All Forum Posts by: Mike Warder

@Tyler Wehrung Congrats on the first property! What you've heard about seasoning is true. The seasoning period is typically 6 months, although every once in a while I'll read on the forums that someone who has a relationship with a small local bank can get that bank to wiggle a bit on that rule. 80% using DFE is higher than what people normally talk about, which is usually 70-75%. Assuming you got the property far below market value, I'd recommend doing what you can to wait out the seasoning period. If you pull out 80% of purchase price now, you might be kicking yourself later on when you have untapped equity sitting in that house and higher interest rates make it more difficult to get to. 

What types of properties are you looking for? Is the MLS not an option? I think that the painstaking process of analyzing tons of deals (virtually all of which will be bad), is an invaluable education. By using software or list sources, you are essentially outsourcing this analytical process and depriving yourself of an education that you can build on for years to come. Of course, it doesn't stop me from getting tired of looking at deals that won't work for one reason or another. Just gotta keep plugging away.

When I went to law school, I used student loan disbursements, which included housing costs, to pay a mortgage on a new condo. I never missed a payment and still own the condo. So, while unconventional, I think it could work for others.

Esteban Pau cash flow is generally viewed as one of four benefits to real estate investing. The other benefits are asset appreciation, principal pay down by tenant, and tax deductions (which I'm sure vary greatly by country). Once you factor those into the equation, cash flow isn't as important as you probably thought it was. Check out the book Millionaire Real Estate Investor. The author includes some charts that provide the kinds of investment maps you are looking for. Basically, tax deductions help you preserve your cash returns, and appreciation and principal pay down get you to a point where you can borrow against your increased equity in the property so that you can purchase another one. Rinse and repeat and your portfolio snowballs from there. It won't happen overnight though. Once you see the charts and read the explanations of them, it is much easier to envision a path forward and see your end goal. Good luck!

Just because agreement says 60 days notice, doesn't mean you HAVE to abide by it. I was in a very similar situation recently when the PM let the property sit for three weeks and repeatedly promised to send me a list of repairs needed, but didn't. When I contacted the PM to read off a list of non-performance on their part, I simply said I was getting a new PM. They couldn't argue with my logic, and at the end of the day they didn't want me to slam them in online reviews, so we parted ways amicably. I had another PM of mine pick the keys up that day. Don't let someone sabotage your business! You should hold your team to a high standard.

@Mike Hopper @Matthew Rembish @Account Closed Got the internet back up and running...

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@mike hopper @matthew rembish @tim chapman here are some photos of the cracks I mentioned in the other post. The listing agent said he thought the helical cool option was way above and beyond what was necessary, but I prefer to verify with experts. House was built in 1987, and the rear porch was added in 2002. 

@Mike Hopper @Matthew Rembish @Account Closed thank you for your responses. I can't see how to add more photos in a reply. I'm doing this from my iPhone since my internet at home is down. I'll post again with some more photos and tag you so you can see. Thanks again for responding. 

Cracking in the slab mostly in the addition. No known cracking in walls. There is some much more hairline cracking in the foundation of the house itself. That is toward the front of the house. Unfortunately, I don't know the situation with the soil. I obviously know very little about foundation issues. I've read horror stories and I've also read that foundation issues are common and aren't always a big deal. I suppose my main concern is that installing coils won't fix the problem and that this issue will pose a problem for selling the house later on.

I'm looking at a short sale house that has a permit for a glass rear porch built in 2002. Listing agent says permits were not gotten for subsequent updates to that porch and the foundation on the porch now has a crack. The quote to fix the foundation issue was $5,500 to install 5 helical piers and get the permits. This would be a buy and hold for me. 

1) is this foundation quote reasonable?

2) was a permit likely required for walling up the 200 sf porch?

3) would getting the city (goose creek, sc) to approve permits on the foundation work open us up to unwanted scrutiny regarding the updates to the porch? Is getting the proper permits worth the likely expenses we would incur for the inspection, any remediation?

4) what other problems/solutions should I be thinking about?