All Forum Posts by: Lisa Lanata

I have a couple timeshares i bought at a tremendous discount. I have been to neither one either and have owned them for over 20 years.  I strictly use them to trade into places I really want to go and I can never, ever beat the price I pay for a week as compared to normal rentals rates which are three to seven times higher per night.  So I love it.  If you bank your timeshare (I use RCI) or there is  Interval International, two of the largest ones)  then you can reserve a timeshare at a more popular, in demand location.  You have to learn their websites and know how much value your unit trades for and what you can get and when to look at what's available.  You can do a requested search and pay the exchange fee, normally $219, and it will search an area for a precise time period and it will alert you when they find one and you can accept that resort or not.  I know to search every night at midnight, because a lot of resorts get released in their system then.

So total cost for a week is your maintenance deposit on your resort, then your membership into the trading company like RCI or II which is about $70 per year, the $219 exchange trade fee, and then if you have a guest stay at the resort you book and not yourself as the owner of the traded week, there is an additional $69 fee for the guest certificate to use the week as if they were you.  So make sure you take all those costs into consideration.  

It is way cheaper to rent them out if you are renting out a week at your home resort.  Not sure what fees go along with that if you put a guest in there as I have never rented my place out.

I have one trade week for week resort only and I have a points unit.  And sometimes with my points unit, I can get 1 - 5 weeks out of that one week to go to or in this case for you to rent out.  Depends on the points value of your timeshare unit.   So if you can get more than one week with your points, then that cuts the membership fee down and your maintenance fee down by however many weeks or nights you can get.   I know this sounds so, so, so confusing, but once you learn the timeshare system, it can really work, but you have lots to learn.  Jump in and try it once and see what happens

Stephanie,

All valid points that I have to throw in to consider.  I truly am learning a lot more on this site and with help of people like you, so I truly appreciate any input.  

 Low loan balance is an issue on one property.  They are asking 130 and I offered 97500, but I am certain they will turn me down.  Houses in that area are selling for 150 - 190.  It is a reverse mortgage foreclosure and agent said they are consistently countering offers at 123K and no one has bitten yet, but they are asking for a BPO to reanalyze the value.  i ran comps and rents would be about 1350-1500 monthly.  All utilities are off, so there may be hidden costs of AC/Heating and Plumbing issues, although it doesn't look like it.  Roof looks great too.  And I could always back out after inspections.  So I don't see major repairs except to flooring and since it would be a rental, I could go cheap with that.  If I were going to flip, I would need to upgrade the floors and windows, maybe kitchen and bathrooms.  So I would maybe go up to 110 - 115 K.  So depending on conventional which is 20% down ?? or commercial which is 30% to my understanding, leaves a balance of 80-95K loan.  I was told investor conventional was 4.58 for 30 years and commercial was 5.3-5.5% for max of 20.  I qualify easily for either of those, but of course I rather the lower interest rates and longer terms to help my numbers.

My understanding is that conventional nor FHA will do a loan if you have an LLC. I was told I could do in my name, then transfer to an LLC but then not sure how mortgage company would look at that. I was told they rarely check on those things, but that would be my luck. What's your advice on that? I read on BP that some people just get an umbrella policy instead of doing an LLC, so that I could go conventional.

I should get response on offer today or tomorrow, then will decide if I need to make another offer or go in another direction on a vacation rental property I am looking at. If I do that, then same issues with financing questions, conventional or commercial and LLC issues.

I am looking at a storage complex.  Can you help me analyze.  I am still trying to gather some figures on how many units (I believe 60), vacancy rates, and an average price per sq. ft. for rentals.  Should have some of those tomorrow.  I do believe there may be another complex close by causing competition but I will check into it.  Agent said there may be a 65% occupancy, but she did say 

ex-employee was pocketing money.  Not sure how to verify any of that.  Here are the numbers I do have per a 2015  P&L (Rounded up)  There is also a 1064 sq ft office included.  They are asking 299,900 Land locked, no room for expansion.

