All Forum Posts by: Matt Slakey

Welcome!  Thanks for your inaugural post. Looking forward to your contributions on the forum.

No problemo @Carlos Rubio!

Another option would be to do some kind of seller financing. Maybe the lure of home-ownership will lure someone enough to pay $375k (or more) probably for more than rent would be. I'm not sure how that would work for your tax situation, though. CPA or tax attorney?

I would say honesty is the best policy. 

I would make sure you run this deal by a lucid family member or her lawyer first to avoid any complications down the line. Get as much as possible in writing if you do not go through a lawyer.

Are you planning to keep the tenants? That may be another discussion, but I doubt that the current owner did a thorough job screening a tenant given her situation. Go over and say, assuming there is someone there that you wish were not, that the house is being sold and give a 30-day (or whatever Hawaii's policy is) no-fault notice. If they ask, you could say that you are helping out your friend. You should probably be prepared to give them some contact info of the owner.

And to continue what @Josh C. was writing, once you have the comps, get an estimate of the repair costs plus 10%, and subtract that from the price, and subtract a little more for bargaining room.

I have gotten estimates of work just by calling around to a few subcontractors (plumber, electrician, clean-the-nicotine-stained-everything guys, carpet guys) before I made an offer. If you do get an accepted offer, I'd have them come out (for free estimates) to give a better idea of what you're looking at, cost wise. My offer wasn't accepted. I don't feel bad about this because I knew my numbers for costs (roughly), anything higher would make me lose money or be upside down. 

Those smaller things tip the scales, the devil is in the details. Rentability would be the biggest in my opinion. It would be a lot easier to rent out a  B/C apartment than an A house. Most people do 2-3x rent as qualification for renting a unit. So for your house, the tenant would have to make $7500 - $11,000 a month (90k-135k per year). Your apartment tenant would have to make $1000-$1500 a month (up to 18k per year). So it would depend on your market: are there more people who make 120k a year who don't want to (or can't) buy a house or people who make $9/hr who can't buy a house.

Another aspect is the ability to add value to an apartment complex from raising rent, adding coin-op laundry (debatable on the profitability), rental storage, soda/vending machines not to mention the natural appreciation. Those houses can only appreciate with the market.

Someone else should comment on the ability to get a loan on a 30-unit vs 4 houses.

Some other possibilities:

Peer-to-peer lending - just listened to podcast 29 or 30 (?) and the limit was 30-35k. I dont know if that is still accurate.

B2R financing (or any asset based lender) - an asset based lender may be able to fund this if you were to show all the business plan stuff

Kickstarter or more likely Kickfurther - Kickfurther is something like a phase-2 crowd-funding. A lot of companies request money of varying amounts on here to take their business to the next level. Returns for investors are 6-12% for 3-12 months. This is a pretty short time-frame, so I'm not sure how that would work for what you need.

Kiva - They do give out loans for Americans.

Apply for a grant since you are a non-profit. Either through the government or a NGO. Expand your target audience to qualify for more money. 

Ask your current landlord for a loan.

Partner with a good burrito restaurant. Burritos + climbing = goldmine!

I like @Troy Fisher's idea of the self-directed 401k: gives you equity in an asset.

I wouldn't worry about pitching the idea of a gym. How many gyms does Boulder, CO have per capita? People love climbing in a good gym. 

I'd be interested to learn how you started up your first gym. PM me if you feel up for sharing.

Welcome!

Why rent a room from AirBNB when you have 25 rooms available? 

I would list it at the going rate for a 3 bedroom in your market. If a section 8 tenant applies, a case worker will inspect  the property to determine if it qualifies.