All Forum Posts by: Lenzy Ruffin

@Matthew Olszak Any permits I'd be pulling would be for work to be done within a few weeks. I'll be doing it at the outset going forward. 

What methodology are you using to determine whether or not to pursue this, Rahdia? This looks like it might be a house where the juice ain't worth the squeezin'. 

With a $190K ARV and your $70K repair estimate, the 65% rule puts you at a maximum purchase price of $53K. You're going to have to get both banks to get on board so that your total cost would be $53K or less. It can be done, but short sales can take a while and there's no guarantee that the banks will agree to settle those loans at the amount you need them to. The more immediate challenge will be getting the seller to cooperate fully and in a timely manner with filling out all the paperwork the bank will require. And even if everything comes together for you to get the house at $53K, you may find it difficult to find lenders willing to provide that much rehab money on such a relatively small house.

I'm not saying don't do it. There's good money in solving complex problems. But there's gotta be reward commensurate with the risk and that commensurate reward doesn't seem to be there with this house. And I don't mean just the rehab risk. There's a huge risk that you'll waste a ton of time going 'round and 'round with the banks only to not be able to reach an agreement. If you feel like the reward is there, go for it. I'd love to read a post on how you turned this problem into a payday.

$159K for a fully rehabbed 1300 sf house in Capitol Heights is way too low, even in the rougher parts of Capitol Heights. You might want to re-evaluate your comps. Rehabbed houses are selling all over Capitol Heights for $200K - $260K. If that's really a $215K or a $225K house, you have a lot more options. 

@Russ Draper @J Scott thank you. It made sense to me to just do it all at the start, I just needed confirmation. Will do it the right way the next time.

Is there any reason not to pull all the necessary permits as soon as you take ownership? 

I'm working on my first rehab and the contractor advised to pull permits as we got close to the work requiring permits rather than just pulling all the permits at the outset. Is there any good reason to do things this way? It just seems like a way to create an opportunity for a work stoppage if the permits aren't immediately approved when they're requested. If pulling permits as you go is the right way to do it, I'd like to hear that, too (and why). Just trying to learn the right way to do these things with this first house so I'll be straight going forward. 

How many square feet is that house? $159K seems low for after-repairs in Capitol Heights.

@Brittnee Robinson, I have the personal plan with the small business addendum/rider or whatever it's called. It comes out to $25 per month for personal and business protection for one-person operations. 

I'm on it, @Ray Slack. Thank you for the referral. And, no, RCN is not giving me any amazing deal. I'm getting the same "new guy" rate that anybody else would get. I felt like it should be possible that this could somehow be worked out through the title company that did the closing. All the paperwork that documents me paying for this house exists. It seems like far more complicated things get done to close deals all the time. Hopefully, I can find a lender to help me move forward.

@Ray Slack I tried to use the same title company for the refi closing even before any of this came about, just because I figured it would be more efficient. They want to use their title company. The lender is RCN Capital.

Hoping some experienced rehabbers in Prince George's County, Maryland can offer some guidance or insight. 

I bought my first property on July 22nd. The money from the hard money lender was not going to be available in time to meet the seller's deadline (I'd already paid him $500 for a two-week extension), so I cashed in my IRA and borrowed money from my parents to buy the house. I wouldn't have money for the rehab, but taking ownership of the house by the deadline was my priority because I'd then have time for the lender's process to complete and then refinance. The rehab is about a 30-day rehab, so I was hoping to have the house on the market by the second week of September.

I own the property, but the lender won't refinance it because the deed hasn't been recorded reflecting my ownership. After asking questions, I've been told that there's a staffing shortage at the Treasury Division (where the transfer and recordation payment has to be processed before the file gets sent to Land Records for the deed to be recorded) and the backlog on recording deeds is between two weeks and two months, depending on whom you ask. I've talked to my title company. I've talked to the title abstractor that they use. I've gone down to the Treasury Division to try to walk it through and they are unsympathetic because this is something they hear every day. Apparently, this deed recordation lag has the same impact on rehabbers trying to get permits that it has on me trying to get this refinance done, so they're not expediting anybody because everybody needs it.

So I'm stuck. I have a house that I need to rehab and I'm held up for an indeterminate amount of time because of the county. I'm hoping that somebody has some helpful advice. I'm already thirty days behind the schedule I had in mind and each passing day moves me deeper into the off-season for selling houses.