow. Its almost impossible here to apply the 50% rule with the criteria.

here are the details of the deal:

House was new to MLS. they had multiple offers in 2 days. I went aggressive and got it at 335k for a small single family starter home that was a flip, ie I am the buyer of a flip. it has nearly everything redone (kitchen,roof, floors, plumbing, electrical). i plan on putting 20% cash down and getting financing. with PITI cost equal about $1950/mo. The key is that the taxes on this house relative to the area are very low at 7k/year. I pay 11k for my townhome! its a nice up and coming town with a rail to NYC close by. I am about to get out of attorney review and inspected soon.

my realtor and research is showing that i could get EASY $2200 possibly up to $2500 for this per month. its modest cashflow but positive none the less.

I have reserve funds to pay for unexpected repairs and vacancy. (I could buy this place outright cash)

I'm new, i get it but am I that naive to think this is a no-brainer? What am I missing here? I know on-going maintenance like landscaping is something to consider in costs too (do it myself, pass off to renter, etc).

I figured this would be a great opportunity to learn the ropes and learn what I don't know with minimal investment up front (~65k). I know the area very well, I would live in this place!

I'm trying to stay postive because I am hearing negativity but I want to get off my *** and DO IT.

Any thoughts would be great.