All Forum Posts by: George P.

i have found that realtor.com is outdated (as far as the listings).

best way is to have multiple sources like trulia, any realtor office site (like century 21, remax, etc), because they are basically pulling the information from the MLS.

bubba, you are like me..

i have a 97 (rusting as we speak, sheetmetal falling off) f-150 with 152k on it. check engine light on, bottom's rusted through.

wife has 05 volvo, all paid for and loving the extra money in the account.

wifey thinks that tenants would not respect me if i have a beater truck though. who knows what they really think??

kevin,

like the books say "if you dont make money, you hate the property/work/experience. since you hate it, you dont take care of it. since you dont update things, you get bad tenants. bad tenants will destroy you".

that's exactly the case here. She is not making money, so she despises the investment. I asked her if she read books, got a "negative". told her about these types of forums, does not seem interested.

I told her about all her options, and that's all i can do. Hope she realizes it one day.

i thought that there's another way i am not seeing and just wanted to give the more seasoned investors a chance to respond.

thanks for the reply, btw.

jeff, that's exactly what's going on with me too. there are so many suburbs around (around 20, i'd guess) with huge price range (from 10k to 140k) on foreclosed properties. however, i am targeting specific area, where the prices are right in the middle. good times if you are playing your cards right.

how many does your brother have? just 2?

first one was at 53. second was 80. third was 75. since my full time job takes so much work and i dont like to pay contractors for things i can do myself, i really go after great houses that dont come by often.

in my city you can't find anything below 50 (and that's short sale). a dump is around 60. suddenly at 69.9 and above, you can get houses that with just 5-8k worth of work, you have an amazing 1050sq ft house.

hi jackie,

short sale galore over here, but i dont ever touch them...they take too long and i dont to wait until the cows come home. i want a positive cash property now and dont mind paying 5k extra to get it. at the end of the day it will pay off with or without the extra 5k.

how is the rent in your area? the average here is around $1050 give or take $100.

kevin,

they thought the way to make money in real estate is to "start making money after the property is paid off"...dont ask me why.

the current tenants can't purchase the property since one is not "legal" and the other does not have that kind of money. but yes, i agree that it's a good idea.

my relative is not very good at being a landlord since she has to use a realtor to even find tenants. that eats up more than her profit (which isn't even there).

hi guys, and thanks for the reply. jon, you impress me more and more every time i come across your posts. thanks for taking the time to reply.

they said the property is not maintaned by the HOA very well and the buildings look crappy. since the positive cash flow is not there, they have no motivation to make improvements inside, which is sad. it's a vicious cycle and they are in the middle of it. on top of that HOA increases the fees every year (common, expected).

jon, between you, me and the fence post, they have no idea how this thing works. i will suggest selling them even if it's at a loss.

btw, tried changing my name/profile. i dont think it allows me to.
posted in "introductions" as well.

hi,

still figuring things out in this forum, but here's a quick story how i got here.

have a full time job, but love home improvement. always wanted to get into REI, and loved "flip this house" type shows on TV. but never knew how it works. glad i was cluless enough in the mid 2000's to avoid jumping at the highest prices.

so, the prices started dropping here (detroit suburbs, not detroit city limits) and i jumped on one last year. homes in great area are around 50-90k, and can be rented for $1100+.

so, in one year i purchased 3 (last one purchased 2 months ago), and am renting them out.

I do not flip, just rent. I do most of the work myself since i know quite a bit and love to get dirty.

looking to buy another one soon. the only thing that i dont like is that i have to put 20% down on each house. :violin: but that's the rule, so i do it.

i try to buy houses with no more than 5K worth of work. i make them look nice, too.

that's it. can't wait to make this my full time gig (one day)

:D

first, i'd like to say "hi". been reading the posts/blog here for a few months, but it's finally time to join the forum.

second, not sure if i am posting this in the right area since the layout of the forum is a little confusing and unlike any other forum i belong to.

third, the meat of this thread - negative cash flow reversal. Not for me, but for my family member.

here's the deal. They have 2 condos in florida. Purchased a few yrs ago for 115k and 85k. They rent for $950 and $875 or around there. one has $25 positive cash flow, the other has negative $50.

now the condos are worth around 50k-70k at most. They can't sell them. increasing rent is dangerous since it might take them 1 month to find a renter and would lose money they can't recoup all year.

Told them to refinance, but the bank wont do it. they had to put down 20% to get them, but they are upside down even with that.

any suggestions? comments? questions?