All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Elrick

Yeah, unsecured seems to be the key word there. That 9.99% was from the first bank I got a quote from. At first I thought "Hmmm I wanted to keep below 10% interest but this is ridiculous!" However I'm seeing as I ask around 16-18% is more common, so 9.99% may be my loan of choice.
Brandon, I read through your first link and I do see what you and Ned were getting at. I guess I will keep that in mind if this falls through. Those formulas make sense, I hope to be getting some use out of them in the future.

Cool, I'm in the Philadelphia area myself. I'm just getting to know the site myself. I've been browsing it all week & just joined up. I'm not sure exactly how everything works on this forum but I'm trying to get into my first property myself, feel free to PM me and we can compare notes.

Thanks for the links and advice. Brandon, I believe it was actually an article you wrote on landlording that brought me here. I have ordered the book Landlording on Autopilot on your recommendation as well IIRC. I will be checking out those links as well and maybe I can even figure out what Wholesaling means Hahaha
I will have capital to fix the place up as the two rented units need very little work. For example one needs a new threshold and trim, an interior door, some drop ceiling tiles and I think I will wall off the door to the basement depending who I rent to. Then one room needs paint and it's done, doing the work myself it should be just the cost of materials. I am looking for a 15k loan which will leave me 3-4k cash reserves plus a credit card. The mortgage and loan payments will be about $1200/mo total. I will be putting in $500 and the current tennant will be paying $500 each month. The remaining 3-4k plus my credit card will have both apartments ready to go inside a month and take care of insurance and utilities. I have more people chomping at the bit to move in than I have units TOTAL! *LOL*
The 1st floor should bring in 1k-1500/mo and the 2nd floor unit will be another $6-650/mo. The 1st, last and security for the two will also bring in additional funds (minus their security deposit) for fixing things and paying bills. I know I will be making money on this over & above before summer is out so I can start overpaying my loan & mortgage to get them out of the way and have a place to live to boot. I can do the vast majority of the work on the property myself (previous owner has easily 200k of work into it) and my boss who was a general contractor will be more than willing to help out on anything I can't handle or figure out. If he can't he can recommend people who will be worth paying to do the work and make sure they cut me a good deal. He asked me why people can't offer him deals like this Hahaha
I know I am somewhat emotionally invested in this but my logic says as long as I can hold this together for the first 3 months I can make it work. The previous owner who is a friend showed me his books and he was pulling in well over 2k a month. I won't go into his issues but I have learned enough that his mistakes are ones I will NOT be making.
This to me is not an investment property, it is a foundation. This building was in my friends family for 60 years, I hope to have it to hand down to my children like my friends father passed it to him. Long term I want to have the third floor renovated within 2 years so that when I get to the 5-7 year point on the property it will be self sustaining and I can take the equity there and get started on another property.So, I hope I have explained my logic and reasoning well enough. If not I will be more than happy to clarify or explain anything germane to the deal. If you guys think the loan at 9.99% is a decent deal than I may go with it (I have nothing for collateral).

My name is Kenneth, like I said I'm in Philly trying to capitalize on what could potentially be the deal of a lifetime. First I'll start with a little background. My real estate background is zero but for the past 6 years I've been busting my *** cleaning up my credit report. I've gone from the 630's to the 770's in the past 4 years with all 3 agencies and paid off my student loans 3 years early and I was planning to buy a house this summer.
Here's the deal of a lifetime. I was talking with a buddy about being in the market for a house and he tells me I GOTTA buy his property. Well, I was looking for something in the 50-60k range but he takes me to see his property which was WAY out of my price range. Well it's a building zoned C2 with 5 units, the first floor unit which can easily be a storefront.
This is a sweetheart of a deal, it's easily worth 180-200k, has 1 existing tenant and needs only minor work to get 2 of the remaining 4 units ready to rent while leaving me the 2 units on the 3rd floor to live in and fix up. The problem here is I need 20k down and he's willing to hold the mortgage on the remaining 125k mortgage. Too good to be true? Yeah, I only have 8K saved up. I'm shopping around for loans and banks rear their ugly head. They're only willing to loan you money if you DON'T need the money, if you DO actually need the money get ready to grab your ankles. The best I've found so far is 15K 4yr term @9.99%. The seller is working to help find me something reasonable that I won't need a half gallon of lube to pay off, but it's starting to look like that may be my only option.
Well that's basically it in a nutshell, I have been browsing here this past week and today I joined because I need advice.