All Forum Posts by: Hilary Tuttle

Thanks for your thoughts and reply> Yes we feel that only cash buyers so far could purchase this house. This makes me appreciate why so many people just live in cookie cutter houses. We are motivated enough to purchase house at whatever the bank would finance it for. At this point we would not be willing to bring cash to the table just because it seems like such a bad move when we are not trying to low ball them but just purchase house at what a bank would loan on it. Ugh its been about 15 years since we got a mortgage on something and I just did not realize how stressful it is. Thanks for letting me vent:)

I have spoken to them and have gotten very similar responses. Hopefully we will get a new contract on the house at a lower price and try again. Loan was for 480k and other houses are only around 300k-350k at this lake. But this house was larger by about 800-1000 sqft than most, and had 14 acreage, so I thought it would comp out. Lenders are telling me that the adjustments have to be very very close. Its very frustrating as a buyer but I can imagine what the seller must be feeling. The listing agent had no comps that could establish this price. Original asking price was 550!  

Thanks for your reply:) The appraisal came in at price but the adjustments on the comps where to high. So no financing, the mortgage officer was basically like it would not matter what the price was, the comps would have to be "exactly" like the house. The other lake houses there have no land just small lots. I was using a large well known lender too. I keep thinking that if the price was low enough it would have to comp out, but the lenders are skeptical. Its a small lake in a rural area, so not a lot of sales. I just didn't know that this was going to be such an issue for obtaining financing. Other houses in the area that have acreage are super cheap because they are not on the lake.

When we have a tenant that we really like and want to do a something extra we like to upgrade something in the house. That way they get to enjoy it and get a little nicer rental. An easy one that is handy and has been a big hit are the front door locks with the number pad so you don't have to have a key. Also then we can change to code after tenant leaves and we don't have to have a bunch of keys:) That is really nice of you to understand that most are really good people.

It has been awhile since I took out a mortgage. We have just been buy and hold investors using BRRR (before this term was invented:) but finally have decided to buy a house for our selves. We found an amazing lake house and negotiated a price but the bank would not finance due to insufficient comps for the house. The appraiser tried everything, but was not able to support the price of the house, even though he agreed the value was there. (Its lake front with acreage so fairly unusual). The seller will mostly have to lower price to be inline with other houses there that do not have acreage. The loan officer told me though that even if the price is in line with other houses there, there would still have to be comps. I can not wrap my brain around the fact that the house would be basically the same price as others but would still be difficult because it was not "exactly" like the others. It also is a little larger than the other cabins there. In my mind if it was the price as the others, who cares about the land its just an added bonus. Have others run into such difficulties with unique properties? The house is a conventional build with log siding. Thanks fellow investors for any insights or advice!!!

Thanks for the reply. We are not yet ready to get out of rentals but I think it would be nice to not have a house payment for our own place. I have read as much as possible about capital gains and think that the sale will still be profitable. But between that and real estate fees it sucks!

Good Morning, I have a question about when to sell. My husband and I have five SFH with a few paid off. When do you decide to sell vs buy and hold?

We have a house we paid 85k, put in 10k, and have had it rented for 8 years. We have a mortgage of 64k on it. If we sold I would list at 250k, which is underpriced for area, but it is a home built in the late 1800’s, so it’s not for everyone. It cash flows well.

But if we sold we could pay off our house mortgage, and actually make per month and save the on the interest we pay to the bank. But everyone always says buy and hold.

I know capital gains may be hefty on the sale. We have never sold and I don’t know much about this. But it seems like there is a lot of equity sitting in this house and we do not feel like getting any more rentals.

Any advice and thought are very much appreciated. What is the tipping point for most people?

I so agree with you. I am very grateful for this site. It motivates my husband and I so much! Makes us not feel alone! It also inspires us with stories of people much further along than us!

He does deserve something like that. We are very small potatoes compared to others so my contribution my have to be happy thoughts:)

It would rent for about 650 to 750 in the area, if it was just average.

We didnt pay that much extra for the looks becuase we get everything off of craigslist. Kitchen cost about 3k all together, that is for everything. Nashville is close to use and we buy all the upper end appliances off there. Also if you look at the kitchen all the shelving was the cheapest stuff at lowes that was damaged that we fixed, and painted. Everytime a damaged one was sitting in there we would pick it up for a few bucks, fix it and install. Also the counter tops are floor tiles. We then use our wet saw and take the 12 by 12 tiles and cut them to subway size and use as the back splash. Of course we buy everything on sale. We also take the fugly brass light fixtures from the Habitate store and spray paint them, this works great!

This sounds cheesy but paint choices do make a big splash if tasteful. I dont like the run of the mill look and never go with neutral:)

We put in about 20k to rehab this place, but we do all the work ourselves, except the heat and air. We would do that too but cant figure out how to buy it with out the HVAC permit.

We will be doing the back unit next but it takes a while since we do all the work ourselves but (now this is sad) we enjoy it!

We have not had a problem at all asking more for our rentals even though others in the area are cheaper. I swear with everyone watching HG tv they want something with a little style. The one I posted a link to a while back was an old crack house. (we call it "Ye Old Crack House" we think it gives it a little class:) We bought for 30K! But you would have been afraid to walk though it, very bad. But we did all the work ourselves and rents it for 935. It has a back unit that we have not done yet but think after rehab will rent for about the same.

Paint and appliances go a long ways!