All Forum Posts by: Linda Manning

Trent, not all banks or mortgage brokers are licensed in every state. For instance, my local credit union is only licensed in Tennessee and Kentucky. If I want to purchase in any other state I need to find a financier licensed in that state.

I am ready to make an offer to a wholesaler and have never done so before. How do I go about it? Should I just write the offer in an email? Or is there a form I should use?

Thanks in advance!

John Underwood

@Cody Barna The heloc will give me 1.99% for the first six months and then it fluctuates above prime by 3.75. I haven't thought about a cash out refinance. I will look into it. Thank you!

I am preparing to purchase a single family house to buy and hold. I am trying to decide how to pay for it. I have one rental house with a home equity line against it (there is no mortgage against it). I have the house I live in and can get a home equity line against it (also no mortgage against it.) I see two ways to finance a purchase:

1. Get the home equity line against the house I live in. Use it and funds from the other home equity line to buy and rehab the house. After the house is done, get a mortgage against the rehabbed house and pay down my home equity lines.

2. Get a mortgage to buy the house using the existing home equity line to make the down payment and do the rehab. Then at some point refinance and pay down my home equity line.

I like idea #1 because I can make cash offers. But idea #1 puts all the burden on me--I'd be hanging out there pretty far. Idea #2 lets the bank put up most of the money.

Which is the better idea? Or do you have another idea?

What is an STR?

@Courtney Trahan I am looking at MLS. I don't know how to find deals otherwise. I have read about driving around to look for houses and mailing letters to people in a certain zip code (I am not going to do that.) I don't know what else to do. Except pray :)

Bonnie and David are right that Clarksville is hot. Too hot for me. I live here and haven't found a property to cashflow. Sale prices have gone up much faster than rents. I am looking elsewhere in Tennessee.

Thank you, Marlen! I see from your posts that you are very encouraging to new investors. That is so good because can be intimidating to do something new that involves big dollars. 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Clarksville.

Purchase price: $110,000
Cash invested: $15,000

I have this house in an "executive rental" mode. It is fully furnished (sheets, towels, utensils, etc.) and I pay all utilities. I rent through a property manager to people who are in town on business for extended stays--usually 2 to 6 months. Some years it has been full nearly the whole year. This year (2020) we may get five or six months occupied. When it is occupied the cash flow is enormous!

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We fell into this deal. We bought the house in Jan 2017 with the intention of living in it. But about six weeks later we got jobs in West Virginia so we moved there. The job was temporary so we did not move out of our house; we left it furnished and rented a furnished place in WV. Since our house was sitting empty but furnished, we looked for a property manager who would rent it out that way. Horizon Corporate Housing has taken good care of it and us!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Our real estate agent, Hannah Price, saw this house come up on the MLS, a repo being sold by the bank. She knew it was priced too high for investors to flip but it was low enough that we, looking for a house to live in, could get a great deal. It listed on a Friday and we submitted our bid that weekend. On Monday morning we received word that we got the house.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The nature of this rental is such that in economic slow times (like Covid has caused) people are traveling much less for business. That caused the house to sit empty for a long time. We were within a couple of weeks of switching from this rental mode to a traditional rental when we got our current tenants.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Hannah Price, real estate agent
Horizon Corporate Housing for property management