Total Income     22,187

Insurance              189

Liability Ins.           767

Interest Expense   174

Loan Interest     10534

Labor                  6400

Repairs                 646

Supplies                90

Taxes                 2532  (Not sure what value amount this is on)

Telephone            841

Utilities (G & E)     802

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I talked to commercial lender today and he said they require 30% down, financed commercially at possible 5.3 to 5.6% + for 15 or 20 years.  By doing loan commercially, I qualify this way for this particular loan.   How does this deal look and if it looked good, what would be a good first offer and final offer?

Brian, what has been your success with renting out rooms in college towns? I am looking to buy 1-3 SFH properties in a local college town, was maybe going to claim one as my primary and rent rooms and rent the others to a group each and not rooms individually, but rather than have the property sit there with no tenants, I would rather get one room at a time? Am I off base? I am so so very new at this. Not sure I really want to live with a bunch of college students, but I might need a place to stay for a while in order to get the properties rented and up and running. otherwise, I am about 50 minutes away.

I would prefer a multi-plex but they just don't come up close enough to the college in an area I would like very often and I am getting impatient and want to do something soon.  The typical rents in our area are 1250-1350 for a 3 bedroom and 1400-1800 for a four bedroom.  May be able to generate more if within a couple blocks of the school. Or should I just be patient and wait for a great multi-plex?

I could actually pay cash for the house but don't think it's smart to do that except that if I did, then started renting, I could refinance and have rental income/lease to go towards qualifying for a loan to pull cash out.  Not sure if that is best or just do the loan upfront.  But I could offset the cost of closing on the cash purchase because I could get the house possibly cheaper with an all-cash quick close offer.

So am I to understand that FHA nor Conventional lending write loans for investment property and therefore my only option is commercial, even on just two houses?? So confusing. I am in Louisiana.

I have submitted paperwork to a commercial lender to see where I stand financially to possibly acquire two properties as rentals in a college town and rent to students. I will meet face-to-face on Monday but he is telling me that commercial loans have more leeway with qualifying but interest rates are usually higher, they usually require more than 20% down in some cases and are 15-20 years, hardly ever 30 years. He said conventional will not do investor property, so that leaves me to FHA/FAnnie, I guess. I would rather a 30-year mortgage, so what are my options? I am considering buying the first house as my primary to get the best rates and terms and as a conventional loan and then making it a rental within 1-3 months if that is legal. I believe they make you sign a paper saying you will owner/occupy? I will put at least 20% down, but I understand FHA still charges PMI or MMPI even if 20% down. Any advice on how to get investor properties for 30 years and not 20?

I am looking for multi-family but they are hard to come by and the ones that do come up are in locations I don't care to own property in even though they seem like great deals.   My friend says he has some in these areas and although you get them at a good price, the renters don't pay, so that offsets their low value??

So confusing on what way to go, but I am ready to buy something.

LOL.... I am also looking at vacant storage facility......LOL  I am all over the place..

do you know of sellers in LA? 

 Is it true as I have read and taken CE classes on that you want to put the minimum down payment required because your cash on cash return is higher and write-offs are better and you can use the extra money for other projects rather than paying cash for a property?  

in other words, you don't get as much income per month as if you would paying off the property, but it's better for you to maybe buy another property?  

Hi,  I am a RE agent since 2012.  I bought my first house when i was 22 and have purchased and sold five more over the past 30 years, mostly residences and 2nd homes.  I am looking to acquire property to generate passive income to put towards a retirement plan.  That could include rental property or flips or storage units possibly also.  Being self-employed has always been an issue qualifying, so I will have to start small and work my way up.  I have rented out some of my properties over the years as yearly rentals and as vacation rentals also.  I currently have no rentals now.  I find it so hard to figure out what is a smart deal and I am learning a lot by looking and looking and looking, but it's time to act.