All Forum Posts by: Michael Wentzel

@Damian Solorzano

We just refinanced six properties in Pueblo with Legacy Bank. They are willing to eventually take on my entire portfolio. Send me a PM and I can connect you with the banker I used. She managed to pull everything together and close the loans even though I'm overseas. So I've been really happy with them so far.

We have 19 properties in Pueblo. So if you need recommendations of service providers, let me know.

Mike

Yikes. Sloping floors are sometimes an easy fix. I run away when I see cracks in walls or bulging walls. 

Did you lower your offer by $33,000?

Mike

@Tim Emerson

We are very active in the Pueblo market, although we don't live there. I would be happy to connect you with some good service providers in the market.

Mike

@Jorge Ruiz

Those are a lot of questions. Have you picked your market? Do you have your strategy? Buy and hold? Fix and flip? Single family? Multi family? Etc.

Assuming you have these questions answered, I would start networking on BP. Then I would go out and spend a week in the market you are entering. Interview a bunch of Realtors and a bunch of Property Managers if possible. Drive the market. Look at properties. Attend a REIA if possible.

I'm investing from distance in my second market now and I am realizing that building that team on the ground is going to take time. But if you follow the advice above, you'll be miles ahead of most out-of-state investors.

Mike

@Jason May

Sounds complicated. If the buyer is going to take your note, usually the property would go into a Trust and they would be the Trustee and beneficiary. My understanding is that this keeps the bank from using the "due-on-sale" clause in the loan. From what I have heard, banks rarely call the loan due if they are receiving the payments.

Then you would probably need a deed of trust and a promissory note for the $400 a month for 100 months.

It is complicated. I have done creative deals, but nothing like this.

Why don't you just put the $10,000 in it and list it? Then you walk away with your cash and your done. If you do this deal, you better know the buyer is legitimate and do some due diligence on him or her. You will also be dragging this mortgage around for years. 

Mike

@Demetrius Wright

You have an advantage because you already should have a pretty good idea of your market. I just started buying in Akron. I attended the REIA last summer and it seems to be really active and really helpful. I would start there as a place to network and learn.

Mike

@Brendon Grover

I use zillow, trulia and the mls like everyone else. But I have also found a couple deals on Craig's List.

Mike

@Brandt Tingen

I went from a national bank that had all my accounts and would do nothing for me to a regional bank. They did five commercial loans for me on properties as a I was getting started, but when I had the second five ready for refinance, they backed out. I was thankful that they gave me a start, but frustrated that the backed out of their verbal commitment to do another round of refinances for me.

What I got right was using a local/ regional bank, rather than a national bank. I messed up because I choose a regional bank where I lived (Colorado Springs) but not where my rental properties were located (Pueblo).

After many emails and phone calls, I have found another local bank where my properties are located and they seem excited to work with me. They love their community and have been willing to setup up six refinances for me even though I'm overseas. They've also committed to refinance the rest of my portfolio within the next couple years.

So look for local/ regional banks. Call a bunch of them or walk-in if you happen to be local. I probably emailed and called a dozen before I found one that was excited to work with me.

Mike

@Tyler Jahnke

Thank you for sharing the journey. You are getting a lot of encouragement and criticism from both sides. But I appreciate you making a move and sharing it with all of us. If it works out, you will have a great cash-flowing rental. If it doesn't, you will have a ton of experience to do better on the next one. 

A little extra bonus is that you are learning with small amounts. You didn't spend $50,000 on some real estate course (I hope) and you didn't drop $150,000 into a property with no idea whether it would work or not.

Well done.

Mike

@Jason Eberhardt

Send me a PM. I can give you a number of a guy who should be able to give you a rough number off the top of his head. I'm done a lot of drywall replacement and patching, but only one house did we take down to the studs and redo the entire drywall.

Mike