All Forum Posts by: Jason Schmidt

i am clearly out of my league when it comes to knowing the true value of a good find, as well as I don't even know what to look for. I was wondering if it may be a good idea for my first few properties to be birddogged. What all will a birddogger do for me? Will they find a good property based upon my specs, tell me the value, the price and why it is a good deal? I figured if they can do one for me, I would be able to learn much faster to do it myself later on.

in our area, there seems to be a good amount of "cheaper" (75-90k) houses that are nice and new. Is this a more desirable price range for you all to buy then hold in order to rent? Or do you like to go with the 200k+ mostly?

I want to seriously start doing some searching for properties, and have been told I need to really consider keeping the purchase price around 70% of the value. BUT - the question is this: who to trust? I'll start with my house for example:

the appraisal district website shows our house at nearly $119k. Zillow.com shows us at $138k. It is 4bdrm/2.5 bath, 2050 sq ft 2 story home built in 2004.

There are 3 houses in our area with comparable sizing and stats between 114-134k.

So the question is, who/what do I trust? There is like a 25k spread here, and I just don't know what to be looking at.

ahhh 83% - you see? My math skills are crazy good. I didn't almost flunk algerbra for nuthin', you know! :)

Now regarding these "deals" - I am getting the picture now. Do most RE investors NOT look on the MLS then? Is the name of the game 'advertising' yourself?

If I am planning on buying a 300k property and renting it, you all are saying I shoudln't be looking for something that is 250k, but rather closer to 200k? Would this be a sub2 deal, or just an underpriced property? If this is the case (getting a 300k prop for 200k) and these deals actually exists ... then THAT *really* excites me.

83% sounds like a random number - is it? How do i find out what the value should be?

i had never heard of this before up until tonight. do real estate investors basically stick with buying these types? Or something else?

since i no barely enough to ask intelligent questions, I'll start out tonight with this one :) ...

i goto har.com and view the properties for sale here in houston all the time.

1) is this a good place to find the best possible deals? If not, where?

2) Is it possible to find a 300k house to buy for 250k? That much instant equity would really jumpstart me into wanting to go forward!

great thank you for the advice everyone!!

Alright, I have heard of all these deals where you can buy a 100k house for 5k out of pocket and the 100k house already has 30k equity and such. I can goto har.com and search foreclosures, all kinds of property in my area, etc. But here is the catch: I don't know what I'm looking for!

how do i know what is a good deal? What should i be looking for? how do i run into those deals that already have equity into them?

Dan, I love what you are saying, though I only am catching a part of it. So you mean I can walk into a deal for 5k cash and come out of it with 35k equity or similar? How on earth do I get into those deals? where do i look? The thought that this actually is out there, rejuvinates my interest in REI.