All Forum Posts by: Mindi B.

What would be a ballpark estimate cost for a complete rehab of a 3/2 house, 1900sf? Needs new kitchen, bathrooms, tile flooring throughout, paint, light/fan fixtures, HVAC unit. Located in Arizona

@Michael Glist Either would work. 

Anybody know of any hard money lenders in Arizona that do whole note direct placement? Meaning they would broker the deal between a borrower and a private lender (usually an individual) but the lender's name is on the title as a first lien position, not the name of the HML.

From my experience of converting a primary residence into a rental, the property taxes remained the same. 

What would you do? You have $200k and need to grow it over the next 3 years at which point you will need to use it for another project. No goal amount has been set but at a minimum it needs to keep up with inflation. The two options you are looking at are private lending or stick it in the stock market. Buying and selling real estate is not an option due to the volatility of the market and you need the cash back out in 3 years at the latest, possibly sooner. Keep in mind you know absolutely nothing about being a private lender so allow time for a learning curve. 

Depending on how much money you have I would recommend buying your first home, living in it for 2 years then renting it and buying another home to live in. Do this every 2 years and by the time you're 30 you'll have a nice rental portfolio. 

If you are going to sell it in 2 years then I would pay the mortgage insurance and have more cash in reserve. 

They are in Prescott Valley. No, not on the frontage road. Not a very busy area in general although there are small businesses in operation on both sides of the lots. 

Hello everyone! My mom owns 3 commercial lots in Arizona free and clear and we are deciding what to do with them. Each is about .17 acre in size, they sit adjacent to each other. They have been in our family for over 20 years but she will be needing some income soon so she wants to sell them and live off of the proceeds. I think that is a terrible idea and I'm trying to come up with more creative solutions that can provide a passive income for her. The trouble is nobody is buying commercial real estate in our area, businesses are shutting down left and right. There have been no comparable lot sales in the past few years so it's hard to put a value on them but she wants to get $80k for one, and $100k each for the other two since they do not have an easement on them, so a total of $280k. She had them listed with a realtor for 3 months but no decent offers came in. If she sells them it would most likely be to a wholesaler for half the price and I'd hate to see that happen. I thought of building small commercial offices on them and renting them but there is no demand in our area, people are working from home now due to the economy. I thought of building self-storage units but the lots are too small and not feasible. They cannot be re-zoned to residential. What the heck can we do with these? Any ideas? 

There are so many ways to make money in real estate. You should narrow your focus to 1 or 2 and learn those. Sounds like you want to do fix and flips but I don't think an out-of-state flip is the best way to start, especially in a market you are unfamiliar with. I would recommend starting local. Join an REI group in your area and network with other investors. Find someone who is willing to mentor you in exchange for labor or some other skill you can offer. In the meantime get a job and a steady paycheck and continue saving your money so you have enough to buy your first flip.